Search Engine Optimization (SEO) gurus and Website developers take note; Google may soon be including Page Load speed into its ranking algorithm for organic search. This certainly makes sense and has been coming for a long time. Google values its very fast page load speeds and views this as a significant competitive advantage. If Google sees Page Load speed as so important then it is natural that they should include it as a ranking factor.
Of course indications of Webpage and Site load speed being used as ranking factors have been around for a number of years; YSlow (Yahoo) and Page Speed (Google) are both Tools supplied by major Search based organization which measure Page Load speed and provide performance optimizing recommendations.
There will be a minority who are against the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) being influenced by load times. The vast majority of us however will be in favor of this new ranking factor. Page load speed is important to visitors and, as such, should be given credibility; after all, Webpages should be designed for visitors!
Related posts
In the early days of the Web speed was more necessary than presentation due to bandwidth constraints. Then came DSL/ADSL at which time graphics, Flash content and other bandwidth hungry ‘things’ blossomed. We now seem to be again going towards speed as Webpage best practice. Of course this cycle will likely turn the corner again when Fibre to the Node becomes widespread.
With speed in mind I decided to optimise my Website. Now as, many of my readers will know, I am a bit of a fan of the
Theory of Constraints (TOC) so here is what I did in relation to the TOC ‘five focusing steps’ (yes, Management Theory is just as relevant to I.T. as any other aspect of business):
1. Identify the Constraint
Firefox with the Firebug and YSlow plugins equals great free Webpage load speed measuring (and recommendation) tools. I started with an overall C grade from YSlow with various recommendations. I decided to concentrate on reducing the number of HTTP requests which in turn would lead to fewer DNS lookups. Not only did my site rate poorly by YSlow in relation to HTTP requests (too many) but is was obvious from accessing the site that it was slow due to fetching data from external Sites.
2. Decide how to exploit the constraint
My Site is run with the mighty WordPress. As far as possible I like to keep WordPress as generic as possible and refrain from too many customizations (I handle customizations through Themes and Plugins). I have amended the CSS of the Theme I use (Hybrid Theme) and performed a few other small tweaks however that’s about it as far as my WordPress customization goes. Fortunately it was very obvious as to how to reduce HTTP requests; turn off WP-Oomph and use fewer images (by eliminating some and combining others).
3. Subordinate all other processes to above decision
This step meant making various changes so that once I performed step 4 below my whole Site wouldn’t collapse. In essence this was about planning and preparing the system for the post-elevation (i.e. step 4) state. For example, I just love that WP-oomph provides an easy means for Website visitors to view and store my h-card information. WP-Oomph was taking forever to load on my Site so was reducing my Website performance in relation to load speed. An alternative to WP-Oomph is to display my v-card information in the Footer of the Site. It’s not as pretty as using WP-Oomph however is way quicker to load.
4. Elevate the constraint
This step was quick and simple. Because in Step 3 I had made the necessary preparation all I needed do in this step was disable the WP-Oomph WordPress Plugin as well as remove the obsolete images.
Continuous Improvement
And now … back to Step 1 and through the process again.
Through following the Theory of Constraints ‘five focusing steps’ I have improved my YSlow rating from a C to an A in less than a day. Thanks Google and thanks Theory of Constraints!
Here are some excellent posts in relation to speeding up your Website:
Related posts
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an art and science combined. SEO basics are well publicised such as the importance of linking, the use of relevant keywords in text and publishing of fresh content. Unfortunately what we know about SEO best practice is a small proportion of what the search engines use to determine the important of a website. Bing, Yahoo, Google and the other Search Engines / Answer Engines use hundreds of factors to determine where to rank websites and pages in organic search results.
Page Load Times and SEO
One factor which isn’t often discussed as an important SEO activity is the loading speed of pages (page load time). The Search Engines, in their SEO guidance, continuously advise that creating content for people is SEO best practice. Page load time in critical in getting people to visit pages other than landing pages of a site as well as getting people to revisit the website. It would therefore no be surprising if Google, Bing and the others use page load time as part of their ranking algorithms.
Tools to identify Speed Enhancement
There are numerous means for improving page load times such as placing applicable JavaScript just before the closing </body> tag (e.g. MyBlogLog and Google Analytics code) and reducing image sizes. Fortunately there are also some great tools to assist with identifying where enhancements to load times may be realised; Recently Google have released a tool, similar to the awesome Yahoo YSlow, called Page Speed.
Page Speed is an Open Source Project and is a Firefox Add-on which works in tandem with the Firebug Add-on. Page Speed analyses various factors on the web page, from the clients’ perspective, and makes suggestions for speed improvements. Both YSlow and Page Speed may be used without financial cost therefore are well worth engaging.
Hello High Performance Pages
People do not stay on websites which are slow to load. Being aware of the need for high performance websites is critical for effective SEO and using tools such as Google Page Speed and Yahoo YSlow will assist with identifying where load speeds may be improved.
Related posts
