What Is Google’s Speed Update All About?
Google’s planned page speed for mobile rollout is here. In a nutshell, it means page speed is now a mobile search ranking factor. Given the fact that more than half of all global website traffic now comes from mobile devices, the move isn’t much of a surprise. If you’re a webmaster, you’ll need to be mindful of how fast your pages load if you want to remain competitive online. Whether you’re managing your search engine optimization independently or consulting with a reputed SEO company in San Diego, here’s what you need to know about Google’s Speed Update.
Will Your Site Be Affected?
Google says that only sites with the slowest speeds will be affected by the new mobile page speed ranking factor. Since speed is just one of the many ranking factors, it’s predicted that only a small percentage of queries will ultimately see noticeable adjustments. It’s entirely possible for a site with a slow mobile page speed to rank high if it contains:
• Well-optimized, relevant content
• High conversion rates and low bounce rates
• Authoritative backlinks and other important ranking factors
What Metrics Should You Focus On?
When it comes to user experience, Google encourages web developers to think broadly. There’s no need to obsess over page speed at the moment. However, you should pay attention to content quality and length, social signals, and other issues that could affect your website’s mobile performance.
What Tools Can You Use to See Where You Stand with the Speed Update?
There’s no tool available right now that will specifically determine how your site may be affected by the new mobile speed update. However, there are some tools that can be used to help you evaluate page performance. These include:
• Chrome User Experience Report to access a collection of user experience metrics for top web destinations
• Lighthouse tool to audit webpage quality
• PageSpeed Insights tool to view real-world performance data about pagea
Due to the growing impatience of smartphone users, it’s important to keep mobile page speed as low as possible without affecting the intended purpose of various webpages. According to Google, the average mobile page load time is 22 seconds. However, research suggests more than half of all searchers will abandon a mobile page if it takes more than 3 seconds to load.
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