In this post, I’m going to explain what the google speed test is and why you should seriously consider using it if you want to have a good chance of creating a successful website in the coming year. In fact, any website to be accurate. This is not about how fast is your internet speed, but how well your actual website is performing in the online community.
Why should you take the Google speed test seriously
The reason why I mentioned google is that it’s probably the main search engine that you want to be showing up on for organic search results. In order to be successful online, you need to start taking SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) seriously. Something I didn’t for a long time, partly because I didn’t really understand it, but over time I’ve realised how important it really is too pretty much every website on the planet.
SEO is an ever-changing system, with new rules or parameters being introduced by Google all the time. When Google makes these changes it affects other search results with other search engines such as Bing and Yahoo. So it’s wise to keep up-to-date as much as possible in the world of SEO.
Once you have a good understanding of it, you have the power to potentially change a struggling, average website and make it a popular online authority powerhouse. Remember it takes time to create a successful website or brand online. As the saying goes ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’, so be patient with your website.
What is a Google update
Throughout the year Google makes changes to its algorithm in order to improve user experience and the way it shows search queries on its platform. Google uses an algorithm called Page Rank which assigns a web page a relevancy score which then determines how that page shows up in Google’s search results through the use of relevant keywords.
Google introduces a series of updates throughout the year, some updates you wouldn’t even notice, but a couple of times a year they have significant updates called ‘Core Updates’ which if ignored can have negative affects with your online marketing efforts, website, and business.
Google made over 3000 changes last year, so don’t get stressed over all Google updates, you’ll most certainly end up with a headache. However, the Core updates happen a couple of times a year which are more important and mainly affect the search engine ranking algorithm.
What is a website speed test and why is it important to Google
One of the main changes with Google’s recent update involves website loading times. This is now a factor to consider with effective SEO techniques in order to help your site show up in relevant search results within the major search engines. It’s all about UX (user experience) so slow loading sites will start to be penalised by Google in the search results.
A factor for slow websites is the way you use images. This is something luckily I’ve always been mindful of, but I’ve seen many times people just uploading huge images files and not understanding how to incorporate them with their website.
Consider the file size of an image that is going to be viewed on your website. Its no use having a 1500-pixel wide image being squashed into a 50-pixel wide area of your website. You now have to consider optimizing your images or using some form of image squashing plugin. However, too many plugin’s can slow a site down, so beware of using heavy-duty themes, bursting with all kinds of code to again slow down the loading speed of your pages.
The other thing Google looks at regarding a website’s speed is how it responds and loads on a mobile or tablet device, as a lot of users now solely use this kind of device. I personally still like to have a desktop system, for ease, usability, and security. Something I feel a lot of people tends to overlook, but this may be a post for another time.
How can I test my websites speed
There is a whole range of free tools, so don’t go rushing out to subscribe to paid test sites.
I’ve put together a list of free sites than can test the speed of your site. I have found them to be more than adequate to test your site performance. And they are free!
>> This is a great site, it gives you a lot of information and a free report to download! An example I show below with this site.
>> This offers a performance monitoring system, but it enables you to choose various servers to test around the globe to see your site performance.
https://www.uptrends.com/tools/website-speed-test
>> This offers multiple servers to test from, but what I like about this site is it shows you both mobile and desktop data, including Bandwidth throttling. This is the intentional slowing of your internet speed by an internet service provider, usually without you knowing.
https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/
>> This is Google’s actual ‘Page Speed Insights Page’ A great place to start to get valuable information about your website speed
If you want to create a website with built-in features including ‘page speed insights’ check out my No1 recommendation with a host of added features in one place to help you build a successful website online. I can see exactly how my site or pages are performing and the overall health of my site. The platform I use also has a built-in image crunching plugin which is pre-loaded as standard when you build any new sites. This is another great little feature to help you get the optimum speed from your site.
Tips when creating your website to help increase its page speed for 2020
It’s hard enough creating a lovely aesthetically pleasing website, together with good SEO and quality rich posts. But now having to consider load speeds of your website and how it affects the user experience can be another rather big weight to carry, especially if you are just starting out or have limited knowledge. However, early considerations as you build out your website can make all the difference in the performance and speed of your site.
These are some simple tips to consider when starting or as you build your site
Your Website Theme
There are thousands of themes to choose from, but I would strongly suggest working with a simple lightweight theme. One such theme is Generate Press which I mentioned in another one of my posts, I even included a video overview which you can see here. It’s a highly rated responsive theme built with usability and speed in mind for WordPress.
Number of Plugins
Consider how many ‘plugins’ you are using on your website, as too many can really slow things down. Even unused plugins need to be deactivated and removed so they don’t interfere with any of your site’s code.
Website Images
This is something I’ve always taken into consideration partly due to my print background, good consideration of images can massively improve your website performance. Try not to drop any random image size into an area of your site that constantly needs rescaling.
I recently looked at my own site trying to work out which images could be improved and the results were quite amazing, just by a few simple tweaks and how I used the images for the site. Don’t get me wrong, you need nice imagery, otherwise, your site can look too boring and bare.
Just by making some simple image changes I went from a B (88%) to and A (96%) Crazy!!!!
Reliable Hosting Platform
You might not think this is important. But if your site has constant downtime to bad service providers then this will most certainly start to impact your site. I go into more detail about which hosting providers here.
To conclude with things to remember
Make use of the tips and sites I have suggested and remember you still need to create good quality content, that add value and relevancy for your reader. You could have the fastest loading website but the search engines will still ignore you due to your site’s poor content.
If you want to learn more about creating a brand or learn how to create quality content then look at my No1 Recommendation about building a business online.