Preparing for the Need for Speed

This is something Google has been discussing with Stone Temple Consulting for over a year now. They’re ranking sites based on mobile experience because 55% of all internet traffic comes from mobile devices. When your site displays the same content on both desktop and mobile nothing will change unless your site is slow. However, if your site has less content on its mobile site you’ll see a negative impact on your rankings. This is why it’s important to make sure that your mobile experience is as good as it can be.

For this to happen you need to make sure that your website is responsive. Simply this means that your content needs to be able to be displayed on all the different types of devices that exist today. Failure to do so will have a major negative impact on you in the SERPs once all these changes are rolled out. However, this isn’t all bad news. Since Google understands that not everyone can fix things right away they’re offering tools that will help you map out and track your progress here.

What This Means for WordPress Webmasters

A lot of webmasters are still using WordPress today even though its code is so bulky due to continual security and performance updates. It still functions well enough to support more than a quarter of all the world’s websites today though. However, it doesn’t load very fast because it has so much content that’s run by complex plugins.

WordPress is working hard to steadily improve its load speeds today. They’re currently working with Google to create updates that bolster functionality and diminish load times.

Tools to Help you Improve Your SEO Ranking

There are several tools that Google is giving web developers.

One is the Speed Scorecard. This is a simple tool where you enter your domain’s URL, hit search, and you’re told how long it takes to load your home page. You’ll want to take time to check it out against your competition to see how you’ll do when it comes to SEO.

Another tool Google is giving webmasters is the impact calculator, which is also found on their Speed Scorecard. Remembering that traffic translates to revenue, this tool will show you how much money you’ll lose if you rank worse than your competition.

With all these tools, you’ll have some help keeping up with everything. This change in Google’s algorithm will definitely have a major impact on your SEO ranking. Nobody knows exactly when that will be though. Nevertheless, when you stop to consider how important all of this is, you can understand why you want to hire a company who can take on this full-time job for you. ISEOU has over 20 years experience in this industry so give them a call today.

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And the trend continues in 2018.

Over the past years, we were ‘warned’ several times that mobile will somehow take over the world and now we’re seeing this happening. Yes, desktops are still being used a lot, but smartphones are becoming more and more advanced, packing enough processing power to fully replace PCs. Actually, we have small computers in our pockets, so we’re using them for all possible tasks.

In this case, you should be aware of one important aspect: if you want to keep up with your competitors, you need to make sure that your website loads fast. After all, a visitor has an attention span of just three seconds. At this time, your site needs to load and convince him or her that it’s worth scrolling a bit.

Ok, but how can I improve website speed?

Ah, good question. The good news is that it’s far from being rocket science since there are a few easy things you can do and end up with a speedy website.

Activate AMP

Since Google insisted with page speed that much, it would’ve been weird if they didn’t provide some tips on how to improve it as well. Thus, the AMP project was born, in order to give the web a nice speed boost.

The search engine giant provides all documentation on how to implement Accelerated Mobile Pages on your website, but you can also do it through a plugin if you have a WordPress-based website. After this, those who access your website through a smartphone or a tablet will see a simplified version of it, containing just the essential information. But man, that page will load fast!

Start using PHP7

Sticking to websites built upon WordPress, another essential recommendation for those looking forward to improving website speed is to consider using PHP7. Most websites are relying on PHP 5.2 or 5.3, which relatively slow versions.

One of the aspects that make PHP7 so special is the fact that it’s fast. The developers worked to refactor the PHP codebase, in an attempt to reduce memory consumption and increase performance. And guess what? They did an amazing job with this, as benchmarks show speeds twice as fast as on previous versions.

See how quick your pages render

A lot of webpages have elements that block them from rendering quickly. Going a bit into technical details, the critical rendering path consists of an object, like CSS and JavaScript, which needs to load before the content is shown on your screen. If this content is blocked, your page will load very slow or won’t load at all.

Start with running a PageSpeed Insights test and observe those elements preventing a page from rendering quickly.

These are just a few things you can try in order to improve website speed and expect some very quick results. However, you need some technical background if you want everything to go smoothly. Or you can leave it to ISEOU.

Thanks to the experience acquired after years of providing high-quality SEO services to small business, they can take meticulous care and effort to make sure that your website is as fast and responsive as possible, offering a top-notch user experience. And we all know that a great user experience can directly affect revenue!

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It is also very user friendly making it easy to update webpages even for those with little technical know-how. Furthermore, it is pretty good for SEO in terms of site structure right out of the box. There are also a number of easy-to-use plugins to expand your control over SEO elements if you are inclined to do so. One of the more popular SEO plugins is Yoast, which also includes a premium version with added functionality (although the free version will suit most people’s needs and is quite powerful all on its own). The user community is extremely large and active, providing for a great free support system for any business owner looking to take their website to the next level.

But even right out of the box, WordPress has tons of features and all of the essentials for a good business site. It is mobile friendly, includes an intuitive backend, and is easy to add content to (including multimedia such as images and videos). Pretty much anyone who can use Microsoft Word will be able to use WordPress once they are logged in to the backend.

For more advanced users, the sky is really the limit with this software. It can easily be turned into an ecommerce platform for businesses which may want to make sales online. There are many great plugins to add this functionality and what is right for your website really depends on your individual needs. It is important to read the plugin descriptions and reviews when it comes to selecting the right ones because options are aplenty when it comes to ecommerce solutions or really any type of popular plugin on WordPress.

WordPress has a strong history of providing quality solutions to webmasters who are new to the game as well as those who are market leaders and have been making websites for a very long time. It is easy to start as a beginner and to continue using it even as you become a master just because it is so customizable and powerful. If you haven’t checked it out yet, go give it a try- you may just surprise yourself with what you find. It is no wonder that so many professional sites and companies from CNN to TechCrunch have used WordPress on their websites over the years. The WordPress community is millions large and continues to grow.

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The WordPress application has a customizable profile that should have you building a high quality blog or article site within no time at all, and that’s just the beginning when it comes to reasons as to why you need to make use of WordPress.

One of the easiest CMS’s to use that is out right now – This is the easiest application to make use of when you need something to put all of the content together. Its one thing to build up your website through the use of Dreamweaver, and it’s a completely different adventure when it comes to WordPress.

SEO Friendly – Your SEO tactics won’t have to change much if you’re using WordPress, this is because it’s such a common trait amongst online marketers (over the years it’s just been developed in order to allow SEO practices to work with ease).

Plug-ins – The plug-in directory for WordPress is as expansive as you’ve ever seen a plug-in directory being, there are so many different add-ons to make use of that it’s a tad bit overwhelming at first. There are plug-ins that will automatically optimize the on-page SEO of your website, as well as many other things (like automatically post pre-written articles and such).

Financially efficient – It doesn’t cost a lot of money to keep your WordPress site up and running, and as a result it’s another reason why people tend to lean towards this CMS. WordPress is ideal for just about every single person interested in making money online, or even those who are just interested in starting a high quality blog or something.

This is one of those platforms that tons of people use for a very good reason, so if you’re still aching for a CMS that’s going to help you succeed check out WordPress. The odds that it’s going to make things ten times easier for you are higher than usual, and if something is able to make your SEO endeavours easier it’s definitely worth taking a look at in any case.

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