Page Speed
How quickly your pages load. A confirmed ranking factor. Every extra second of load time costs you visitors, conversions, and positions. Measure with PageSpeed Insights and real user data.
Why It Matters
Page speed has been a Google ranking factor since 2010 for desktop and 2018 for mobile. It's now measured through Core Web Vitals, with LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) being the primary loading speed metric.
Beyond rankings, speed directly affects user behaviour. Studies consistently show that every additional second of load time increases bounce rate significantly. For e-commerce, even a 100ms improvement in load time can increase conversion rates. Speed isn't just an SEO metric - it's a business metric.
In Practice
Measure with PageSpeed Insights (lab data) and Chrome User Experience Report (real user data). The real user data is what Google uses for rankings.
The most impactful speed fixes: compress and properly size images (this alone fixes most slow sites), use modern image formats (WebP/AVIF), implement lazy loading for below-the-fold images, minify CSS and JavaScript, use a CDN, and reduce third-party scripts.
Prioritise by page importance. Your homepage, top landing pages, and money pages should be fast first. A slow "About" page matters less than a slow product page.
Related Terms
Glossary
Core Web Vitals
Google's page experience metrics - loading speed, visual stability, and interactivity.
Glossary
Above the Fold
The visible part of a web page before scrolling - where first impressions happen.
Glossary
Bounce Rate
Percentage of visitors who leave after viewing just one page on your site.
Glossary
Technical SEO
Optimising your site's infrastructure so search engines can crawl, render, and index it.
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