Technical SEO: Tips to Improve Website Speed
Technical SEO is as important as off page SEO and on page SEO. In other words, improving UI and UX is as important as adding keywords (on page SEO) and building backlinks (off page SEO). IMproving website speed is one of the aspects of technical SEO. Search engine bots as well as human users like websites that load faster. If your website cannot load in less than 3 seconds, you will be losing 50 percent of traffic. You will have to keep your site fast.
What Kind of Technical SEO You Can do on Your Website?
Technical SEO means optimizing your website so that it has better interface, offer better navigation, and loads pretty fast. Here are some important things you will have to do while doing technical SEO on your website.
User Interface: websitethat have better user interface are ranked higher than the website having bad user interface. Good interface refers to well designed site, sites that are easy to navigate, sites that do not have attractive look.
User Experience: website that provide bad user experience are always ranked poor. Some of the examples of bad user experience are intrusive ads, pop up ads, too many ads, too much content on the home page, etc.
Security Certificate: Your website needs security certificates. These days not having security certificates is also a bad point for SEO.
Site Speed: If your website page cannot display in less than 3 seconds, you might be lagging behind in SEO. Try to use smaller size images, limit usage of plugins and add-ons, use light weight theme and templates.
Improve Sales By Reducing Bounce Rate and Improving Conversion Rate
Traffic should have a low bounce rate and high conversion rate. In other words your traffic should stay on your store for longer duration and should engage with your content. When your traffic stays longer duration and engage with the content, you will have sales. So, how do you ensure that your traffic has low bounce rate and high conversion rate? The answer is improve site loading speed, use SSL certificates, and provide offers that no one can resist.
Not just Search engines but even a normal user likes site that loads faster. If you check the top online stores, you will see these stores are really fast. They have a lot of content on the page but load within 1-2 seconds.
Not just Search engines but even normal users like to visit sites that are secured with security certificates. This will make the users believe that their information is safe. When users trust sites, they will also buy from the sites.
Is Your Website Fast Enough? Tips to Improve Website Speed
When you visit a website and if it is taking a long time to loan, would you continue waiting for the page to load or would you exit the page? I guess you know the answer. Internet users have a very short attention span, they will immediately leave the page if it does not open in few sections.
Disadvantages of Slow Website
Slow website speed is a big issue, some of the disadvantages include:
High Bounce Rate: When website loads slow, visitors will leave the website immediately, thus, you will have high bounce rate
Lower Search Engine Ranking: Search engine algorithm does not like websites that are slow, therefore, your website will be pushed down the ranking
Low Earnings: Since visitors do not spend longer time on slow loading website, there will not be ad impressions and ad engagements, therefore, your earnings will be low.
What is a Good Website Speed
To check your website speed, just search "Check Website Speed" on Google and click on the top results. Enter your website's address into the speed tool's search bar, and you'll see various metrics, including website speed. I recommend pagespeed.web.dev.
The average speed for a website is about 2.5 seconds on a computer and 8.6 seconds on a handheld device. Google loads in 0.5 seconds. If your site takes longer to loan on the browser, it's too slow. A slow website hurts your SEO score, increases your bounce rate, and lowers your traffic and conversions. For the best conversion, your website should loan in less than 4 seconds.
What Are The Reasons for Slow Website Speed
Hosting is one of the reasons why your website loads slow, but it is not the only reason. Some of the common reason are:
Big Web Pages: The average size of a webpage on a computer is 2.2 mb and 2 mb on mobile device. If your webpage size is more than 3 mb, it will cause your website to load slow. When you are using large images, too many graphics, or lots of embedded content, your web pages will be big. Consider removing or optimizing these large elements.
Website Templates: Sometimes your website's template or theme can also affect speed. If you are using a big theme, try switching to a light weight theme.
Add-ons and Plugins: Too many add-ons or plugins can also make your site slow. Limit plugin usage and remove any add-ons that are causing issues.
How to Improve Website Speed
Apart from the ones mentioned above, consider using CDN (Content Delivery Network) and AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) for improved website speed.