There loading speed of a website is one of the aspects that most affects the experience of the user browsing the web. A web page with a loading speed more than 3 seconds, in fact, it makes those who visit it nervous, it is often abandoned and is generally considered slow.
But a slow site is not only considered negatively by users, but also by Google itself, which will penalize its visibility on search engines, in favor of faster sites. In order for your site to be successful, this aspect should not be neglected. But how to do it? And how does Google ranking work? Let's find out together.
Positioning on search engines
Whenever we type a word into the Google search bar, a screen appears with a list of results that the search engine considers relevant. But have you ever wondered according to what criteria one site appears before another?
Google uses an algorithm capable of evaluating the relevance of the pages of a site, with respect to the searches made by users. To carry out this analysis, the search engine is based on a series of very specific criteria, which are indicated in the guide tosearch engine optimization by Google.
And it is precisely on the basis of these rules that SEO experts optimize a website, in a perpetual chase for the top positions among the results.
It is a complex job, since the rules indicated by the Mountain View company embrace different aspects of a website, from the presence of backlinks, to images, up, of course, to loading speed.
What factors affect upload speed?
The process of optimizing the contents of a website to improve its positioning on search engines is called SEO (Search Engine Optimization). The experts involved in this activity have estimated that 25% of visitors to a site leave it, if this involves a loading speed longer than 4 seconds.
If we add to this that, as mentioned, Google tends not to show slow sites willingly, it is clear that the site in question will see its visibility, its visitors and, ultimately, its sales decrease.
To speed up a slow site, Google's recommendations indicate some elements to take into consideration.
Hosting
The server on which the site is loaded and the space it occupies are essential to establish the loading speed of the site itself. Simply put, a slow server will automatically result in a slow site.
Therefore avoid too cheap solutions or shared servers, which, in addition to being slower, can also lead to continuous errors and crashes. A reliable host is strongly recommended.
The architecture of the site
Even if it appears on the screen in an aesthetically pleasing graphic form, a website is basically a set of lines of code, organized according to a precise architecture. The more this architecture is "clean", the faster the site will be.
The code must not contain only the important information, avoiding the superfluous ones, and must have as few external files as possible (eg Javascript or css).
The HTTP2 protocol
Check that your site is using the HTTP2 protocol and not its previous version. Compared to the old HTTP, in fact, its successor optimizes the transfer of data between browser and server.
By reducing latency, overhead and prioritizing download, HTTP2 makes web pages faster and leaner.
The cache
There loading speed of a site also depends on the amount of information present in the cache memory. It is a memory that allows you to speed up the loading of web content, reducing user waiting times, as it saves copies of web pages within the webserver. This avoids having to ask the database for information every time you try to load a page.
The size of the images
Loading images that are too large on a site also slows it down. In reality, the problem lies not so much in the size, as in the "weight" in megabytes. Heavy images, which therefore take up a lot of space, take longer to load.
The distinction is a must, as other factors also contribute to weight, such as image format. A .png file, for example, is heavier than a .jpg file. Our advice to increase the loading speed is to use the new .webp format, designed specifically for web content.
Measuring tools and who to contact
All the advice and practices listed here include specific skills, which only a team of professionals in the sector is able to offer. In addition, Google is constantly updating its tools and with them also the rules to increase the loading speed of the site and its visibility on the web.
Do you know if your site has sufficient loading speed? Do you want to increase the visibility of your website? Contact us, we will be happy to put our skills at your service. You can also check the speed of your site in advance, thanks to the tool PageSpeed Insights made available by Google.
