As the digital landscape rapidly evolves, the demands on a business for staying current and meeting ever-changing website requirements continue to increase. One of those demands that seems to constantly grow is the speed of a business’ website. At face value, it makes sense that having a fast website is important for your business, if only to make sure your users have a positive online experience with your company. Beyond that, how does site speed impact SEO?
Mobile Matters
In 2018, Google released a study saying over 50% of search engine users use search on mobile devices. Along with that, they moved to a Mobile First Index, which emphasized the importance of mobile performance as a ranking factor in the SERPs. In a study of nearly 150,000 websites done by Neil Patel, they found that the overall page load time is significantly faster for the first five positions in a search result. In addition, other studies have found that for every additional second a site takes to load, there is a reduced conversion rate of 7%. Moral of the story? Today’s searchers know what they want, and they want it now. Mobile matters, and it matters a lot when it comes to SEO.
Core Vitals
In May of 2021, Google announced the rollout of Core Web Vitals becoming a ranking factor for SEO. Core Vitals are a set of metrics related to the speed, responsiveness, and visual stability of a website, and are geared directly towards measuring a visitor’s page experience. These are now officially part of existing signals for rankings, and they’re likely here to stay. What this means for a business is if it’s been a while since your website has been updated, it will likely be impacting your visibility online.
If it’s time to consider updating your site, or you’d like a simple consultation and analysis of what needs to be improved to optimize your site’s performance, contact one of our experts today.
