On-site Optimization: Why Page Speed Matters in Your Marketing Efforts

When it comes to digital, and especially search marketing, many marketers tend to focus on off-site goals, such as link building, PR, and social visibility. However, your company’s website is a powerful tool not just in its ability to publish exciting content or sell products that consumers want, but also in the on-site optimization that one can do to boost a site’s ranking in the search results.

 

While Google’s algorithm for determining search position is notoriously secret, there are a number of essential on- and off-site variables that SEO experts have come to identify as having a substantial effect on a site’s rank, such as inbound links and keyword-optimized URL’s, headers, title tags, and content. Simply put, while there are no hard-and-fast breakdowns of what percentage Google focuses on on-site versus off-site optimization, it’s been generally accepted that on-site optimization constitutes upwards of 49% of ranking factors that determine a site’s status in the search results.

 

Ignoring on-site optimization variables is a classic mistake for digital marketers everywhere as they often tend to focus their efforts on link building or link earning. Today, as part of our new series looking on-site optimization, we are going to look at one on-site factor that is often overlooked, but can literally make or break a site’s search performance: site speed.

 

Google has never made any secret of the fact that User Experience (or UX) is essential to having a well-ranking site, so the amount of time a person spends on a page or the number of pages he or she visits is extremely important. However, behind these two factors is one overarching one—site speed—that can literally shape how much or how little a user interacts with your site.

 

All the way back in 2010, Google made the official announcement that page speed is a factor that they take into account for search rankings. Fortunately for both the new and experienced webmaster, they have introduced a number of tools to help webmasters ensure that their site is loading quickly and efficiently.

 

First and foremost is the Page Speed Insights tool where you can enter your URL and it will show you your site speed for both mobile and desktop devices, alongside useful suggestions on how you can increase your page speed.

 

On top of looking at how each page performs, it is also crucial that one looks at the site as a whole, which is where the Site Speed reports in Google Analytics come especially in handy. They allow a site owner or manager to look in the Behavior Section at page load speeds, redirection, domain lookup, server response, and page download, all crucial pieces of the site speed puzzle.

 

However, rather than just state that page and site speed is a crucial factor, here is why you should make great use of the above tools. Studies have shown that a one-second delay in page-load time causes an 11% drop in pages views and a 16% drop in overall customer satisfaction. Furthermore, another study found that 47% of consumers expect to wait no longer that two second for a web page to load and 88% of users that experience poor load times when visiting a site will not visit that site again.

 

So not only is page speed crucial in helping your site to rank better, it’s an essential element in keeping people on your site and coming back. So the next time you plan to spend a whole day building links to your site, perhaps first consider taking a few hours to test all of your pages’ speed and make the necessary changes to increase your site’s speed performance.