Layla Tichy 2024-08-16
Page speed is a ranking factor because it improves the user experience. Google considered it a long time back until April 2010. The company released a statement
“Like us, our users place a lot of value in speed – that's why we've decided to take site speed into consideration in our search rankings.”
Google initially added this factor in desktop results. However, after 8 years, the company decided to add it to mobile ranking factors as well. The company released a statement,
“Users want to find answers to their questions quickly, and data shows that people really care about how quickly their pages load. The Search team announced speed would be a ranking signal for desktop searches in 2010, and as of this month (July 2018), page speed will be a ranking factor for mobile searches too.”
Later, In May 2020, Google revealed that "page experience" would be introduced as a ranking factor in its search algorithm. On 28th May 2020, Google introduced Core Web Vitals. These include the 3 key factors which determine the page experience of users.
All this evidence proves that website speed is a key factor for Google rankings. Now that we know what we should do and where we can improve our website's speed, let's take a look at the other factors affecting website speed.
Multiple factors affect website speed. Every single factor affects how quickly your site loads and performs. Below is a list of all these factors.
You can check the speed website easily by using the reshepe platform
it will check your web page for both mobile and desktop users. You will see the pass and fail status on top in front of the Core Web Vitals Assessment. It will provide you with a score out of 100 for four different metrics, including Performance, Accessibility, Best Practices, and SEO.
A fast website does more than just load quickly. It impacts various aspects of your online presence. Below is the list of long-term benefits of a fast website:
The first benefit on our list is higher conversions. A fast website makes it easy for users to quickly complete actions like making a purchase or filling out a form. It improves your chances of turning visitors into customers.
Speedy load times improve the overall user experience by providing quick access to content. Users are more likely to stay on a page and explore it if it loads quickly. Research shows that this leads to 50% more users having a positive experience.
Bounce rate is an essential SEO metric. Higher website speed keeps users engaged, which eventually reduces the bounce rate. Low bounce rates indicate that visitors are finding what they need quickly and efficiently.
Search engines also prefer fast-loading sites in its rankings because they provide a better user experience. Faster sites are crawled and indexed more quickly than others. Higher rankings mean a larger audience and a larger customer base.
A fast website helps users to interact more with your content and stay longer. It increases the chances of users exploring additional pages and returning to your site in the future. People are more likely to stay and explore long-tail content.
A website that loads quickly is often more reliable. It can handle traffic spikes and user interactions more efficiently. Consistent performance builds trust and ensures that your site remains accessible every time. This reliability is beneficial for your long-term success.
There have been hundreds of case studies on the relationship between website loading speed and its performance. There has been a significant difference in the conversion rates and ranking of websites after the optimisation. Below are the case studies of the three reputable websites. Let's check them out.
Pinterest is a reputable social media company. They started this by conducting thorough research about what's really important to their users. Then, they introduced a new metric: user-perceived wait time (UPWT) to improve user's experiences.
After that, the company optimised its signup page by 60%, considering this metric. It resulted in faster loading of images on Pinterest. This optimisation resulted in a 40% better conversion rate as compared to the previous page.
The next case study is about Vodafone, a reputable telecom company. They optimised its website speed to improve the user experience. They noticed an 8% increase in sales after optimising Largest Contentful Paint by 31%, which is a key metric of core web vitals. Alongside it the other optimisations were about resizing images, reducing render-blocking Javascript and server-side rendering.
The third case study is about Swappie, which is a shopping website. They started a project to focus on performance optimisation to improve their business. Their first step was to determine a metric that would directly help them increase their business and revenue. This metric was the relative mobile conversion rate. Why? Because it's the number of conversions by mobile users as compared to desktop conversion rate. The relative mobile conversion rate is around 50 percent. It means 50 percent less as compared to the desktop conversion rate. However, after working for three months on this project, Swappie noticed their relative mobile conversion rate increased from 24% to 34%. As a result, their mobile revenue increased by 42%.
The relative mobile conversion rate is around 50 percent. It means 50 percent less as compared to the desktop conversion rate. However, after working for three months on this project, Swappie noticed their relative mobile conversion rate increased from
Swappie improved their Core Web Vitals a lot in this project. Here is the percentage showing their progress as compared to earlier:
reshepe provides you with a website speed checker which helps you to analyse and improve your webpage speed. It integrates seamlessly with ci/cd pipelines and git hooks, providing continuous performance monitoring and optimization. This integration also helps you to track your website's performance and identify areas for improvement.
We have affordable and transparent pricing that is suitable for everyone. Need a faster website for higher rankings and conversions? Take the first step — contact us now to discover how we can help you achieve a more efficient and high-performing site.