The final step to a #1 position...

[DavidO]

...was page-loading speed!

For four years I've struggled to get good SERPs. In a super-competitive niche I was pretty happy getting #3 and #4 slots for my top keyword. But I could never quite get that elusive Numero Uno... until now!

What did I do to finally get it? Well, it wasn't deliberate. I have to admit that I stumbled onto this.

I've worked hard on all the obvious stuff like links and on-page SEO. But it was never quite enough. Then someone happened to mention how slowly my sales page opened. It's a pretty long page anyway so this was a big concern.

But I wasn't thinking specifically about boosting my SERPs when I switched to high-performance VPS hosting. Sure, I've heard that page-loading speed is a factor but I would have thought it had only a tiny influence, if any.

Well, my site loads in the blink of an eye now and within days of my switch I was amazed to see my site on top of Google at #1. It has boosted all my SERPs.

You've probably heard too that page loading is an increasingly important part of the Google algorithm. But have you done anything about it?

If you're on shared hosting chances are that your pages are loading at crawling pace at peak times. My first host was terrible in this respect.

My new VPS hosting costs about 10 times what the old, shared hosting did. But to put that in perspective... it's still just the profit from one sale!

And boosting SERPs is not the only payoff. Visitors too will appreciate fast page loading and will be much less likely to abandon your site. For many people a wait of only a few seconds is enough to make them leave. I bet I used to lose people right and left but now my long and technical sales page loads in 0.6 seconds average.

So give your page-loading and hosting a good thought. The payoff is surprising.

[paulgl]

David, congrats for getting there!

Shared hosing does not mean slowly loading sites.
Text can load fast regardless. If you have a bunch of
over loaded images, maybe. I have always had shared
hosting and mine load quite fast. If your site has to
update and access databases, that would warrant a
fast server. But even WF is on shared hosting. A sales
page? I'm not sure why it would have loaded slow.
Even a long sales page.

I think you got to #1 by a whole host of reasons.

But, no reason to not gloat over #1! You deserve it.
And if you can afford the new hosting, go for it!

But if your site was "penalized" for slowness, I do not think
it would be consistently #3 or #4.

I'm just cautioning others who will twist your post into
something else, not to jump on a new server when they
have a decent loading page now and think it will boost them
to #1.

Paul

[ddw76]

ya good luck

[DavidO]

You're right, Paul. I don't want people to over-react and abandon their hosts just because of my experience. But I do think it's a good idea for every webmaster to analyze their sites' technical performance and make changes if necessary.

Many inexperienced webmasters may not ever give it a thought, just like I didn't.

Shared hosting is not necessarily going to be slow but I've discovered some interesting things having tried 4 different hosts and packages. Most hosts, if they are honest, will admit that their servers slow down at peak times and it can delay your page loading.

I had a situation with my first host where my page took many long seconds to load just at the times I was getting the most traffic!

The fault is not necessarily shared hosting, per se, but a host overloading their servers. The WF is obviously getting an excellent service, even though it also slows down at times.

Jakob Nielson has done some good research on response times and website visitors:

Website Response Times (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)

All I'm saying is that there may be many webmasters who are unaware of site loading delays and their effect not only on SERPs but also on their visitors behaviour.

I do know for a fact that cutting my site response time boosted my search positions.

[QuinNguyen]

Yup, we got to put ourselves in visitors shoes. For instance, if the site loads to slow then wouldn't you want to leave it right away? Higher bounce rate will hurt your Serp based on my previous SEO optimization with media website.

[SledgeHammer]

Well, page load times is one of the most important factors but if someone just switches from shared to dedicated/VPS, it will not simply put you into Page 1 of Big G !

[adam westrop]

Interesting, however I think you could of got that number 1 from also building a few more quality links....

Page speed isnt the answer to no.1 rankings.