Google rewards websites boasting a good page speed with higher rankings in the organic search results, because it knows that these websites provide a good user experience. Speeding up your website loading time can therefore not only make for a better experience for your users, but it can also help improve your SEO performance.
If your site is loading slowly, large image files may be partly to blame. We primarily recommend two tools:
- Adobe Photoshop CC – this will allow you to compress your images while maintaining quality before uploading them.
- WP Smush Pro – if you use WordPress as your CMS you can bulk compress all of the images across your website including images that have been uploaded to different directories.
There are also several free tools available on the internet that allow you to compress your images before adding them to your website to increase page speed. Compress large images using your favourite free online image optimisation tool and replace the old image files on your website with the new, optimised ones. Doing this can dramatically improve your website’s loading time.
Page Speed: The Importance of Customer Experience
Page speed plays an integral part in your customer’s experience on your website. If they encounter a website loading with the speed of a turtle, they are far more likely to exit your page and start looking elsewhere, thereby increasing your bounce rate.
Google keeps an eye on your page’s bounce rate as a way of inferring whether users are enjoying their encounters with your website. The lower the bounce rate, the better Google interprets the page experience, and the higher your ranking goes. Page speed is not the only factor, but it is a significant contributor so make sure not to let it fall by the wayside!
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