Pagespeed
What is the pagespeed?
Pagespeed refers to the loading time of the website.
More precisely: the time interval between sending the request (URL input + Enter) and the complete delivery of the entire content of a web page from the server.
The loading time is divided into different sections that are measured separately.
Note: The mobile version is always measured separately.
These sections are called Core Web Vitals, a metric developed by Google.
For example, one of these segments is the amount of time it takes for the server to be able to display initial content. This is called First Contentful Paint FCP.
Other sections of the Core Web Vital include:
Largest Contentful Paint LCP
The amount of time it takes the web page to display the complete content. It is considered the most important tool of pagespeed.
First Input Delay FID
The time period that the server needs until the user can interact with the website for the first time. This is about the time when the content can be scrolled, clicked, forms can be used etc.
Cumulative Layout Shift CLS
The CLS is the amount of time the server needs to display the content without interference, i.e. without position jumps or "jerking" of the content.
What is the importance of pagespeed for search engine optimization (SEO)?
According to Google, pagespeed is an important ranking factor in search engine optimization. The search engines attach great importance to fast loading content. The faster the page loads, the better the user experience.
Here it should be said that a very slow page can also lead to ranking losses.
What measures must be taken to optimize the pagespeed of a website for the search engines?
Optimize images
Sounds banal, and it is: too large images massively inhibit the loading speed, especially if you have a high number of images in the website. Here it is necessary to reduce the size of images, to specify a height and width via CSS and to compress image files without loss of quality if possible.
The image file and alt tag should also contain a keyword.
Optimize HTML, CSS and Javascript
Compression of HTML, CSS and Javascript files can also influence the pagespeed. Superfluous code snippets such as non-functional markups and comments, spaces and unneeded Javascript should be removed. Also the bundling of CSS files improves the loading time of a page.
Minimization of HTTP requests
When a web page is called up, a separate HTTP request (request to the server) is created for each HTML, CSS and Javascript file. The more HTTP requests a server has to process, the longer the loading time of the content. The HTTP requests have a significant share in the pagespeed. Here, as mentioned above, the minification of these files applies.
Redirects
Although redirects are often unavoidable, too many redirects can slow down speed because a separate HTTP request must be created for each redirect.
Content Delivery Networks CDN
A CDN is a network of servers used to distribute the content of a website. In this system, copies of web pages are created, which are then distributed to geographically different servers.
These copies are used when the requestor is in the appropriate geographic location. In this way, the HTTP requests are distributed among different servers, which means that no longer is just one server responsible for the requests. The response is distributed across different shoulders, so to speak.
Caching
With caching, also called browser caching, content that does not change in a website is stored in the browser of the user's own computer. This includes, for example, the source code of CSS and Javascript files or media elements such as images or videos. This means that they do not have to be reloaded the next time the user visits the site.
However, browser caching has an expiration date and must be completely recreated after a certain time.
Some tools for measuring pagespeed:
- Google Pagespeed Insights (Free)
- GT Metrix (Free of charge)
- Pingdom.com (Free)
- Webpagetest.org (Free of charge)
- Sistrix Pagespeed Tool (Free)
On this subject we can offer you as SEO Agency in Munich would be happy to help.
