Google Page Speed: Everything Business Owners Should Know

What is Google Page speed?

When a user asks a question on Google or any other search engine, the engine produces a list of top results that answer the question. The user then clicks on one of these results. Page speed measures the length of time it takes for the content on a web page to load once a user clicks on it.

Page speed can refer to either the time it takes for all of the content to display or when the first byte of information is received. It can also be defined as the measurement of time the browser takes to fully render a web page.

Why is page speed important for businesses?

Having a good page speed is not to be overlooked. Business owners and web developers can benefit in several ways by optimizing business website page speed.

One of the biggest reasons that page speed matters is that people leave a webpage if it takes too long to load.

In our lightning-paced world, websites have mere seconds (or less) to capture a potential customer’s attention. The best way to do this is by quickly displaying the content they’re looking for quickly to ensure a positive user experience.

Search engines display thousands of search results for any given question. The internet is a crowded place with many websites to choose from. So when a page takes too long to load, whether on a mobile site or desktop site, users tend to click right back off of it and onto a different search result, which is called a bounce rate.

You’ve probably experienced this yourself when using Google’s search engine. Say you’re looking up how long you need to cook hard boiled eggs. Google will display thousands of different websites that answer the question. If the page you choose doesn’t load quickly enough, you’ll probably hit the back button without thinking twice. This is exactly what potential customers may do if your page load speed is too slow.

This is detrimental for a couple of reasons. For one, when someone leaves a website, there’s very little chance that they’ll ever return. As a business owner, this is the last thing you want. If people are immediately clicking off of your website because of slow loading speed, you may have lost out on an ideal customer. In the end, lost website visitors could mean you’re missing out on revenue.

Yet, lost opportunity for conversion isn’t the only reason page speed matters for businesses. Your business website’s page speed, and subsequent customer behavior, also impact your Google search ranking and page performance. With that said, page speed should ideally be three seconds or less.

How does page speed impact customer behavior?

We live in a world filled with external stimuli and instant gratification. We have endless amounts of information at our fingertips. This abundance of information and choices results in a need for speed when we’re looking things up online.

This is why your page speed can have such an impact on customer behavior. We’ve all come to expect things to happen quickly — and it’s no wonder in our fast-moving society. None of us want to waste time staring at a web page that isn’t loading.

Because of this, page speed can affect several things, like your website’s performance in search engines. Here are just a few ways page speed impacts your customers and your website.

Traffic

Optimizing your page speed could ultimately bring more eyes to your site. A lower page speed can lead to a better user experience, page ranking, and website traffic. This is because Google ranks websites according to multiple factors, including page speed. So if you have excellent website loading speed along with a great SEO strategy, you can direct more traffic to your website in the long run.

Bounce rate

Your website’s bounce rate is another significant factor in your Google ranking. Bounce rate refers to how many visitors “bounce” from your site, meaning that they open the page but then leave right away.

When users frequently bounce from your site, it tells Google that the website isn’t providing the best answer or user experience to the search query. This is a good reason to make sure you put out clear, high-quality content. However, even if your content is stellar, visitors won’t stay on a site that takes too long to load.

When users leave, your page ends up with a higher bounce rate. Consequently, this can negatively impact your search engine ranking. According to a case study by Portent, websites that load in one second or less have three times higher conversion rates than websites that load in five seconds, proving just how crucial fast page speeds are.

Organic search rankings Organic search rankings and bounce rates are closely tied together. Slower websites tend to be ranked lower on Google and other search engines. In turn, this can lead to less visibility and traffic. Google may put competitors’ advertisements ahead of your own. That’s why it’s vital to optimize your page speed and aim for a high search ranking if you want to stay ahead of the competition.

Revenue

Slow page speed can even affect your bottom line. As we’ve seen, customers who encounter slow page speed may wind up leaving your site, never to return. This could mean you’re losing visitors who could have been turned into customers.

If users don’t get to see what’s on your webpage, they won’t convert. On the flip side, fast pages and a positive user experience have been shown as directly correlated with conversion rates.

Customer Perception

Slower page speeds correlate with a more negative user experience and lower conversion rates. Since your website is such a big part of the first impression you have on people, customers may feel less confident about your brand if your site takes too long to load. Users may perceive your site to be less professional or worthwhile if it doesn’t load right away.

How to obtain a good page speed score on your website

If you want to achieve a strong Google PageSpeed Insights score, there are several strategies you can follow to boost your page speed, including the following:

Optimize for mobile

Desktop computers typically have better processors and a stronger internet connection when compared to mobile devices. Nonetheless, the majority of users will visit a mobile site on their smartphones and tablets. In fact, over half of website traffic occurred on mobile devices in 2021. This means optimizing your mobile web design should also be a high priority.

Unfortunately, web pages can be slower loading on mobile devices over desktops. This is due to factors like mobile carrier data networks. Phones also lack the same processing capabilities. Web pages load and display differently on mobile devices, and that’s why it’s essential to optimize for these devices as well. Ideally, your mobile page speed should be less than one or two seconds and definitely under three, according to Google.

There are several ways to optimize mobile speed. For one, you can try to minimize the number of round trip requests, or RTRs, needed to bring up the page. RTRs are how many elements the server has to get from the page before it can load. When it comes to mobile speed, the fewer RTRs, the better. Additionally, you may be able to optimize non-website assets to improve your mobile SEO.

Clean up the code

You could also work with a web developer to improve page speed by streamlining your code. It’s a good idea to delete any unused code and remove characters and spaces that aren’t needed. Reducing the amount of CSS and JavaScript can help page speed tremendously.

Optimize text and images

Text and images can have a huge impact on your site’s visitors and their thoughts about your brand. Yet, unfortunately, they are also among the main culprits of slow page speeds.

Images can take a lot of bandwidth and a long time to load. It’s important to make sure all of your site’s images are compressed into smaller size files. Of course, when you compress images, you’ll want to make sure images and text still show up clearly while still having a fast load time.

Ultimately, it’s ideal to compress images or files as much as possible without compromising quality. Images can be compressed quite a bit and still display beautifully. Pictures, icons, and illustration files should all be compressed and scaled down as much as possible for the best results.

Large amounts of files can also bog down your website, so it’s worth looking into compressing any type of file.

Embed video content

If you need to include video content on your website, make sure it’s also compressed as much as it can be. Video slows down page speed even more than images do, so you may even consider linking to the video through an outside source, like YouTube, rather than embedding it directly on your site.

Keep redirects to a minimum

Minimizing redirects is another way to improve page speed and website performance. Redirects are important when you have to move content from one page to another. If a URL changes, users may be greeted with an error code if a redirect isn’t set up. A redirect brings the user to a new URL to find the answer to their question.

This is an important feature of good user experience since bounce rates can go up if a user lands on an error page. Still, too many redirects can end up slowing your website down. So while redirects are sometimes necessary, try to keep them to a minimum.

Delete unnecessary themes and plugins

Some plugins are necessary and help your site function better. However, too many plugins can just bog down your site, resulting in slow page speed. You may see improvement in the loading time of pages by simply deactivating or deleting a WordPress plugin you're no longer using, for example.

You should also make sure that your design themes and elements aren’t sucking up bandwidth unnecessarily. Sometimes, a simpler theme is better. Using a website builder such as Mailchimp gives you access to many different themes that you can customize for a clean, appealing design. Mailchimp may help you create a website with rapid speed and responsiveness.

Optimize site security

There are countless malicious bots and software in the digital world. If your website falls victim to a security threat, your page speed can suffer. It’s worth keeping web software updated, using strong passwords, and installing security certificates are a few ways to optimize site security.

For more tips, visit Mailchimp’s web performance resource page for more resources about analyzing and optimizing your website.

Understand Google PageSpeed Insights report

Understand Google PageSpeed Insights report So how can you find out your page speed? Fortunately, Google offers a free tool, PageSpeed Insights (PSI), that can show you exactly where you stand. The tool will give you a report on how your web pages perform, both on desktop and mobile.

To find out your page speed number, simply go to the PageSpeed Insights tool. Then, enter the URL and hit “analyze.”

Once the tool has had a moment to gather and audit the data, it will generate a PSI report. The data shown in the report is color coded either red, yellow, or green. Scores in the green are optimal, yellow means it could be better, and red represents areas where the website performed poorly. The report is divided into field data, lab data, opportunities and diagnostics, and passed data.

The report reveals things like how much time it takes for the first image to load and how much time it takes for the largest image. It tells how long it takes for the browser to respond as well as how much time it takes the site to become interactive once the first image loads.

All of these are useful insights into the user experience of your site. Next, when you scroll down on the PSI tool, you’ll see several recommendations on how to improve the site’s speed under opportunities and diagnostics. The dropdown menus will give you ideas of how to fix any issues found.

Last but not least, the “passed audits” section lets you know the areas where your site performs well, which means no improvements are needed.

Build a beautiful (and fast) website with Mailchimp

As we can see, page speed is imperative for a positive user experience, better search engine rankings, and higher revenue. Page speed is just one piece of the bigger picture. Improving your page speed will ultimately help your business to shine and succeed.

Building a website is a fun, creative process, but also requires a technical side. That’s why Mailchimp is here to support business owners like you and make it easy to build a website you’re proud of. With Mailchimp, you can purchase a domain, build enticing landing pages, and customize a high-performing website for free using our user-friendly website builder.

With Mailchimp, you can make sure that your website follows Google guidelines for mobile-friendliness and mobile-first indexing with features like responsive design. We make it easy to create an effective, search engine ready website using customizable palettes, themes, and layouts.

You don’t need to know code or have a technical background to make an outstanding website for your business with Mailchimp. Explore our platform today to get started.