Page load time refers to the amount of time it takes for a webpage to fully display the content on a specific page, or the time it takes for a browser to receive a server’s first byte. In recent years, the impact of page load times on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has become increasingly significant.
One of the crucial reasons is user experience. Google’s main priority is providing users the most accurate and fast results for their inquiries. Thus, a slow-loading webpage offers a poor user experience and likely to be penalized by Google’s algorithms, leading to a lower ranking on search engine result pages (SERPs).
According to a study by Google, as page load time goes from 1s to 3s, the probability of bounce increases by 32%. This is noteworthy, as Google considers bounce rate as a ranking factor. If users are bouncing right back to the search results, Google might assume that they didn’t find what they were looking for on your site, which can harm your SEO.
In 2010, Google officially stated that site speed is a ranking factor for SEO. Then, in 2018, Google released the “Speed Update” which made page speed a ranking factor for mobile searches as well.
The concept of site speed encompasses more than just how long it takes for your site to load; it also includes how quickly users can interact with your site and navigate from one page to another. Low page load speeds can essentially “jam” the user experience, and lead to higher bounce rates, lower time on site, and lower conversion rates. All these metrics are considered by Google’s ranking algorithms.
Additionally, slow-loading pages are less likely to be crawled efficiently. Search engines only allocate a certain amount of resources to each site for crawling. If your pages load slowly, fewer pages will be crawled, meaning less of your content makes it into the search engine’s index. This can lead to decreased visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs).
To optimize page load speed, you can reduce the file size of your images, leverage browser caching, minimize HTTP requests, and ensure your website is mobile-friendly among other tactics.
A great tool to check your site’s speed is Google’s PageSpeed Insights. It provides information about your page’s speed for both mobile and desktop platforms, and also suggests ways to improve it.
To sum up, page load time significantly affects SEO because it directly impacts user experience, bounce rate, crawl budget, and thus search ranking. Therefore, making your web pages load faster should be a priority for improving SEO and user satisfaction.
Sources:
- Google’s research on mobile page speed: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-resources/data-measurement/mobile-page-speed-new-industry-benchmarks/
- Google Webmaster Central Blog on site speed: https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2010/04/using-site-speed-in-web-search-ranking
- Information about Google’s “Speed Update”: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2018/01/using-page-speed-in-mobile-search.html
- PageSpeed Insights: https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/
