Page loading time is obviously an important part of any website’s user experience, how often do you abandon a page when it takes too long to load? Waiting for a website to load is no different from waiting in line in a shop.
Google has always rewarded sites that have clean codes and download quickly but it has been announced that Google have even more updates to their mobile algorithm in a matter of month’s despite only recently being changed. The speed of mobile pages isn’t currently used as a ranking factor by Google, but that will change with the next mobile friendly update.
This fits with the pattern of Google focusing on user experience in its mobile updates. It has focused on factors such as small text, links too close together, and intrusive app download ads. Really, this imminent change is no massive surprise, as Google’s introduction of Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) shows its concern about page speed on mobile.
So what is affected by page speed?
A slow page speed means that search engines can crawl fewer pages using their allocated crawl budget, and this could negatively affect your indexation. Page speed is also important to user experience. Pages with a longer load time tend to have higher bounce rates and lower average time on page. Longer load times have also been shown to negatively affect conversions.
What causes your site to load slow?
There are a number of reasons why your website may be taking time to load:
So it looks as though its now not enough to just have a mobile friendly site. Businesses need to work hard to ensure that it performs as well as it can across a wide range of factors.
Where to start?
You can use tools like PageSpeed Insights and Web Page Test to find out if any scripts are slowing down your website.
If you would like any further information then please give the Dental Design team a call on: 01202677277.