Search Optimisation Should Now Include Page Loading Speed. It Does Have An Impact On Ranking
There are numerous physical alterations that can be made to an organisation’s website during the primary search optimization review that help to make a page’s search engine positioning more visible. This includes modifying title and description metatags on each page of a website to emphasise keywords that are connected with the page, or the use of heading metatags in page content to similarly emphasise the selected keywords.
To many search engine optimisation commentators, the influence of these physical alterations on a page’s natural positioning can be overstated. However, something that can be affected by physical alterations that can result in a better search engine positioning is page loading speed.
Google recently announced that page speed is now a factor used in its algorithm. Admittedly speed is only one of hundreds of factors, but there is already some anecdotal evidence to support the influence of speed on positioning. One enterprise has reported finally overtaking a long-standing competitor on a search results listing for their most significant keyword after implementing alterations that affected its load times. This note was in response to a blog document written by a search optimization expert on page speed importance.
Some elements are more apparently improved than others. The use of large images will always slow loading times. Graphics can usually be made smaller, and sometimes the images include content that could usefully be coded as text, such as the company’s trading address. There may simply be a high quantity of separate images to load, and these could be combined. Some of the other alterations may arise from better programming processes, especially where Java or stylesheets are involved. Sometimes programming methods favour a more philosophical approach to code over performance, and code compression methods can reduce the quantity of code elements that have to be loaded. A lot of guidance can be provided by Google’s own webmaster tools, where there are graphs that show load times and the numbers of pages loaded, and other tools that make suggestions about the number of components being handled.
Some search engine optimisation agencies focus most of the work they perform on the creative area of off-page optimization and may not have the knowledge to make the physical alterations that may be required – or it may be agency policy to insist that its client’s own webmasters make those changes. Some organizations may be reluctant to allow outsiders to modify the code of their pages even if the optimization expert is capable. In any case, the search optimization expert should be aware of the alterations that may be possible and make the appropriate suggestions that could develop thenatural search engine positioning of those pages.
Faster page loading speed alone will not guarantee higher natural rankings. For the search platform robots, taking less time to load a page leads to more pages being indexed, and giving more chances for pages on your company’s website to be found. Faster page loading speed also improves the experience for potential buyers to the website and reduces the chances of that buyers looking elsewhere. search engine optimisation must consider a wide range of components, and page loading speed has become one of them.
















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