Why is website speed important and how to find a provider that offers It? That’s exactly what you’ll learn in this article.
If you aren’t ranking high enough on the search engines, it may not just be your content or even backlinks.
Website speed is a factor that has a much more impact on your website’s overall SEO than most give it credit for.
In this piece, I’ll also discuss how to improve your speed (without diving very deep into your pockets).
Let’s get started then?
Table of Contents
Why is website speed important?
Website speed is one of the primary ranking factors for SEO. A slow website has both direct as well as indirect impacts on your website’s rankings. The direct impact is, Google has clearly said it prefers websites to load below 2 seconds.
As for the indirect aspects, a slow-loading website has quite a few repercussions:
- Pogo-sticking: It’ll lead to more users hitting the back button (pogo-sticking) which is a direct red flag for Google.
- More bounce rates: Users are prone to leaving your website for other sites rather than visiting other pages on your website.
- Lower conversions: If your website loads slowly, the chances of a user placing an order or clicking on a desired link decrease significantly.
How to Find a Hosting Provider That Offers Excellent Speed
Your website’s speed depends on a dozen factors. Your host (server) is just one of them but arguably one of the most important ones.
Hence, to increase your website’s speed, going for a better host does (more than) half your job.
So, the question is, how do you pick a good host?
- Shared vs. VPS vs. Dedicated: Shared hosts are the easiest to set up but they’re also the most limited as your server is shared with other users. VPS is a bit more expensive but is faster and can handle more users. Dedicated servers are the most expensive, and need more technical expertise but are the best overall.
- Host with multiple locations: Your server location is one of the most important factors that decide your website’s speed. Choose a host that offers multiple location choices and then choose a location that’s closer to your target audience.
- Server hardware: Servers are computers, at least basic ones. Hence, the hardware they employ matters a lot. Servers employing SSDs, faster CPUs, and other better hardware are generally better choices.
Simpler solution: If you’re confused between the hardware/location and other specs, I’ve got a simpler solution for you.
Simply go for a cloud server provider. These servers copy your data and host it across multiple servers instead of just one (virtually). This not only provides better uptime and redundancy but also better speed (as data can be fetched from a location that’s closer to your visitor instead of one fixed location).
Of course, listen to what others are saying. For any company, a simpler Google search will bring up tons of review websites for the company.
How to optimize your website’s speed?
Choosing a good host is just one part of the solution. There’s a lot more you can do to increase your website’s speed manually.
- Image optimization: Images are one of the biggest speed killers. Try to include fewer images for starters. When you do use them, optimize their size so they’re as lightweight as possible. You can also use plugins to automatically do this.
- Use plugins, but with caution: Plugins can do a lot for you. They’d optimize images, minify CSS, minimize HTTP requests, and more. Talking of plugins, while they do make things easier, they eat up tons of resources as well. Again, try to use as few plugins as you can. Use plugins only from the most reputed parties as they’re often better coded than the new ones out there.
- Use CDNs: CDNs stand for Content Delivery Network. In the simplest of words, they increase your speed (by virtually hosting your content across different locations) and increase security.
- Monitor and improve: There are various tools (e.g. Pingdom) that tell you your website’s speed performance. They also mark areas that require improvement. Simply run a test, identify the issues, and try to fix them.
Conclusion
That’s about it folks. I’m sure you have a better understanding of website speed than you had when you landed on this piece.
Yes, it was a step-by-step guide, but it does clear some doubts, doesn’t it? In summary, if you simply switch to a better provider, half of your issues are solved right there and then. The other problems can be fixed by optimizing images, reducing plugins or using the right ones, and so on.
Go on then, either look for a better provider or use Verpex that we’ve linked to above, they’re pretty good too. The point is, get off this guide and fix your speed.
