Website Speed

Over 50% of all searches are now conducted on mobile devices. So Google wants to make its search results as mobile-friendly as possible.

One factor in creating mobile-friendly websites is responsiveness: ensuring that the website displays properly across different types of mobile device.

But another key factor is website speed. When people do searches on mobile devices, they’re often ‘on the go’. And that means they’re usually not connected to the high-speed internet that we use at home.

And that’s why Google has made page speed a major ranking factor. 

In July 2018, Google announced a major new algorithm update for mobile devices: the Google Speed Update.

If two pages score the same for every other ranking factor but one of them loads faster than the other, Google will rank that page higher in the search results.

Optimizing your website so that it loads faster is a highly technical and complex topic. But there are three things that will do more than anyhting else to sped up your website:

  • choosing a web host that has a fast server-response time
  • using a speed optimization plugin, such as WP Rocket
  • keeping your WordPress plugins to the bare minimum (preferably no ore than 15)

Here are some articles on how to make your website load faster:

Rob Powell

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