Page Speed: Definition, Basics & SEO Importance

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Updated 8/28/2024

Learn why page speed matters for your website and how to optimize it. Improve user experience, SEO rankings, and conversion rates.

page speed cover - rabbit running and an ipad

What is Page Speed?

Page speed refers to the time it takes for a web page to fully load its content and become interactive in a user’s web browser.

This is a critical factor for user experience and can affect a website’s search engine ranking. Because of this, it’s important to monitor and improve your website’s speed whenever possible.

Why Page Speed Matters

Here are some of the top reasons why page speed is important:

  1. User Experience: Users are more likely to stay on, and engage with, a website that loads quickly. A delay of even a few seconds can lead to a sharp increase in page abandonment.
  2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Search engines like Google factor in page speed when determining rankings. Faster sites often rank higher in search results.
  3. Conversion Rates: Faster loading times can directly impact conversion rates. For example, if your e-commerce site takes too long to load, customers may leave before completing a purchase.

Examples of Page Speed Metrics

There are several metrics used to measure page speed, including:

  1. First Contentful Paint (FCP): This is the time it takes for the first content to appear on the screen.
  2. Time to Interactive (TTI): This is how long it takes for a page to become fully interactive and responsive to user input.
  3. Total Blocking Time (TBT): This measures the amount of time a user has to wait before being able to interact with the page. Not “Throwback Thursday”. (In this context.)
  4. Page Load Time: A general metric for the total amount of time it takes for a page to load all of its content.

The usefulness of these metrics will depend on your analytics goals and what you want to measure. Prioritize the high-impact metrics that are slowing your pages the most.

Best Practices for Improving Page Speed

Here are some common tips for speeding up pages:

  1. Optimize images: Large images can significantly slow down page speed, so compress and resize images to reduce their file size.
  2. Minimize HTTP requests: Reduce the number of HTTP requests by minimizing the use of third-party scripts and optimizing the size of CSS and JavaScript files.
  3. Enable browser caching: Caching allows a user’s browser to store some data from a website, so subsequent visits to the site can be faster.
  4. Use a content delivery network (CDN): These can help distribute website content across different servers, improving user load times in different locations.
  5. Enable Gzip compression: Gzip compresses website files, which can reduce the amount of data that needs to be transferred.

These can help understand how fast pages load and what to improve:

  1. PageSpeed Insights: Google’s tool for examining loading times
  2. GTmetrix: Another popular speed-testing tool
  3. WebPageTest: Site analyzer and speed tool

Try them out and see what you can improve. If you have a web developer, send them sample reports to see what can be fixed.

Bottom Line

Page speed is a core factor for website performance. It affects user experience, SEO signals, conversion rates, and other key factors. Fix slow pages and regularly review your speed performance metrics to optimize your site and drive its potential.

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