Site speed is one of the most essential parts of web performance and the user experience of your website.

It provides an overview of the loading time for pages on your site, which influences everything from search rankings to conversion rates.

A good performance on page speed has tremendous benefits for SEO.

Getting that green 90/100 score on Google PageSpeed Insights is absolutely possible and I’m going to show you how today.

What is site speed?

Site speed is the overall speed of your website to load. It measures how quickly a user can see and interact with your website.

Site speed is typically measured based on the average page speed of all the individual pages on your website. Some of the important metrics to know:

• Average page load time
• Average server response time

Average page load time

Average page load time is the length of time needed for a browser to fully load a web page.

The average page load time is 4.7 seconds on desktops and 11.4 seconds on mobile devices. Google recommends a page load time of 2 seconds or less.

On Google PageSpeed Insights tool, this is measured with the ‘Speed Index‘

How does a page’s contents load?

When somebody lands on your page, the browser sends a request to your server.

The server sends the files needed to display the page, which includes HTML, CSS, images, and various scripts.

As the browser receives files it begins loading the web page on your screen.

With a slow page load time, it may take longer for blocks of text or images to appear. The layout of the page may also change as elements are loaded.

This entire page load process is called page experience. It affects how users interact and find information on your page. Essentially, page load time affects how useful and meaningful your page is.

Learn more about how fast your website’s load time should be.

Server response time

The server response time is the time needed for the server to respond to user requests.

A slow server is a common cause of longer page load time, as it takes longer for the browser to receive documents to load on the page.

Time to First Byte is the metric for server response time.

Siteground’s TTFB is 0.290 seconds or 290 milliseconds! Which is one of the fastest in the industry.

A good TTFB is under 600 milliseconds. Check your server response time with the Webpage Test Tool and look for the First Byte timing.

Why is site speed important for SEO?

Site speed is an important ranking factor used by Google and other search engines to rank web pages on search results.

In 2018, Google announced that speed was now an official ranking factor on search results. Google emphasized site speed again when it rolled out mobile-first indexing.

4 years ago, mobile devices accounted for over half of all website traffic. As of February 2021, over 55% of all traffic comes from mobile devices.

It often takes longer for web pages to fully load on mobile devices compared to desktop devices. Due to the increased usage of smartphones and tablets, search engines started to prioritize mobile web page performance.

In other words, a website that loads quickly on a mobile device is prioritized for higher rankings on mobile search results.

And also, since mobile traffic exceeds desktop, your site speed on mobile is more important than on desktop. 

2021 Core Web Vitals Algorithm Update

In 2021, Google has rolled out another major algorithm update that places more emphasis on site speed.

This is the ‘Page Experience’ update with Core Web Vitals that will be a major ranking signal come June 2021.

Core web vitals have to do with page load time, interactivity of your page, and how visually stable your page is.

Continue reading for an introduction to core web vitals and a step-by-step course on core web vitals.

Will this page experience update impact my rankings and traffic from Google?

I believe so, yes.

Google has hinted that they will start displaying user experience badges next to websites that meet their standards of a good web experience on the search results.

This shows that the ranking system will start to prioritize websites with a fast site speed and user experience.

A slow loading site that fails Google’s requirements would expect drops in rankings and traffic.

Site speed impacts user experience and conversions

Along with SEO, site speed influences user experience and conversion rates.

Research from Google indicates that 53% of mobile visitors leave web pages that do not load within three seconds.

If your bounce rate is high, site speed is one of the first things to review. People are less likely to stay or interact with a website that takes too long to load.

High bounce rates also result in lower conversion rates.

If people leave your website due to a poor user experience, they won’t be taking further action such as joining your email list or making a purchase.

Pages that load quickly provide a superior user experience, which would help increase conversion rates.

Users want to instantly begin reading content or scrolling through the page to find the information that they want. Any delay can impact their buying decision.

How to improve site speed

The first step for improving site speed is to analyze the current performance of your website.

We need speed testing tools for this:

• Google PageSpeed Insights
• Pingdom
• GTmetrix

Google PageSpeed Insights

Google PageSpeed Insights provides a simple interface for diagnosing your site speed and website performance.

You can also analyze each web page and get detailed speed optimization recommendations under ‘Opportunities‘.

Pingdom

The Pingdom Website Speed Test is another useful speed testing tool.

Pingdom shows you in a quick glance, your page load time, page size and number of requests your page makes.

GTmetrix

What I love about Gtmetrix is its page speed visualization reports. It really helps to understand what elements are on a page and how they are loaded. 

Core web vitals performance

Speed Visualization

You can see exactly how your page content is loaded and at what points do the speed metrics come in.

• Time to first byte (TTFB) is 388ms
• First contentful paint is 1.2s, which appears to be buttons and the headings
• Largest contentful paint is 1.7s, which is the large banner image on the page

Use Browser Caching

Browser caching allows browsers to store files so people who have visited your website before can see your page contents sooner.

These types of files should be cached:

• Images files
• PDF files
• Media files
• Static resources

Static resources include CSS, JavaScript, and other scripts that do not change frequently. You can set the expiration date for different file types.

Google recommends a minimum cache time of one week for images and media files and up to one year for static resources.

Browser caching is set using headers in the .htaccess file or with the help of a plugin.

• W3 Total Cache
• WP Super Cache
• WP Rocket
• Built-in caching from your web host (Siteground cache)

Siteground Optimizer WordPress plugin – Dynamic Caching

Siteground’s Dynamic Caching provides 5X faster page loading for websites. Dynamic caching is now available at no extra charge for their startup plans too!

Optimize Images

Large images are among the most common causes of slow site speeds. The average web page contains 2.07MB of documents.

Images often contribute 60% or more to the download size of a web page.

Optimize large images by reducing their size or resolution.

For example, most browsers can only display up to 72 dots per inch (DPI). If an image has a resolution of 300 DPI, you can reduce the resolution to 72 DPI without impacting the sharpness of the image.

Images should also be scaled to the display size. For example, instead of using a 1000×500-pixel image and shrinking it to half the size in the browser, use a 500×250-pixel image.

Compress or Minify Code

Along with images, reducing the size of the files needed to display a web page can improve site speed.

Google recommends using UglifyJS or CSSNano to minify HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

By removing spaces and commas, you eliminate white spaces and reduce the size of the file.

While the code may be more difficult for a human to read, browsers can download the files faster due to their smaller sizes.

With Siteground Optimizer plugin, I don’t need to install any additional plugins.

It comes with minification for HTML, CSS and Javascript too.

Siteground Optimizer WordPress plugin – Minification

I recommend compressing and minifying CSS and Javascript especially if your website is heavily reliant on them.

Limit the Use of Third-Party Plugins

Popular website building platforms, such as WordPress and Wix, allow users to easily increase the functionality of their websites with add-ons.

On WordPress, plugins are necessary for a well-functioning site.

But don’t overdo it!

The more plugins you add to your site, the heavier your website and that will have an impact in slowing down the speed of your website.

I would suggest only installing plugins when they are essential to the functioning of your website.

For example, contact forms, page builders, site optimization, and e-commerce plugins would be essential for your website to function.

But plugins that display your Instagram feed, or link Google Analytics data on your WordPress dashboard are not necessary.

For me personally, I have removed plugins like MonsterInsights and Convertkit plugins because my website could function without them. Less is better when it comes to site speed.

Get a super plugin that does multiple site speed optimizations

Plugins that can do multiple jobs are more efficient than single-purpose plugins. If possible, install a plugin that can help you save on other installing plugins as well.

The Siteground Optimizer plugin that is free for all Siteground’s hosting plans is an example of this. With one plugin I can do multiple site speed optimizations:

• Browser caching
• Lazy loading
• Convert images to Next-gen format (latest update!)
• Minification of HTML, CSS, JS

and a lot more.

Reduce the Use of Redirects

Redirects increase the server response time by redirecting the browser to another page. While some redirects are necessary, using too many redirects hurts your site speed.

Some of the potential reasons to use redirects include:

• The URL of a web page has moved or changed
• Your website has migrated to a new domain
• You have switched from HTTP to HTTPS
• The structure of your website has changed

If the redirects are not necessary, you may accidentally create a redirect chain or loop. A redirect chain occurs when a browser is redirected more than once.

A redirect loop occurs when you redirect back to the original page. A redirect loop prevents users from accessing your page.

The best way to avoid these issues is to reduce the use of redirects, including redirects used for directing users to platform-specific versions of a web page.

Reduce Bottlenecks in the Server Response Time

A slow server response time is often a contributing factor to slow site speeds.

Slow database queries are a common reason for slow server responses as they create bottlenecks that keep the browser from receiving documents and loading the page.

Unreliable website hosting can also result in slow server response times.

Switching from a shared hosting plan to a dedicated hosting plan or cloud hosting solution may result in faster response times.

You may want to optimize your server database as well.

Use a Content Distribution Network

A content distribution network (CDN) helps improve page loading speeds by distributing the load of assets across more than one server.

It reduces the demand on the server hosting your web page by serving static resources and images from a separate server.

Cloudflare, Amazon, and Google Cloud are a few of the most reputable CDN providers.

When you use a CDN, you upload files or entire copies of your website to your CDN account.

You can upload static files, including CSS files, images, and JavaScript.

As CDN providers manage servers in locations across the globe, they can deliver content from servers located near the geographical location of the website visitors.

Summary

Site speed is now a major ranking on Google. SEO is no longer about keywords, content, and backlinks.

How fast your page loads and the user experience it provides will be a core ranking signal on Google. But the impact of site speed is beyond SEO.

Slow web pages create a poor user experience, resulting in lower conversion rates and higher bounce rates. If you haven’t started optimizing for site speed, it is time to do so now.