Site speed is a criteria in search rankings
Through research data, Google has identified that web page speed is important because it gives user a better search experience. In view of this Google had decided and clearly specified that site speed is taken into account in their search rankings algorithm.
Hence, if you find your website not ranking as high as your competitors, beside contents and backlinks, page loading speed can be one of the contributing factor.
What causes websites to be slow
If your website appear to be slow, these are the possible reasons:
- Large Media Files Are Increasing Loading Times
- Too many plugins or having plugins interfering with the caching of site’s pages
- Poorly-Written Scripts Are Conflicting With Other Site Elements
- Your Site has unused CSS and JavaScript
- Your Site’s Code contains unnecessary character and line breaks
Start working on site speed from the start
Recognising this, when setting up a website, it is important to optimize your site for speed right from the start. As you can see in the lists above, if you are using WordPress to build your website, the theme is a key determining factor to your site speed. Hence, choose WordPress themes not just on aesthetic purpose but also for SEO and page loading factors.
