The final step to a #1 position...
- SEO |
...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.
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.
If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.