Anybody that used the Internet in the late 1990s remembers how slowly websites used to load. When you tried to access the website through a DLS connection, it would often take 5 to 15 minutes before the content was finally displayed. Websites, fortunately, load much more quickly these days, but there is a catch for web developers.
Faster loading websites have given customers higher expectations. They are not very forgiving of websites that take too long to load, so you need to optimize them for speed. Here are a few of the biggest reasons that you need to optimize your website for speed
Slow loading websites have a high bounce right
If you can’t give customers a website that loads quickly, then they are going to bail on you pretty quickly. One survey found that 53% of all mobile visitors will leave a website that takes more than three seconds to load.
Since mobile users now account for over half of all Internet traffic, this is something that you can’t ignore. Of course, desktop users aren’t going to be much more patient. The majority of all website visitors will not stick around for more than 15 seconds, so you will need to make sure the site loads quickly to have any hope of engaging them.
Slow loading websites don’t rank as well on google
A lot of factors come into play in SEO. Too many website owners invest all of their efforts in building links and tweaking their content. This is a mistake. According to Matt Cutts, the former Head of Web Spam at Google, there are over 200 major ranking factors that you need to account for and speed is one of them.
Slow-loading websites might be doubly penalized by Google. Google recognizes that slow-loading websites have a poor user experience and the search engine seems to downgrade them in the SERPs the moment that it first starts crawling them. On top of that, Google is believed to use user engagement metrics such as your bounce rate and the time on site to assign SERP rankings.
How much will your website speed affect your SEO? It might not be one of the most important factors, but it is not insignificant. One study from SEOMoz shows that around 1% of all websites suffer poor rankings due to slow loading times. However, this figure understates the problem with websites that are not well optimized. The majority of website operators recognize the importance of using reliable CMS and hosting solutions. The chance of getting penalized in the search results will skyrocket if you are using an unreliable free hosting platform or didn’t choose the right CMS.
A slow-loading website will hurt your brand perception
Having a slow-loading website isn’t just going to annoy your visitors. It is also going to hurt your brand reputation.
People don’t just get frustrated when your site doesn’t load quickly. They are probably going to tell their friends and colleagues that your website isn’t reliable. Other people they know won’t plan on visiting your website after the word gets out. They will probably also assume that you didn’t put much effort into creating high-quality products and services, since it appears you fail to pay attention to detail with your website.
How can you make sure your website loads quickly?
There are clearly serious consequences for operating a website that doesn’t load quickly. The good news is that there are a number of things that you can do to optimize it for faster loading times:
- Removing unnecessary visual elements that increase the need for HTTP requests
- Upgrading to a higher-tier hosting package or moving to a more dependable hosting provider
- Using a better CMS
- Getting rid of cumbersome JavaScript code on your webpages
There are a number of things that you can do to improve the performance of your website and make sure that it loads more quickly. It is important to regularly test the speed of your site to see if it is necessary to make further improvements. Using tools like Pingdom can help you see if your site is loading quickly. You can also get feedback on any issues that could be hurting your site loading time.
What is SEO? What Are Some Good Resources on It?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing your website or other digital properties to maximize the ROI of organic search traffic. Marketers prioritize search engine traffic over social media and other types of referral traffic in, because the conversion rates are 60% higher.
What Factors Affect SEO?
Although SEO is very important, it is not easy. There are a lot of factors that go into optimizing digital properties for organic search. Here are some of the variables that come into play.
Inbound links
Google analyzes the inbound link profile of every website to determine its authority. The search engine bots will look at both the quantity and quality of the links going to both the homepage and other pages across the website.
Keyword research
Finding the right keywords is an essential part of SEO that doesn’t get nearly enough attention. You can have a masterfully crafted SEO strategy in every other way, but if you chose the wrong keywords then it won’t matter. Too many marketers focus on choosing the highest volume keywords, without any regard for whether they have a chance to compete for them or if they will add any value to their conversion goals.
There are several things that you need to consider when choosing keyboards for your website:
- Monthly search volume. We mentioned above that the monthly search volume gets too much focus, but that doesn’t mean that it is not still important. You need to make sure that you are choosing keywords that have enough monthly searches to be worth the investment.
- Relevance. Your keywords need to be relevant to the niche of your website and your conversion goal.
- Likelihood of converting. Some keywords indicate a higher buyer intent of than others. You should prioritize these keywords because they will generally have higher conversion rates.
- Competitiveness. Before choosing to focus on any keyboard, it is a good idea to look at the competition for it. You will need to see what other websites are ranking on the front page of Google.
Finding the right keywords is going to take time. Remember that this is an important part of the process if you want to attract high-quality, converting traffic.
Quality of your content
Ten years ago, there were a lot of websites were ranked well with low-quality content. These included sites like Suite101, ArticlesBase, and how.
Many of these websites are now defunct. The remaining sites have lost a massive amount of traffic they used to attract. This is largely due to the Google Panda algorithm, which was released in 2011.
This update was meant to reward websites that published high-quality content over those that filled content with spammy-looking keywords in their copy. This means that you will need to have high-quality content if you want to rank well when Google these days.
Website navigation
It is important to make sure that your website is easy to navigate for a couple of reasons. First, if your site is easily navigable, then search engines will have an easier time crawling it. Also, your engagement metrics will also be better. This is important because Google uses user engagement to determine how well our website should rank.
How Do You Learn More About SEO?
SEO is a complicated art and an elusive science. Unlike many other professions, the rules of SEO are changing every single day. If you bought a book on SEO a few months ago, then you might as well throw it in your trash bin. It is already obsolete.
So, how do you learn more about SEO if it is constantly changing? You should consider looking into some of the most trusted blogs on the topic. They regularly publish new information on the latest SEO practices, which will help you learn more about the best practices. Here are some of the leading SEO blogs:
- Search Engine Journal
- SEO by the Sea
- Neil Patel
- Backlinko
- Search Engine Land
There are a ton of resources on these sites worth looking into. Make sure that you read them thoroughly before starting your SEO campaigns.
A beginner’s guide to web hosting services
Are you ready to set up your first website? There are a number of tasks that you will need to complete. One of the first steps is finding a reliable web hosting service.
Many online entrepreneurs choose to host packages that are not appropriate for their needs. They make this mistake because they aren’t very knowledgeable about the technical aspects of hosting services. You should do your research before signing a contract with any hosting provider. You will have an easier time finding the right plan if you have a strong foundational knowledge of the technology behind these services.
Here are some important concepts that you need to understand when you are looking for a hosting service.
Web hosting solutions are predicated on DNS resolutions
All web hosting services depend on the use of DNS queries. They work by pairing a host client and server client. The host client makes an HTTP request to access cached content. In order to do this, it transmits a DNS query. The query messages include:
- The name of the domain (identified as an FQDN)
- The type of query request
- The class that is specified for the DNS domain name in question
There are a couple of ways that these requests can be resolved. The most common type of DNS query resolution involves the server using cached resources from its own data sets to process the request. It can also make these requests indirectly by sending queries to other servers instead and having the request sent back to the original DNS client.
Make sure you understand the difference between a web host and a web registrar
Many people mistake web hosting services with web registrars. A web registrar (often called a domain name registrar) is a service that you use when you want to reserve a domain name for your future website. A web hosting service, on the other hand, is a service for hosting website content. Your future website will be stored on your web hosting account.
Most web hosting companies also offer domain name registrar services. However, registrars don’t always provide web hosting to their customers.
It is possible to use one company to register your domain name and a different one to host your site afterwards. However, it is often a lot more convenient to use the same service for both.
What factors do you need to consider when looking for a web hosting service?
There are a number of variables that go into choosing a web hosting service. Here are some of the variables to look at.
Storage Space
You need to make sure that your hosting plan has enough storage space for your growing website. Storage requirements are going to increase as your site grows. The amount of web storage space that you need will obviously depend on the size of your future site. If you are running a website for a local business, then you may not need a lot of content. You may just need a few sales pages, a home page, and a contact page.
This means that one of the hosting plans with a smaller storage capacity will work fine. On the other hand, you will need more storage capacity if you are planning on starting a blog that will produce content indefinitely.
Bandwidth
Too many first-time website owners mistake storage space for bandwidth. Bandwidth is the rate at that your hosting provider can transfer data from your site to customers. You will need a high bandwidth if you plan to support large amounts of traffic.
Price
Prices of web hosting services vary. Some of the cheapest services are less than $2 a month, while others are over $30. However, the quality of services tends to be correlated with price, so don’t focus too much on it.
Email Support
You will want a vanity email address if you want to look professional when contacting customers. Having a hosting provider that offers email support makes this easier.
Technical Support
Technical support is another important factor to look at. You may encounter a number of challenges with your hosting service in the future. A good technical support service can help you navigate them.
