Summary

The provided web content discusses the importance of SEO site speed for improving website rankings, user satisfaction, and conversion rates, offering practical solutions and tools for enhancing site performance.

Abstract

The article emphasizes that SEO site speed is crucial for a website's search engine ranking and user experience. It notes that users typically abandon slow-loading sites, leading to higher bounce rates and potential penalties from search engines like Google. The author suggests that a fast website is essential for a positive user experience, regardless of its purpose, such as blogging or e-commerce. To improve site speed, the article recommends using various analysis tools such as Google's PageSpeed Insights, Pingdom, WebPage Test, and Yslow to obtain accurate readings and identify areas for optimization. The author also provides specific tips for speeding up a website, including optimizing images and databases, implementing caching, and minimizing redirects. While some improvements can be made by the site owner, others may require hiring a developer. The article concludes by suggesting that while some site speed solutions are free, investing in premium tools or services may be worthwhile for non-technical users or to achieve better results.

Opinions

The author believes that SEO site speed is increasingly important in search engine algorithms, despite the secrecy surrounding these algorithms.
It is implied that user impatience with slow-loading websites is a significant factor that website owners must address to reduce bounce rates and improve user engagement.
The article suggests that while plugins can slow down a site, some, like WP Super Cache, can actually improve site speed.
The author expresses a preference for tools like Tiny PNG and WP Smush for image optimization, highlighting their ease of use and effectiveness.
There is a recognition that optimizing site speed can be complex, potentially leading to a series of related issues, and may require professional assistance from an SEO expert or developer.
The author advocates for regular maintenance tasks such as optimizing databases and tables to maintain optimal site performance over time.

SEO Site Speed Solutions for Your Website — Website Content Writer — The Write Results

SEO Site speed or the amount of time it takes to load your site or transfer from one page to the next is vital to SEO PageRank and user satisfaction.

Have you ever asked yourself, “Why do other websites launch so quickly, while mine just sits there spinning?” Theirs seem to pop open on command, like some kind of magical jack-in-the-box, while mine is still spinning, still laughing at me like some deranged Chucky doll.

SEO site speed likely plays a significant role in Google, Bing, and other search engine algorithms to index a site. Of course, there is no way of knowing for sure since they do not announce their system to the public, as that would lead to abuse of the system creating an uneven playing field. Secret algorithms allow search engines to index sites without public knowledge of the parameters used.

SEO Site Speed Factors

Theoretically, one factor used to determine your website’s rank on Google, Bing, and other search engines are SEO Site Speed. Historically, site speed was not a significant factor in a ranking website, as before proper algorithm development it was all about keyword stuffing; however, that appears to be changing. Yet, an essential aspect of site speed may have nothing to do with rankings at all.

The fact is that most internet searchers will wait no more than a few seconds for your site to load before they will opt out and click on the next result on the search engine results page (SERP). This impatience by users should be the most critical consideration in reducing loading times for your site. Readers do not stay on a slow site very long either, so the bounce rate is often higher. A high bounce rate and Google’s penalties, are valid reasons you should speed up your site. Since the user experience (UX) might not be good enough, people will not stay long enough to answer a call to action, such as registration or purchase.

Therefore, even when you use your site as a blogging platform, your goal should be a fast site for great UX.

Determining SEO Site Speed

The first step is to determine your SEO site speed, and since each will give you a different reading, you should use as many tools as possible. This action will provide you with a more accurate reading and determines what you need to change for optimum UX.

Here are four that I use regularly:

Google’s Insights will show you both desktop or mobile speed, which is very important since there has been a large crossover of searchers to mobile devices. If you check the numbers behind each analysis, Google gives you pointers regarding low numbers.

Try to improve your numbers by working off those “deficiencies,” remember these are recommendations and may not be right for your site. Some of these suggestions may require hiring a developer to fix, so you have to balance what is best for speed against what is best for your budget.

Additionally, Google recommends not using plugins, and whereas plugins do slow down your site to a certain degree, some such as WP Super cache speed up your website, more on that later.

Pingdom permits testing for many locations and Yahoo’s Yslow segments the checks. Depending on the configuration of your site, www.mysite.com may redirect to mysite.com, which takes longer and may make your test inaccurate, so check your settings and use the proper URL. Yslow and Google are somewhat technical in their explanation, but with additional searches and YouTube or WordPress tutorials, you can do most of these yourself.

Things You Should Fix to Speed Up Your Website:

Optimize images
Optimize databases and tables
Dynamic sites with No caching
DNS issues
Minimize redirects

Today’s large, high-definition images use a lot of space and take a long time to retrieve from your server. Therefore, you should prioritize optimizing these. Use a jpeg minimizer to make those jpegs smaller without compromising quality, jpegmini.com is what I use. Their ad campaign slogan is, “Your Photos on a Diet.” You simply cannot tell the difference between the original and an optimized photo. Also, you can use tinypng for your Portable Network Graphics (png). Or, use the Tiny PNG plugin that can optimize jpegs and png already on your site and set parameters for future media uploads. All these tools are free for limited use.

Next, are those databases and tables. Do NOT skip this process because you believe you don’t have any databases or tables. WordPress uses 11 core databases or tables, and this could expand soon, not to mention those used by plugins and those you may have manually installed.

When you frequently update your website, the WordPress database or other Content Management System (CMS) you use will grow more significant over time. These large databases significantly affect your site’s load time and other performance measures for your website. It takes a longer time for the server to recall information from your database tables. That is why optimizing databases frequently is vital.

Use WP-Optimize, for your WordPress site, phpMyAdmin or Adminer are free SQL db admin tools, as well.

Installing a cache plugin should speed up access and page transfers within your site. When your host provider does not already administer caching for your site, WP Super Cache caches your website without a lot of whistles and bells. Some say WP Rocket is a better product, but it will cost you $39 a year. It may be worth it to you for added security and fewer hassles if you are not very technically inclined.

Some recommend W3 Total Cache, but it might not be right for those who are not superior IT folks. Or, if you have a developer, you could ask them if it is suitable for your site speed.

Hire a Website Content Writer

Since SEO site speed is so critical to drawing visitors to answer your CTA, you might want to try some of these techniques to speed up your website. As I stated, most are quite easy to do yourself. I particularly like Tiny PNG. I used to use jpegmini exclusively, but quite often forgot to optimize an image before uploading it and Tiny PNG is very easy to use for images already uploaded. Another solution to image optimization is the WP Smush plugin that condenses all images on your site.

Solving many of these issues that slow your site speed leads to other problems, kind of like a Russian Nested Doll, when you open one there is another, and another, and another. So, if you have issues or not enough time to spend speeding up your website, consider contacting an SEO Expert.

If you need content for an About Us, Blog, or other section of your website, send me a contact form.

Originally published at https://the-write-results.com on February 10, 2016.