Whenever Google unveils plans to tweak their search engine algorithm, it tends to make marketing managers a little nervous. After all, a great deal of time and money has been spent to get their site to where it is today, and the idea that their ranking status could be “nerfed” — for lack of a better term — is a sobering one.
It’s important to remember that these changes aren’t something new — it’s widely known that Google is continuously looking for ways to improve the user experience and to deliver the best, relevant content first. So before you send out a team email with the subject line, “Code Red”, “All Hands on Deck”, or some other delightful colloquialism, dig a little deeper and find out exactly how Google’s latest page speed update will impact your site.
What is the Google Speed Update?
Before diving too deeply into the most current algorithm update, it should be noted that site speed is already a ranking factor. Way back in 2010, Google emphasized that a site’s speed has a direct impact on a website’s ranking. Of course, at the end of the last decade, desktop searches were much more prominent than those conducted on mobile, so that’s where the focus was placed. Fast forward to 2018, mobile searches represent the lion’s share of Googling, so it really shouldn’t come as a shock that mobile page speed is now a ranking factor.
Should you be worried that your ranking will be impacted by the speed update? Truthfully, the answer is, maybe.
Google has made it quite clear that their latest algorithmic change (which rolled out in the summer of 2018) will only affect those sites that “currently deliver the slowest experience to users”. If your site falls into this unfortunate and unflattering category, there’s no need to panic, provided you make some adjustments.
My Website is Already Pretty Fast – Should I be Worried?
If your site pages load reasonably quickly, there is little to worry about; making minor adjustments won’t really change anything. If however, your site is a little on the slow side, there’s plenty you can do. Before anything, remember that content is still king. The better, more robust content will always trump speed when it comes to site ranking.
It should also be stated that there is no quick and easy way for knowing if or how your site will be impacted by the update. A favourable site ranking is often the result of a sophisticated marketing strategy that has been successfully deployed – which explains why so many companies retain the services of a third party digital agency to do some of the heavy liftings.
How to Adjust Your Website for the Update
If you haven’t already transitioned to AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages), do so. Since the use of AMPs is pretty scarce, they load really, really fast. On average, it’s estimated that AMPs reduce loading time from anywhere between 15%-85%. It should be noted that using AMPs isn’t absolutely necessary to bolster mobile load speeds and should be used with the knowledge that AMPs can reduce your options for how your mobile site might look. If you don’t mind parting with a bit of design control, transitioning to AMPs are a quick way to reduce your page load time.
The following list is comprised of some of the more common strategies to boost page load efficiency and can be tested with the PageSpeed Insights tool:
- Enabling Compression
- Reducing Server Response Time
- Optimization of Images
- Leveraging Browser Caching
In addition to the list above, you might also want to consider reducing the number of redirects that occur on your website. Each redirect can add precious time to page loads; combine that with the fact that mobile devices rely on less reliable networks and page load times can increase dramatically.
You might also want to consider how user intent differs between mobile and desktop users. While mobile search has changed over the years with the implementation of things like voice search, the mobile search continues to be short and concise and in many cases has local intent.
To sum up, search engine optimization is an ever-changing beast that requires those responsible for maintaining a high level of web traffic to remain consistently in the know. With that in mind, it can take an equal amount of resources to ensure that you’re able to embrace each algorithmic update with the knowledge that it will have little if any impact on your mobile traffic.
If you take site ranking seriously but developing the right strategy in-house is out of scope, it’s imperative that you work with a team well-versed in digital marketing. Not only can they help you make sure that your site is content rich and has web design that delivers but they can also help you plan for any future search algorithm updates so that they will have limited impact on your day to day operations.
