A website owner can spread their marketing dollars further by prioritising SEO. Some parts of the SEO strategy and implementation can take months, but others can be implemented in a few hours. The easiest SEO improvement is page speed. Google considers the load time in its ranking, meaning that a faster load time for a website to display could benefit its ranking.

Page speed could improve ranking

Page speed refers to the time it takes for your website to display in a viewer's web browser fully. You should aim for a 2-second or less page speed. Google research found that over 53% of people will leave a website that takes longer than three seconds to load. The average speed of sites that rank on the first Google search engine result page (SERP) is 1.65 seconds.

Understanding page speed

Run an initial speed checkYou can run a free test on several services and use the average speed.  Lose the extra weight<ul><li>Compress all images - it should be in kilobytes. </li><li>Choose a lightweight website theme</li><li>Use the AMP framework</li><li>Eliminate unnecessary APIs </li><li>Use a uniform font.</li></ul> Use a content distribution network (CDN)A CDN spread copies of your website's data across different locations in a worldwide delivery network, making it allowing foreign visitors to your website at a fast speed. Enable browser cachingIt pre-loads or stores some of your website's data. Consider hosting changes

How to improve your page speed

<img src="https://blogs-images.forbes.com/assets/images/avatars/blog-4254_400_3df8fcdef6c1eacbc5f29bcfc396a2d3.jpg" alt="Forbes Communications Council" width="64" height="64">Amine is a tech entrepreneur and writer. He is currently the CMO at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.regalassets.com/" title="http://www.regalassets.com/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:http://www.regalassets.com/" aria-label="Regal Assets" dir="ltr">Regal Assets</a>&nbsp;and CEO at IronMonk Solutions.&nbsp;<figure><img src="https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/96x0/https%3A%2F%2Fspecials-images.forbesimg.com%2Fimageserve%2F6154624d42a134005a235414%2FAt-the-Beginning-of-9-O-clock%2F960x0.jpg%3Ffit%3Dscale" alt="At the Beginning of 9 O'clock" width="334" height="223"><figcaption dir="auto">GETTY</figcaption></figure>If you’re a website owner and you want your marketing dollars to stretch further, you should prioritize SEO. But SEO is a long-term game; in fact, some aspects of an SEO strategy can take months, if not years, to implement. Luckily, however, some can be implemented in the span of hours.In my book, the easiest SEO improvement you’ll ever make is improving your page speed. In 2018, Google <a href="https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2018/07/search-ads-speed" title="https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2018/07/search-ads-speed" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2018/07/search-ads-speed" aria-label="announced" dir="ltr">announced</a> that both mobile and desktop load times would be factors in its rankings, meaning that any reduction in the time it takes for a website to display could benefit its ranking. The good news is that you can speed up your website’s load time without having to invest thousands of dollars into your content strategy or wait months for the benefits to materialize.PROMOTED<img src="https://img.connatix.com/5139db91-7271-4a8e-9f4b-508ff058786e/1.png" alt="" width="36" height="36">As the owner of two full-suite marketing agencies, I’ve helped many clients make a big SEO impact on a tight budget thanks to page speed improvements. To help you get up to speed (ahem), I’ve put together a quick guide to accelerating your load times.&nbsp;Page Speed 101: What Is It?In addition to other factors (like quality), a website’s load time affects its Google ranking. That’s why SEO strategies should always be built around rock-solid yet lightweight content — that is, you should create pages without the heavy use of scripts or large image files. If you can manage that, you should be well on your way toward ranking.<div>MORE FOR YOU</div><h3 data-ga-track="Most Popular - Automated Recirc - Link 3">You Probably Need More Friends—Here’s How To Make Them</h3>Page speed simply refers to the amount of time it takes for your website to fully load and display in a viewer’s web browser. As a rule, you want to aim for a page speed of two seconds or under. After all, 53% of people abandon mobile websites if they take longer than three seconds to load, according to Google research <a href="https://www.marketingdive.com/news/google-53-of-mobile-users-abandon-sites-that-take-over-3-seconds-to-load/426070/" title="https://www.marketingdive.com/news/google-53-of-mobile-users-abandon-sites-that-take-over-3-seconds-to-load/426070/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://www.marketingdive.com/news/google-53-of-mobile-users-abandon-sites-that-take-over-3-seconds-to-load/426070/" aria-label="discussed by" dir="ltr">discussed by </a><a href="https://www.marketingdive.com/news/google-53-of-mobile-users-abandon-sites-that-take-over-3-seconds-to-load/426070/" title="https://www.marketingdive.com/news/google-53-of-mobile-users-abandon-sites-that-take-over-3-seconds-to-load/426070/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://www.marketingdive.com/news/google-53-of-mobile-users-abandon-sites-that-take-over-3-seconds-to-load/426070/" aria-label="Marketing Dive" dir="ltr">Marketing Dive </a>in 2016. And according to <a href="https://backlinko.com/search-engine-ranking" title="https://backlinko.com/search-engine-ranking" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://backlinko.com/search-engine-ranking" aria-label="Backlinko research" dir="ltr">Backlinko research</a>, the average speed of sites that rank on the first Google search engine result page (SERP) is 1.65 seconds (although the research found no correlation between site speed and Google rankings).How To Improve Your Page SpeedBelow, I’ve listed the key steps involved in boosting your page speed metrics.1. Run An Initial Speed CheckYour first step is to diagnose your page speed. That way, you can find out what benchmark you want to beat, as well as verify if your page suffers from a major speed issue. There are a handful of free online services that offer reliable performance reports.&nbsp;To play it safe, you can run a free test on multiple services and use the average of the figures to approximate your page speed. If your average is faster than 1.5 seconds, you’re already doing well, but you can still make improvements. If you’re over 2.5 seconds, you may need to make major improvements.2. Lose The Extra WeightYour next step is to make your website leaner — not in terms of content but in terms of file size. The simplest course of action is to compress all images that appear on the page, which should be measured in kilobytes and not megabytes. Reupload images on your website after you’ve compressed them using an image compressor service.Your page weight isn’t only determined by your image files. It’s equally important that you reduce clutter and bloat by other means, principally by:• Choosing a lightweight website theme (without significant use of code).• Utilizing the AMP framework.• Eliminating unnecessary APIs and minimizing third-party scripts.• Eliminating unnecessary fonts (and ideally, using a uniform font).If you’re using an open-source content management system such as WordPress, you can implement many of these optimizations simply by installing plug-ins. If you’re not, you can consult with your web developer to enact these changes site-wide.3. Use A Content Distribution Network (CDN)A CDN essentially takes your website’s data and disperses copies of it across different locations in a worldwide delivery network. If you use a CDN, you make it more likely that foreign visitors will be able to access your website at a fast speed. Otherwise, visitors who are geographically distant from your servers might have to endure slow load speeds.4. Enable Browser Caching&nbsp;Your website will load faster if the viewer’s browser “remembers” the data and resources it requires. If you enable browser caching, which pre-loads (or stores) some of your website’s data on the visitor’s end, you can cut back on page speed times significantly. Fortunately, several open-source plug-ins&nbsp;offer browser caching that minimizes the number of elements that your visitors’ browsers will have to load.5. Consider Hosting ChangesAfter adopting the changes listed above, reassess your website’s page speed. If it’s still suffering (i.e., it’s greater than two seconds), consider switching web hosts. Some web hosts tend to be faster than others.ConclusionWhen it comes to SEO, speed matters. For years, speed has been a Google ranking factor, and competitive websites shouldn’t ignore it. And if you want to see your website rank for highly competitive search terms, neither should you.Fortunately, by following the steps outlined above, you can trim your website’s weight down to a manageable level. From there, you can make back-end adjustments and hosting changes as necessary if you still aren’t satisfied with your results. In the end, you should have a faster and more user-friendly website that can help you win over Google’s PageRank algorithm.<a href="https://councils.forbes.com/forbescommunicationscouncil?utm_source=forbes.com&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=forbes-links&amp;utm_content=in-article-ad-links" title="https://councils.forbes.com/forbescommunicationscouncil?utm_source=forbes.com&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=forbes-links&amp;utm_content=in-article-ad-links" data-ga-track="InternalLink:https://councils.forbes.com/forbescommunicationscouncil?utm_source=forbes.com&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=forbes-links&amp;utm_content=in-article-ad-links" aria-label="Forbes Communications Council" dir="ltr">Forbes Communications Council</a> is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. <a href="https://councils.forbes.com/qualify?utm_source=forbes.com&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=forbes-links&amp;utm_term=fc2c&amp;utm_content=in-article-ad-links" title="https://councils.forbes.com/qualify?utm_source=forbes.com&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=forbes-links&amp;utm_term=fc2c&amp;utm_content=in-article-ad-links" data-ga-track="InternalLink:https://councils.forbes.com/qualify?utm_source=forbes.com&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=forbes-links&amp;utm_term=fc2c&amp;utm_content=in-article-ad-links" aria-label="Do I qualify?" dir="ltr"><em data-ga-track="InternalLink:https://councils.forbes.com/qualify?utm_source=forbes.com&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=forbes-links&amp;utm_term=fc2c&amp;utm_content=in-article-ad-links" dir="ltr">Do I qualify?</a><div dir="ltr">Follow me on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahalamine/" rel="noopener noreferrer" dir="ltr">LinkedIn</a>.&nbsp;Check out&nbsp;my&nbsp;<a href="http://www.regalassets.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" dir="ltr">website</a>.&nbsp;</div><img src="https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/400x0/smart/https%3A%2F%2Fspecials-images.forbesimg.com%2Fimageserve%2F6005e31e7a7504f7336cda91%2F960x0.jpg%3FcropX1%3D38%26cropX2%3D285%26cropY1%3D25%26cropY2%3D272" alt="Amine Rahal" width="44" height="44">

Page speed simply refers to the amount of time it takes for your website to fully load and display in a viewer’s web browser. As a rule, you want to aim for a page speed of two seconds or under.

Stashed ideas

Amine is a tech entrepreneur and writer. He is currently the CMO at  <a aria-label="Regal Assets" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:http://www.regalassets.com/" dir="ltr" href="http://www.regalassets.com/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" title="http://www.regalassets.com/">Regal Assets </a> and CEO at IronMonk Solutions.

If you’re a website owner and you want your marketing dollars to stretch further, you should prioritize SEO. But SEO is a long-term game; in fact, some aspects of an SEO strategy can take months, if not years, to implement. Luckily, however, some can be implemented in the span of hours.

In my book, the easiest SEO improvement you’ll ever make is improving your page speed. In 2018, Google <a aria-label="announced" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2018/07/search-ads-speed" dir="ltr" href="https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2018/07/search-ads-speed" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" title="https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2018/07/search-ads-speed">announced </a>that both mobile and desktop load times would be factors in its rankings, meaning that any reduction in the time it takes for a website to display could benefit its ranking. The good news is that you can speed up your website’s load time without having to invest thousands of dollars into your content strategy or wait months for the benefits to materialize.

PROMOTED

As the owner of two full-suite marketing agencies, I’ve helped many clients make a big SEO impact on a tight budget thanks to page speed improvements. To help you get up to speed (ahem ), I’ve put together a quick guide to accelerating your load times.

Page Speed 101: What Is It?

In addition to other factors (like quality), a website’s load time affects its Google ranking. That’s why SEO strategies should always be built around rock-solid yet lightweight content — that is, you should create pages without the heavy use of scripts or large image files. If you can manage that, you should be well on your way toward ranking.

You Probably Need More Friends—Here’s How To Make Them

Page speed simply refers to the amount of time it takes for your website to fully load and display in a viewer’s web browser. As a rule, you want to aim for a page speed of two seconds or under. After all, 53% of people abandon mobile websites if they take longer than three seconds to load, according to Google research <a aria-label="discussed by" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://www.marketingdive.com/news/google-53-of-mobile-users-abandon-sites-that-take-over-3-seconds-to-load/426070/" dir="ltr" href="https://www.marketingdive.com/news/google-53-of-mobile-users-abandon-sites-that-take-over-3-seconds-to-load/426070/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" title="https://www.marketingdive.com/news/google-53-of-mobile-users-abandon-sites-that-take-over-3-seconds-to-load/426070/">discussed by </a><a aria-label="Marketing Dive" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://www.marketingdive.com/news/google-53-of-mobile-users-abandon-sites-that-take-over-3-seconds-to-load/426070/" dir="ltr" href="https://www.marketingdive.com/news/google-53-of-mobile-users-abandon-sites-that-take-over-3-seconds-to-load/426070/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" title="https://www.marketingdive.com/news/google-53-of-mobile-users-abandon-sites-that-take-over-3-seconds-to-load/426070/">Marketing Dive </a>in 2016. And according to <a aria-label="Backlinko research" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://backlinko.com/search-engine-ranking" dir="ltr" href="https://backlinko.com/search-engine-ranking" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" title="https://backlinko.com/search-engine-ranking">Backlinko research </a>, the average speed of sites that rank on the first Google search engine result page (SERP) is 1.65 seconds (although the research found no correlation between site speed and Google rankings).

How To Improve Your Page Speed

Below, I’ve listed the key steps involved in boosting your page speed metrics.

1. Run An Initial Speed Check

Your first step is to diagnose your page speed. That way, you can find out what benchmark you want to beat, as well as verify if your page suffers from a major speed issue. There are a handful of free online services that offer reliable performance reports.

To play it safe, you can run a free test on multiple services and use the average of the figures to approximate your page speed. If your average is faster than 1.5 seconds, you’re already doing well, but you can still make improvements. If you’re over 2.5 seconds, you may need to make major improvements.

2. Lose The Extra Weight

Your next step is to make your website leaner — not in terms of content but in terms of file size. The simplest course of action is to compress all images that appear on the page, which should be measured in kilobytes and not megabytes. Reupload images on your website after you’ve compressed them using an image compressor service.

Your page weight isn’t only determined by your image files. It’s equally important that you reduce clutter and bloat by other means, principally by:

• Choosing a lightweight website theme (without significant use of code).

• Eliminating unnecessary APIs and minimizing third-party scripts.

• Eliminating unnecessary fonts (and ideally, using a uniform font).

If you’re using an open-source content management system such as WordPress, you can implement many of these optimizations simply by installing plug-ins. If you’re not, you can consult with your web developer to enact these changes site-wide.

3. Use A Content Distribution Network (CDN)

A CDN essentially takes your website’s data and disperses copies of it across different locations in a worldwide delivery network. If you use a CDN, you make it more likely that foreign visitors will be able to access your website at a fast speed. Otherwise, visitors who are geographically distant from your servers might have to endure slow load speeds.

4. Enable Browser Caching

Your website will load faster if the viewer’s browser “remembers” the data and resources it requires. If you enable browser caching, which pre-loads (or stores) some of your website’s data on the visitor’s end, you can cut back on page speed times significantly. Fortunately, several open-source plug-ins offer browser caching that minimizes the number of elements that your visitors’ browsers will have to load.

5. Consider Hosting Changes

After adopting the changes listed above, reassess your website’s page speed. If it’s still suffering (i.e., it’s greater than two seconds), consider switching web hosts. Some web hosts tend to be faster than others.

When it comes to SEO, speed matters. For years, speed has been a Google ranking factor, and competitive websites shouldn’t ignore it. And if you want to see your website rank for highly competitive search terms, neither should you.

Fortunately, by following the steps outlined above, you can trim your website’s weight down to a manageable level. From there, you can make back-end adjustments and hosting changes as necessary if you still aren’t satisfied with your results. In the end, you should have a faster and more user-friendly website that can help you win over Google’s PageRank algorithm.

<a aria-label="Forbes Communications Council" data-ga-track="InternalLink:https://councils.forbes.com/forbescommunicationscouncil?utm_source=forbes.com&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=forbes-links&amp;utm_content=in-article-ad-links" dir="ltr" href="https://councils.forbes.com/forbescommunicationscouncil?utm_source=forbes.com&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=forbes-links&amp;utm_content=in-article-ad-links" title="https://councils.forbes.com/forbescommunicationscouncil?utm_source=forbes.com&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=forbes-links&amp;utm_content=in-article-ad-links">Forbes Communications Council </a>is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. <a aria-label="Do I qualify?" data-ga-track="InternalLink:https://councils.forbes.com/qualify?utm_source=forbes.com&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=forbes-links&amp;utm_term=fc2c&amp;utm_content=in-article-ad-links" dir="ltr" href="https://councils.forbes.com/qualify?utm_source=forbes.com&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=forbes-links&amp;utm_term=fc2c&amp;utm_content=in-article-ad-links" title="https://councils.forbes.com/qualify?utm_source=forbes.com&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=forbes-links&amp;utm_term=fc2c&amp;utm_content=in-article-ad-links"><em data-ga-track="InternalLink:https://councils.forbes.com/qualify?utm_source=forbes.com&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=forbes-links&amp;utm_term=fc2c&amp;utm_content=in-article-ad-links" dir="ltr">Do I qualify? </a>

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Council Post: How To Improve Your Website’s Page Speed

Page speed could improve ranking

Understanding page speed

How to improve your page speed

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Image SEO: All You Need to Know in 10 Simple Tips

Cumulative Layout Shift: What It Is and How to Measure It

BEST SEO TOOLS FOR WEB DESIGNERS

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Council Post: How To Improve Your Website’s Page Speed

Page speed could improve ranking

Understanding page speed

How to improve your page speed

IDEAS ABOUT

MORE LIKE THIS

Image SEO: All You Need to Know in 10 Simple Tips

Cumulative Layout Shift: What It Is and How to Measure It

BEST SEO TOOLS FOR WEB DESIGNERS

It's time to

READ

LIKE

A PRO!

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career