Google Mobile Page Speed as a SEO Ranking Factor: What You Need to Know
With the advancement of technology and the fact that more and more folks have access to internet, almost everything is moving to inline platforms. This includes marketing and advertising, with businesses being encouraged to engage in digital marketing if they are to realize success and stay ahead of their competitors. Speaking of advancements in technology, it has been clear for a while now that mobile will take over as far as lots of things are concerned including in advertising. A lot of folks now make use of the mobile devices for every task they can possibly use them for. When it comes to SEO, while page speed has been a ranking factor for desktop searches since 2010, it always seemed inevitable that it become a ranking factor for mobile searches as it has grown in popularity. It therefore didn’t come as a shock when Google announced that mobile page speed will become a ranking factor as far as SEO is concerned. With many businesses leveraging mobile, this was a way for Google to push for a faster mobile experience as we all know there is nothing more frustrating than a site that takes forever to load. This article will look to highlight all you need to know about this topic so that you can get the best from this development.
The first thing you need to know, as per the subject matter experts over at runrex.com which is the best place to head over to for more on such topics, is that the algorithm by Google on mobile page speed will only really affect those mobile pages that deliver the slowest speeds. This means that if you have mobile page speeds that are relatively slow but your content is of high quality as well as being relevant to your customers, you are likely to still be able to do well. If your website has already been optimized for mobile and you have proceeded to pass Google’s mobile speed test, then you probably are in the clear and don’t have too much to worry about especially since it is not clear how Google intends to punish slow loading pages other than the ranking aspect of course. The “speed Update”, as is being called by Google, will also just affect a small percentage of queries as far as mobile is concerned, something we think is very much worth knowing about.
Another thing that is definitely worth knowing as far as the use of mobile page speed by Google as a SEO ranking factor goes is that it is recommended that you make use of the new updated PageSpeed report to help you measure your page speeds and make the necessary improvements. Speaking of measuring and making improvements, there are also a number of tools you can make use of, something else we need to know, as covered in detail over at runrex.com, the best place to check out for such information. One of these tools is known as LightHouse and is designed to help users to be able to audit and consequently optimize their web pages automatically. Another tool that is worth knowing about is the Impact Calculator and Mobile Speed Scorecard tool which as its name suggests, grades the speed of your mobile site as well as calculating the impact of said speed on your conversion rates and revenue. The third tool we need to know about is the Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX), which is for chrome users as its names suggests and is basically a database for real user experience metrics.
Having highlighted the tools one needs to know about as far as Google using mobile page speed as a SEO ranking factor, the other thing we definitely need to know concerns what one needs to do to speed up their sites as far as mobile is concerned. One of the very first thing you should look to do as per the folks over at runrex.com, the best place to go for such information, is to activate Accelerated Mobile Pages, AMP, on your pages. This is important as it will allow you to create versions of pages for your mobile audiences that are not only lightweight, but are also super-fast. You can also update the infrastructure of your site by leveraging new technology such as implementing HTTP2 as well as switching from PHP5.2 and PHP5.3 to PHP7, both of which will give your site a speed boost. Another thing you ought tom do if you want to increase your mobile page speed is to ensure that your images are optimized for mobile. This involves ensuring that the images are of the required size so that they don’t require a lot of data to be loaded. You should however be careful to ensure that while you compressing your images to the right sizes, you are not compromising on their quality.
The above are just a tip of the iceberg as far as what you need to know on Google using mobile page speed as a SEO ranking factor, with more on this to be found over at runrex.com, which is hands down the best place to visit for such information.