What is Page Speed?

Following Google's rollout of Core Web Vitals, which focuses primarily on speed and the general focus on page speed it has created, it's natural to take the performance temperature of your company website.

Many people do this, and when they end up with a noisy "red" result (as many do, especially for mobile views), they panic and throw themselves into various optimisations without first thoroughly considering the possible consequences of an aggressive page speed strategy. We'll come back to what you need to consider in this regard.

Page speed and ranking in a nutshell

When it comes to ranking in a search result, there is only one focal point for Google and that is the users. The user experience is what sets the agenda for the upcoming updates to the algorithms that determine the ranking of individual pages in a given search result.

Google believes that there is a strong correlation between page speed and good user experience. Page speed is therefore important for your ranking, but keep in mind that it is far from the only parameter that affects the user experience. Relevant content with high authority is just as important.

Bounce rate and ranking

The combination of low page speed on a site and an impatient user results in a high bounce rate. Bounce rate is an important ranking factor, and if your site is fast, it has a better chance of ranking well in search results than slower sites.

Does page speed optimisation come at a cost?

Before you drop everything you've got and go all in on the discipline of page speed optimisation, you should carefully consider the consequences for your business.

According to a Backlinko.com analysis of 5 million websites, the most important factor for page speed is the size (page weight bytes) of the website. Therefore, the use of images and the way images are loaded and compressed has a major impact on page speed. Fewer and less "heavy" images minimise the size of the page and thus increase speed.

Aesthetics and visual branding

For some companies it may make sense to reduce the number and resolution of images on their websites, while for others, where storytelling through images is an important part of the branding strategy, it can be extremely risky and have major consequences for the business.

Java scripts

Another big culprit in terms of low page speed is the use of Java scripts on the site. Some Java scripts are used to run various functions on the site, while others are used by 3rd party systems, such as Google TagManager, Cookiebot or other cookie consent solutions, various systems for monitoring and tracking user behaviour etc. We see a clear improvement in page speed when we switch off the various tracking scripts. But whether an improved page speed that increases ranking makes more sense than the ability to track user behaviour and target marketing accordingly is an individual assessment.

Understand user search intent

Another thing that can help determine where to put your energy in terms of page speed optimisation is users' search intent and the context in which they are searching.

There is a big difference in our behaviour in terms of whether we browse to be inspired or to find specific information and answers to specific challenges or questions.

We seek inspiration

In the first user scenario, where we browse for inspiration, we often don't know in advance what we're looking for, which is why we are equipped with a good deal of patience and curiosity when it comes to exploring. We orientate ourselves more visually and are seduced by images and videos.

We want specific information

Conversely, if we're looking for specific answers, we're not as patient. We quickly return to the search results page and click on the next result in the list if the page loads slowly. If we're lucky, we'll even see a featured snippet with the exact information we're looking for at the top of the search result, so we don't even need to click through to a webpage.

Understand the user's search context

The importance of page speed to a user also depends to a large extent on the context in which the search is made.

Pause search

When we're waiting for the bus, taking a smoke or pee break, or otherwise briefly interrupting whatever we're doing, we often grab our mobiles to browse the internet. Time and patience are in short supply here, and if we encounter a slow website, there is a high probability that we will bounce.

Immersion search

Depending on how far we are in a given decision-making process and how complex the product we are buying is, we will allocate more or less time to research. Websites that we expect to uncover and clarify complex questions, we tend to be more patient with. In this context, we are therefore less likely to bounce if we have to wait a little longer than average for the page to fully load.

Conclusion

There's no doubt that page speed is an important factor for user experience and ranking. Therefore, when you start an optimisation process, you need to be aware of whether the resources you remove to increase speed may have consequences for your brand and marketing strategy. It's also important to assess websites individually and optimise according to users' search intentions and content expectations.

If you're more curious about what affects page speed, you can read the full report from Backlinko