As I’ve mentioned many times here at SEO Liverpool I get lots of questions via email. A frequently asked question and something I’d like to talk about today, is the importance of web page loading speeds. Basically, page loading speeds can be important!
Just for clarity, we’re talking about when you click on a website and it takes longer than expected to bring all the elements to the page. This isn’t a broadband problem, you may end up with a page that has no real elements and lot’s of white space.
I’m going to tell you why it’s important from two important perspectives
Human point of view
0.1 load speed – this is instantaneous a 1 second load will also seem very smooth. If you take between 5-10 seconds then you’ll lose potential visitors who’ll click off. There is not a definitive number as some of us are ‘children of the dial up’ and may have more patience. Another person may have less patience or assume the webpage is broken.
Search Engine point of view
About 4 years ago online marketing consultants became aware that page load speed is a part of the Google algorithm. This is important, but I wouldn’t get to hung up on it.
If you use Google Adwords for your PPC then page load speed takes on a more important role. In fact a very important role! It will be part of the landing page (web page) quality score.
This means that you could reach the positions you want and conceivable pay less per keyword.
Factors that may be detrimental to page load speeds
- Masses of Java, CSS or Flash
- High resolution images
- Hosting your own videos
- Frames – if you’re still using frames then you need a website update
Next Steps
If you look at the Google webmaster central blog, it has a selection of tools that will help you determine problems and provide help.