Does page speed affect small business website SEO rankings? Short answer, yes.
The time it takes for your website to load will affect your website SEO rankings. Google registers web page load times as a ranking signal used by its algorithm. Keep in mind that web page load time or “page speed” is not the same as “site speed.”
Although page speed can affect site speed, the two are not the same. Site speed is a sample of page views on a site, not the web page load time. Google looks to measure time to the first byte when ranking a website. Thus, your website needs to load in the recommended time of two seconds or less.
Your small business website must load correctly and promptly. Since 2018, search engines use website speed as a ranking factor, especially for mobile website load times. Therefore, not only does your website need to load fast, the design of the website needs to be responsive.
We will cover what you need to do to optimize your website design better to speed up load time. But first, let’s find out what may be causing your small business website to load slowly.
What Causes a Small Business Website to Load Slowly?
To find a solution, you need to know the problem. There are many reasons as to what causes a website to load slowly. Here are some of the issues you can fix or have your small business website company fix for you:
Unoptimized Images – One of the main reasons a website loads slowly is unoptimized images. High-resolution images are great to look at but consume a lot of bandwidth when uploading. Images that are resized to a smaller scale can also cause your website to act slow.
Not to mention that resizing increases the size of your web page. Thus, you need to add images that are the right size for your website.
Hosting – The server in which you host your website can cause websites to load slower. You need to stay away from cheap website hosting services and hire a professional website hosting company.
Understanding Web Design – There are some aspects of understanding web design, like page load time, that can be beneficial. However, you do not need to know a thing about web design to have a website. You can, however, make sound choices if you understand or hire someone who does to fix the following to optimize page load time:
- File Compressions: Reduce the size of your files.
- Reduce CSS, JavaScript, and HTML: Remove unnecessary spaces, characters, and punctuation.
- Decrease Amount of Redirects: Do not have many page redirects that cause the consumer to go to another page.
These are just a few ways you can decrease page load times. Many other factors play a role in slow load times.
Hire a Web Design Company – One of the best investments you can make for your website is by investing in a web design company. Your online presence is as impactful as a brick-and-mortar.
You do not want your small business’s success to hinge on shortcuts, like free hosting sites or the like. Instead, have a professional help you with your web page load times so that you can focus on the business at hand.
The 5 Negative Effects of a Slow Website
If you are putting your website’s page load time on the back burner, you may want to rethink your decision. There are plenty of reasons why your website load time is slow; here are five negative effects of a delayed website:
- Search Engine Indexing – Slow website load times can affect search engines’ ability to crawl your site, which will impact the way your small business website is indexed.
- User Experience Suffers – Customers do not wait for website pages to load. They will become impatient and go elsewhere with the likeliness to never return.
- High Bounce Rates – Due to bad user experiences from a slow web page load, your bounce rate will increase.
- Lower Average Time on Page – Another side effect to a poor user experience can decrease time on site and time on page.
- Conversion Rates – A lack of speed for your website will inevitably affect conversion rates. People won’t stay on a site, let alone buy from a website that makes them wait.
Optimize Small Business Web Design for Better Load Times
Don’t have your load time negatively affect your small business website. Take the guidance we provide and optimize your small business website today. Do you live in Orange County? If so, contact us at Orange Coast Websites to ensure your website is performing as it should.
