A Review of Google’s Mission to Speed Up the Web
In 2009, Google set an ambitious goal to “speed up the web” and encouraged website owners to optimize their resources to increase page loading speed.
In 2010, it was announced that loading speed would become the most important parameter in desktop search engine ranking algorithms. This means that sites with fast loading times will have an advantage in SEO.
Six years later, in 2015, Google reported that the number of searches made on mobile devices had surpassed the number of searches made on desktop devices, and this trend continues to grow. According to the latest data, 61% of Google searches in 2019 came from mobile devices.
This dominance of mobile search has led to the launch of the Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project, which aims to encourage site owners to create lightweight versions of their pages that meet strict performance standards.
Comparing Responsive and AMP Themes for Mobile
Many webmasters and SEOs have expressed dissatisfaction with the need to consider page loading speed and AMP among more than 200 ranking factors. However, speed remains one of the most critical aspects. In 2017, Google conducted a study that confirmed their commitment to improving web page speed: “When page load time increases from 1 to 10 seconds, the likelihood of a user abandoning a mobile site increases by 123%.”
In July 2018, page speed was officially introduced as a ranking factor for mobile search, and since then, Google has been adding more metrics related to this aspect, such as Core Web Vitals.
With users’ attention spans decreasing and their reliance on mobile devices growing, page speed remains critical for site owners.
How to Improve Your Website’s Loading Speed
Think Like a Racer
Winning the page speed race is like winning a car race: your site needs to be lightweight, powerful, and manageable.
Comparing your site to a race car can help simplify speed optimization techniques.
Keep it Light
Modern websites are becoming more beautiful and functional, which, unfortunately, leads to their weight increasing. Many of them are like limousines or party buses, overloaded with unnecessary features that make them slow. On the “race track” of the Internet, such a site will not succeed.
To participate in the race for speed, you need a “race car”. Race cars do not have unnecessary elements like radios or cup holders. Likewise, your site should not be overloaded with complex animations, heavy images, and unnecessary plugins.
To reduce the weight of your site, consider:
Reducing the number of third-party scripts.
Choosing a lighter theme with minimal fonts.
Implementing AMP.
Optimizing images.
Compressing and minifying code.
Optimizing your database regularly.
Content management systems like WordPress offer optimization plugins like WP Rocket and Imagify that can help reduce the weight of your site.
Add Power
You wouldn’t put a golf cart engine in a race car, so why host your website on a cheap host? While the extra cost of quality hosting may not seem worth it, it’s necessary to keep your website running successfully.
Traditional shared hosting plans can host many sites on a single server, which can leave your project under-resourced. If you’re serious about achieving something, consider upgrading to a better host, such as a managed WordPress host like WP Engine or Flywheel.
If managed hosting isn’t an option, consider a VPS (Virtual Private Server) plan for more processing power and control over your hosting environment.
Efficient Management
A lightweight, powerful race car can’t run without an experienced driver. This also applies to loading web pages. Every element of your site is a turn that the browser must “take.”
When loading a web page, the browser goes through a process of “coloring” the data. Optimizing this process can significantly increase page loading speed. For example, caching allows you to pre-compile code, which reduces latency.
Various types and levels of caching can be implemented using plugins and CDNs (content delivery networks), which not only cache data, but also distribute it across servers around the world, which helps minimize loading times.
Optimizing for Core Web Vitals
Optimizing for the new Core Web Vitals (Maximum Content Rendering, First Input Delay, and Cumulative Layout Drift) significantly increases page loading speed.
In Conclusion
Optimizing page loading speed is a difficult task, but it is vital to achieving high search engine rankings. As a website owner, you are in this race, so try to make your website a real race car, not a golf cart!
