PageSpeed is an important factor in organic page rank so it’s essential to make sure your WordPress site is loading fast when optimizing for SEO. Research from Google shows that bounce rate jumps up by more than 30% if a page takes longer to load. Slow load times lead to unsatisfied users which will make it much less likely for a page to get a high rank in search engine results pages.
You can check the Google PageSpeed score for a site by going to the PageSpeed Insights tool and scanning your site’s url. The scan will return a score along with a diagnosis of performance issues so you know which site components to prioritize when making changes to improve load times.
Improving WordPress Site PageSpeed
Steps to improve PageSpeed on a WordPress site can be complicated. Very few sites are able to ever get a 100 Google PageSpeed Score so here’s a few tips for getting load times down to help improve organic page rankings.
Adequate Server Resources
A WordPress site consists of files connected to a database that are used for pages, posts and other custom content types. All the pieces work together and are served to people visiting your site from a piece of hardware known as a server. The technology that makes a server work is often referred to as server resources and it’s a good idea to make sure the server your site is running on has adequate resources for the traffic you expect.
Certain functions can bog a server down, especially when they’re being run simultaneously, so it’s essential to make sure your server has the CPU, Storage Space, and RAM needed to load quickly.
Load WordPress Over a Content Delivery Network
A content delivery network (CDN) is a network of machines that store your WordPress site in multiple locations across the world so visitors can load it from the location closest to them. The multiple servers work together to load content as quickly as possible. CDNs, such as CloudFlare, have grown in popularity and the majority of web traffic is consumed through a CDN today.
DNS settings for your domain will need to be updated so the name servers point to a CDN to serve site from multiple servers placed around the globe.
Use Lightweight WordPress Theme
WordPress has changed a lot since it was first released and added a number of widgets/features that can make a site look great. Improving site speed has also been a priority for the core updates but using too many new features can often slow a site down and drain server resources.
Running your site on a lightweight theme like GeneratePress or one of the WordPress default themes is one of the best ways to make sure your WordPress site loads fast.
Compress Images
Saving images at an appropriate size for the location they will be displayed is a good way to keep page size down and avoid slow load times. Implementing a tool like the Performance Lab plugin from the WordPress Development Team can also be used to convert jpg and png images to the webp format which will help improve page speed.
Audit WordPress Plugins
One reason WordPress is such a popular platform is the variety of plugins available to add custom functionality to your site. Having too many plugins activated, however, can bog down server resources and cause problems with page speed. It’s a good idea to audit the plugins that are being used on a WordPress site and deactivate any you determine are unnecessary to make sure plugin conflicts aren’t causing any problems.
Importance of PageSpeed
Once you have gone through the steps to improve page speed your WordPress site will be easier to use for both visitors and search engine crawlers. Google uses PageSpeed as a direct ranking factor so it’s a critical component of an organic SEO strategy that shouldn’t be forgotten.