Want to become a successful SEO professional? Keen to know about every tips and trick to become successful in the field of SEO and get your optimized pages on the first page of every search engine? Well, just researching the most popular keywords or using informative content is not all. You need to take off every minute detail, including page speed for the sites you are optimizing. Though page speed has been an integral part of search ranking algorithms of Google, it did not gain much significance for desktop search results. It is the increasing popularity of mobile users that have made Google and other important search engines consider page speed as an important ranking factor.

When you are considering using page speed for improved SEO, you need to get answers to some common queries listed below:

Did you check page speed score of your website recently?

To improve your page speed, it is important for you to know the current page speed status. Therefore, at first, ensure the time when you have last checked the page speed. If you have not checked the page speed lately, do it and then move forward.

What is your page speed status against your competitors?

There is no doubt about the fact that a relevant page is always popular among the users as well as search engines. However, you can never undermine the significance of page speed when it comes to page ranking in the major search engines. If your site is loading slower compared to your competitors, there are chances that you are facing problems in the SERPs. So, check your SERPs and take the necessary steps for increasing your page speed than your competitors.

SEO professionals have time and again used different techniques for increasing their page speed. However, not all of them are equally fruitful. For an improved SEO result and increased page speed, you can follow the five simple tips mentioned below:

Image compression- There are several factors affecting your page speed and one of them is definitely the image files. It is often found that pages with large image sizes are slow to load compared to the ones with smaller images, as images take the maximum amount of bytes while downloading any page. To make your page load faster optimize the images in an intelligent manner and use only the ones that are required. Also, it is recommended to use image compression tools for compressing the image size and let it get loaded faster for both search engines as well as users. Once the images start getting loaded faster, you will found a positive boost to the organic search rankings of your page.

Leverage your browser cache- Browser cache has a significant role to play when it comes to increasing the speed of your webpage. Browser cache has the ability to retain different information about the website, viz. stylesheets, JavaScript files and images. That means, when your visitor reenters the site, the browser will not have to reload the entire page. It can easily collect the information from the browser cache. However, if the server does not offer web browser caching facility or offers it for a short span of time, it will not be possible for the browser to load the page faster and you will have the risk of losing traffic. To increase your page speed, Google and other important search engines always recommend you to have a cache time of at least seven days to one year for the static assets of your site. Not only the static content but also the same rule should be followed for content changed infrequently. Increasing cache timing is not something very difficult and can be done by your web developer at ease.

Reducing the time of server response- The server that you have selected plays a significant role in reducing the time of loading your page. If your page is hosted on a faster server, it is obvious that it will be downloaded faster and has better traffic. However, judging the server speed is not quite simple as there are several factors determining the server speed, viz. slow application logic, libraries, frameworks, slow routing or slow database queries. In many cases, the server speed gets affected by insufficient memory problems. So, it is important to take note of every factor to minimize the response time. Experts always recommend having a response time below 200ms. Yet, for ensuring a flawless work, SEO professionals are always recommended to coordinate with the web host provider.

Get Gzip compression activated- The online world is modifying every other day and to become successful, you need to keep yourself updated with every new technology that is being introduced in the market. To increase the downloading speed of your site, it is always best to get the pictures compressed. Yet, just compressing the images is not all. You also need to get the Gzip compression activated for your page. Gzip refers to software that is used reducing the file size used in the page, including JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. Though this is compression software, it is not meant for images. To use Gzip compression software, you need to decide the server type of your site. For instance, you need to know whether it uses:

Nginx: ngx_http_gzip_module
Apache: mod_deflate
IIS: Configure HTTP Compression

Gzip can make a significant difference in the loading time of your page, so never ignore it.

Say no to numerous landing redirects- Always use one redirect from the URL you have provided as multiple redirects will increase the loading time by prompting additional HTTP requests. In case, you have more than one redirect for your page, work on it to get it fixed before it is too late.

Conclusion- To become a successful SEO marketer, it is necessary to analyze your website and keep on improvising it. Check every factor mentioned above minutely and do not forget to use Page Speed Insights Tool of Google. This will help you know your page loading time and also compare it with competing websites.