Establish a Baseline

Before you can start worrying about your page speed, you need to figure out how fast you’re currently performing. This is why Google has the PageSpeed Insights tool available. Not only will this tell you how fast your page is, but it also tells you how you can improve things. Armed with this information, you can get to work.

Make On-Site Improvements

There are some common speed optimization issues PageSpeed Insights identifies. These include:

• Full-resolution images: These take a long time to load and aren’t good for speed optimization nor are they necessary for most pages.
• Render-blocking CSS and JavaScript files: These keep your page from fully loading until they’re processed.
• Browser caching: This tells browsers how long they can store files so pages load quicker.
  Compression: This the process of reducing the size of text-based files for faster load times.
  Minifying HTML, CSS and JavaScript: This involves analyzing and removing unnecessary text or data while maintaining the page’s look.
• Browsers load webpages in chunks: This means that most pages require several calls to the server. Make sure everything above the fold loads first.

Invest in a High-Quality Host

When you work to optimize your website for SEO purposes, you don’t want to then skimp on your hosting. Investing in premium, dedicated hosting with good hardware and up-to-date technology will also help make your site load faster. A few of the other issues you’ll need to address here include:

• Pages taking longer than 200 milliseconds to load require a reduction in server response time. The reasons for this slow of a response have to do with things like routing, file libraries, bad application logic and slow database queries. Exploring and correcting these issues yields speed optimization.
• A content display network (CDN) is a large network of servers that house your page files (e.g. text, graphics, scripts, video, downloadable objects, streaming media) for faster delivery. Make sure you have a CDN.

These are just a few of the hundreds of factors that determine how Google will rank your site. Taking the time to make sure that it loads quickly will create a strong foundation. Having the time and the resources to complete everything on this list right away is important. Since you probably have neither, you’ll need some help. ISEOU is here to help you make sure your site is ready when Google implements these changes so make sure you contact them today.

The post Optimize Speed and win the SEO “Fight” appeared first on I SEO U.

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.

The post Why Speed Matters to Your Website appeared first on I SEO U.