At least as far back as 2010, Google confirmed that page load times are one of the 200+ factors they use to determine keyword rankings for web pages. It makes sense, because one of Google’s top priorities is connecting its search engine users with quality content and a good user experience.
Nobody wants to wait around while a web page loads, whether they are surfing on a laptop or smartphone, so maybe it’s time for a little Spring cleaning to make sure your site is all it can be, for both your visitors and the search engines.
There are many free tools out there that calculate page load times. Google offers one called “PageSpeed Insights” in its Developer section at https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/. You’ll get two speed metrics, one for mobile devices and one for desktops. You’ll also get a User Experience metric for Mobile. The scores run from 1 – 100.
PageSpeed Insights identifies the issues that may be slowing down your page load times. Some are relatively simple to fix, like compressing photos or images on your pages. Some are more technical, and may require help from your webmaster.
We ran the tool on a wide variety of sites and discovered that Desktop speeds were generally about 15 – 20 points higher than Mobile. A Desktop speed of 80/100 or higher will put your site in the top tier. On the Mobile side, anything in the 70’s is pretty exceptional.
Web sites can become cluttered and ungainly over time. It’s a good idea to run PageSpeed Insights from time to time and undertake some Spring Cleaning on your website to make sure both the search engines and your visitors will enjoy a great experience.
