Slow and steady wins the race, right?
Wrong. In the wonderful world of websites, slow and steady gets crushed into oblivion and stomped into the ground by its fellow competitors as they race their way past.
No one likes waiting for a page to load, and with so many alternative options just a click away, a slow website could be costing you thousands of pounds in lost business.
If your website’s performance is slow, you are immediately at a disadvantage as customers are frustrated before they have even laid eyes on your page itself. Not exactly the ideal first impression!
Even worse, Google agrees with your customers and won’t be happy if your website is performing below their speedy expectations. Page speed is a direct factor in determining Google rankings, and slow sites are unlikely to appear at the top of the search results.
Is it fair that Google judges businesses on their speed rather than the quality of their services and products? Maybe not, but that is the reality, and here at Soapbox, we specialize in helping great local businesses get the exposure and visibility they deserve online.
All our websites are built to be as fast and streamlined as possible, minimizing heavy code and maximizing site performance, without ever compromising on interactive features or stunning aesthetics.
For a FREE web design consultation, contact us now on 0141 429 1356.
How to Check Your Website Speed?
Checking website speed is remarkably simple. There are a range of online testing tools available, but our favourite is PageSpeed Insights, an aptly named website speed test built by Google themselves.
Simply enter the URL of your website’s homepage, and you will receive a score out of 100 ranking your page’s load speed, alongside a number of web performance metrics telling you exactly where the problems lie. These test results are invaluable in identifying areas for improvement.
These include website performance factors such as the loading speed of the largest contentful paint on your page (usually a hero image) and the time to first byte.
Many aspects of SEO are a game of cat and mouse at times, with businesses and digital marketing agencies trying to figure out exactly what Google is looking for when choosing who to rank on their SERPs.
Luckily, page speed is not one of these aspects.
Google tells website owners EXACTLY what they are looking for when you test your website speed and even gives you a checklist of things to do to improve your site’s performance, including tips like minimizing JavaScript and prioritizing LCP images.
Some of these are easy fixes, and we do provide site speed optimization services for existing businesses looking for a bit of a boost. Others, however, can only be achieved through a complete website redesign or a new hosting package.
Either way, Soapbox Digital Media is the only company you will ever need to call.
Other free website speed test tools you can use to measure page performance include:
Does Website Speed Affect My Website Rankings?
Absolutely! A slow website makes the visitor experience significantly worse and makes a quick exit from your site all the more likely.
This leads to a high bounce rate and short time spent on page, both things that set alarm bells ringing at Google HQ.
Google wants to provide its users with the best possible experience, and if you can’t provide that, they aren’t going to reward you with top spot any time soon.
The core web vitals that are the foundation of Google PageSpeed Insights are explicitly named as key factors in Google’s page experience ranking signals.
Many digital marketing agencies bang on and on about keywords, backlinks, and other complex SEO terms, but completely overlook one of the most important ranking factors for a modern website: a page’s performance testing and performance monitoring.
If your website’s performance is far slower than the competition, Google is extremely unlikely to put it at the top of their search rankings, and no matter how well optimized your content is for SEO purposes, you will never be able to fulfill your potential online.
In fact, there is evidence that in a world flooded with AI content, factors like page speed and accessibility are now more important than ever, as Google looks for alternative ways to analyze website quality.
So, why do so many SEO agencies overlook this key ranking factor? Well, because fixing the issue requires a bit more time and expertise to optimize than changing a few heading tags or chucking in a few keywords to a monthly blog.
Imagine your website is running in the Grand National and traditional SEO is the jockey. Sure, it makes a huge difference to your chances of winning the race, but it’s the horse beneath that matters the most.
Improve Website Speed with Rapid Websites from Soapbox Digital
Unlike most SEO agencies, we don’t just market websites, we build them as well, with a team of expert Glasgow web designers who specialize in building sites that are as fast as they are fabulous.
One of the biggest reasons we are able to achieve such exceptional results for many of our digital marketing clients is that we are marketing websites that have been set up for success in the first place!
If you choose Soapbox for your new website, we can guarantee significant improvements in your website’s loading times, dramatically improving the user experience and making the journey from browser to inquiry to sale faster than ever before.
Whilst the biggest page load improvements will always be seen in sites we build ourselves, we can also make noticeable differences to most existing websites if you are happy with the design and are simply looking for a bit of a boost.
For more information or to arrange a completely FREE website speed consultation, contact Soapbox Digital Media today on 0141 429 1356.
