Why Speed is a Ranking Factor for Google Search and Ads

In today’s fast-growing world, time runs like anything.  Speed is the need of the hour and a ranking factor as well. In the technological field and its development speed is the priority.

Users turn their backs for the page where they need to wait more than a few seconds. Users want to fetch answers to their questions within seconds and recent data is evident that users care for how quickly the page takes time to load. 

Many sites fail to achieve popularity because of low-speed no matter whether they possess valuable data or not.

What led to a change in the speed

• In 2018, Google announced a new ranking algorithm design. It named the “speed update”.
• The company even asserted that the pages that “deliver the slowest experience to users” will be impacted by this update.
• Google has also recommended the use of the new updated Page speed report and tools like Lighthouse for measuring page speed.
• After this announcement made by Google, improvements have been observed across the whole web. Web pages in most of the countries have been improved speeds. Therefore, it can be said that Abandonment Rates slowed down after this.
• This act of google has been done after considering the needs of users.

Tool for checking speed for ranking factor

Page speed is the tool that can help you to see the performance of sites.

By entering a URL you can easily have an insight into the speed of a site. There are other tools as well other than this. Mod_pagespeed is another tool for the same purpose. Lighthouse is also available by chrome.

There have been changes in Page speed. The earlier version of it gave scores only for desktops. But the improved version of it included mobile.

The Difference in mobile and desktop scores

When you will check the speed of your site Page speed mobile version will show the results first. It signifies that your site has been tested for mobile.

• The thing that can confuse you is the speed of the internet connection. As we can see that most of the users use 3G and expect websites to load fast.

Because of this, you might feel your site is slow.

• On the desktop, you will find a higher score because of the internet connection.

So, we can say that both types of testing are done but the speed of the internet affects the most.

What affects the speed and later ranking factor

Field and Lab data are one of the metrics of Page speed. 

Field: Through this, you can have a comparison of your site with others in the Chrome User Experience Report.

Lab Data: It tests through one connection and can be considered less important.

• First contentful paint- It represents the first time when users view something on your site.
• First meaningful paint- It represents the point at which users can understand the first piece of content.
• Speed index- It is complex, shows the quickness of visibly populates of elements of your site.
• First CPU Idle- Represents the site’s loading of information point.
• Time to interactive- At this point site is fully interactive.
• Max potential first input delay- Page speed score is not affected by this.

Opportunity and diagnostics

Other metrics are opportunity and diagnostics for ranking factors.

Opportunity gives you an insight into what you can improve on your site. It also shows the issue in numbers that affects the load time.

Improvement of the Page speed score for ranking factor

• Improve server response time

To improve you need to lessen the load or its hardware. You need to choose a good server.

• Image compression

They are a problem. Majorly there are issues of screen size against the actual size in pixels and disk size.

The more hard disk is occupied by the physical space of an image, the more time it will consume while being downloaded.

• HTML & CSS structure

HTML structure affects the website’s loading. If CSS is not written properly then the loading time will be slow.

• Minification & Script compression

It is a process by which a file is made smaller by removing unnecessary information.

Compression is a process by which files are compressed.

• Cache policy

It is a process for the storage of files in a client’s browser.

Dynamic elements (short cache policy)

Static resources (long cache policy)

Third-party tools

Cache plugins

.htaccess file cache

Resetting the cache

• Lightweight themes and Plugins

Load on your website will result in its slower running. A good theme will have lightweight.

Concluding the speed ranking factor

If you wish for better search rankings then speed is very important. Page speed is very helpful in improving and assessing speed.

An ideal website loads within a few seconds and attracts users. When user experience improves then your site’s searching also improves.

Hence, we can say that speed is a vital element of your website.