Competing successfully in today's business world is just not possible without an internet presence. Between desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones, people spend a lot of time online and this is where they see ads and marketing campaigns most often. Social media platforms are certainly necessary to reach your target consumers. A company website is also a must-have. It tells potential customers who you are, what you do, and how well you do it. Using photos and video demonstrates these facts. You need a website that is easy to navigate, engaging, and clear in its intention. A vital aspect you may not be aware of is the importance of page speed for your website.
What is page speed? Quite simply it is the amount of time it takes for a web page to completely load. It is measured in seconds because people browsing the web tend to be impatient. With the massive amount of content available, they won't wait long for a page to load when there is also something else to look at. Google's research shows that even a 2-second delay is enough to cause many people to look elsewhere. This is why your page must load very quickly.
Search engine optimization is a set of practices used to get your page to rank high on a Google list of search results. People tend to know look beyond the first page. You want to be on that page and as high up as possible. Beginning in 2010, Google has used page speed as one of the parameters in determining where on the results list a page will rank. SEO is vital to your online marketing and the importance of page speed is an essential part of it.
Backlinko recently conducted a study of 5.2 million pages and found that the average desktop page speed was 1.286 seconds and the average mobile speed 2.594 seconds. These are numbers to shoot for. You want to at least keep up with the averages and surpass them if possible. Your page speed should definitely be less than 3 seconds.
In order to know how fast your pages load, you obviously need to measure them. You could use a stopwatch but this is imprecise and a lot of hassle. Fortunately, there are tools to measure page speed accurately. These include:
Your website is a virtual calling card for your business. SEO gets potential customers there and the page speed is an essential factor. Don't leave people hanging. The importance of page speed cannot be underestimated and you need to make sure it's where it needs to be.
