After the launch of several stringent policies by search engine algorithms, website owners are facing a hard time in ranking their websites. There can be many reasons for the cause. But one of the major reasons is the page speed score. This is where we guide you everything about what is page speed score in SEO and how it matters for your website.
When we talk about the Google search engine, since they rolled the update to improvise their algorithm, web page speed score is one of the major factors in terms of ranking a website. This has been a standardized norm recently. They have even launched core web vitals to analyze and assess your page speed performance.
The other search engines are also following the same practice. They have even included page speed as one of the ranking factors.
The main motive of using this factor is to make the audience access content easier. As no one likes to read content from a slow-loading website. This is the reason search engines have made it mandatory for websites to optimize it so that it loads quicker.
Page Contents
What is page speed?
Page speed is known as the total time taken for a web page to load. Basically, it is calculated based on the time taken for a page of a website to load all the content. This can be the text-based content and the media that you have used on the web page. It also calculates whether you have integrated any animations through CSS or JavaScript. All the factors are constituted together to define the metric for page speed.
The page speed is calculated based on various browsers and devices. You can also find tools to test the page performance based on a browser or a specific device like a brand of mobile phone. This data is crucial for a search engine to understand which website loads faster on what device and the browser. Accordingly, the search engine ranks your website based on the search query performed by the end-user.
What is the page speed score?
There are various tools that analyze web page performance and the metric has been derived in page speed score. Usually, every tool has its uniqueness in determining the page speed score. But if you look at the Google page speed insights, they have a metric that helps in analyzing the website performance from 0 to 100. If we look at the GTmetrix web page performance, it is derived in the grades and percentage.
What is page speed in SEO?
As I mentioned earlier, the page speed is one of the major ranking factors for your website. Since the update by Google and other search engines, your website has to be optimized for better performance. This is the reason SEO professionals work on analyzing the website and checking which are the areas that the page can be optimized. The report is then passed over to the developer so that they can optimize it and help the website load faster.
Which are the parameters that the page speed is evaluated on?
Depending upon the search engine and the type of tool that is used to check the page speed, the parameters are different. Let’s consider the popular choice which is Core web vitals from the Google search engine.
Since the update of Core web vitals by Google, below are the following metrics that are used to determine the page speed score.
First Contentful Paint (FCP):
This metric is used to derive the first resource that is getting loaded from a web page. It can be the animation or the content. You will understand which is the first part of your website that is getting loaded in how many seconds. And the time is also calculated which allows you to understand the performance.
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP):
This metric is used to determine which is the last section of your web page that is getting loaded. It can be the end part of your web page pop up or it can be the other banners that you have integrated. The Core web vital analysis what is the difference time between the FCP and LCP.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS):
The score is based on how your web pages provide the user experience. The core web vital analysis of whether there is any transition between the user’s interaction with your web page. Basically, after every few seconds sometimes the web page animations get changed. This is the reason the CLS checks whether there is any such practice.
Now let us look at the other metrics which are used by page speed checking tools.
TTFB:
This is also known as the time to the first byte. This is the total time taken by the web page to initiate the first section of your website to the end-user.
TTI:
It is also known as the time to interact. The score is basically calculated by page speed tools in determining the time taken for a web page to get interactive for the audience.
Fully load time:
As the name itself suggests. The tools check the total time taken for your web page to get fully loaded.
What is the difference between page speed and website speed?
Many users assume that the terms page speed and website speed are the same. But in general, both the terms have their own uniqueness.
Page speed is one of the single web pages of a website that is used to calculate the performance. Whereas the website speed is the total average of all the web pages that are used in the calculation. Sometimes in the website speed, only the homepage is used to calculate the total load time.
But when it comes to the ranking of your website, the ideal practice followed by SEO professionals is to rank the web pages more than the home page. As they can devise the content strategy through the landing page and can target the end-users respectively. It helps them to rank the page better organically and get better results.
For example: If your business provides any solution for construction services. You can rank the construction services page rather than the home page. Let the homepage have all the graphics and animations that help in conversion, but the services page needs to have minimal graphics so that it loads faster.
Why page speed is important and how does it matter to your website?
It’s not just that page speed is the only important metric for a search engine, it matters for the audience who accesses your website as well. Here are some of the major factors for why page speed matters.
Ranking your web pages
As you all are aware that the time and investment consumed for SEO activities, it is crucial that you should not sideline the page speed metric. The page speed score is one of the major ranking factors that is being openly suggested by search engine crawlers. You should look forward to optimizing it as per the standard norms.
Helps your audience to access content faster
When you acquire the user from search engines organically, the first thing that they would be noticing is the accessibility of your content. If your website is loading faster, then they can easily get the content that they came to your website to learn about.
Loads faster on the mobile devices
If the user is using a data network on their mobile phone, you know that it takes loads of time for the website to load compared to desktop devices connected through WiFi. There are many instances where you can see the traffic source from mobile devices more than the desktop device. It has also been a crucial factor even when the search engine crawler released a mobile-first algorithm update. This is the reason that the web page speed performance should be optimized for mobile devices as well.
Develops better User experience
The User experience is one of the major factors that the search engine crawlers are considering. Because when they find that the content is easily accessible and loads faster, this helps the user to navigate the content. The search engine algorithm has also included the user experience in their ranking factor.
It can be the font colours, size, and type of style that you have implemented on the web page. The page experience calculates all these visual element factors and constitutes a ranking signal. As it is used to determine how the browsing experience was created for the end-user in accessing the content.
Receive more organic traffic
When your web page has been optimized to all the standard rules, then you can easily notice a huge spike in organic traffic. You can also see that the average keyword ranking position will also improve. It is one of the major factors when it comes to outranking your competitors from the search engine.
Does a web page need a perfect score for page speed performance?
It is not mandatory that your web page should secure the complete score. Whether it is 100 by 100 from Google page speed insights or A+ derived by GTMetrix. The main focus that you need to implement is faster load time and optimized user experience.
When you analyze the page speed performance, there are several recommendations provided by the page speed insight tools. Based on that, you need to implement it and optimize it. Even if you are securing more than 70% on mobile devices and B+ grade is also fine.
Ideally, you need to target a web page to load in under 3 seconds. This is the benchmark in terms of load time. It also helps the web pages to get indexed faster through search engine crawlers.
Consider the factor of optimizing your website user experience by checking the design elements and the navigation content flow. By accomplishing these factors with an average page speed score is enough for the search engine to determine the quality.