We all rely on the internet daily. We check our Facebook news feed, send out Tweets, or maybe do a little virtual “career networking” on LinkedIn. This is done very efficiently and with great speed (assuming you’re not in ancient times, running a dial-up connection for Internet access). Let’s face it – if you needed to wait more than 5 seconds for a photo on Facebook to load, you likely would not return to Facebook the next day (or for some, on their next coffee break). We all have the need for speed. Even search engines like speed – the speed in which your site is delivered from the web server to your screen or mobile device. Facebook knows that and has the appropriate code and back-end hosting infrastructure to ensure that their website is served quickly and thus, dominate the search rankings. Do a quick Google search of your first and last name – you will likely see your Facebook profile page as a link on Page 1 of your returned results.
You too can improve your search rankings by ensuring your website loads fast and efficiently. As discussed above, it certainly is a factor (one of many) that Google and other search engines use to differentiate you from the competition.
Visit http://www.webpagetest.org/ and enter your website address. Click “Start Test” and within a minute or so, you will be presented with a very interesting report with a lot of statistics regarding your website’s loading performance. You may find that your website scores a poor grade in terms of how it loads. Contact me if you are interested in a complete analysis of your website and what I can do to improve your businesses’ website search engine rankings.
