The why of website optimisation: Better search ranking
This is the fourth post in a series where I'll outline the benefits that can be derived through website optimisation. Not only will we touch on monetary aspects, but we'll also get into environmental impact, and customer experience.
You can read the other posts in this series using the links below (they'll be at the end of this post too):
- Increase conversions (or engagement)
- Reduce operational costs
- Reduce environmental impact
- Improve your search ranking - This post
- Deliver a better user experience
Now, let's get onto how optimising your site can help to boost the ranking of your website in search results.
Before I begin, I'd like to point out that this post will focus entirely on Google search results. While there are other options out there, especially for the more privacy conscious, Google rule the roost here and it's what most of your website visitors will be using to find your page organically.
Google's shifting to mobile-first, with a focus on speed
Google has been putting more and more emphasis on website speed, and usability in the last few years. On top of moving towards mobile-first indexing, the search engine giant has also been pushing the narrative that faster loading, more accessible and usable web pages allow it to crawl sites more efficiently and can lead to higher Search Engine Result Page (SERP) rankings.
With more users performing searches on mobile devices, Google is now giving mobile experience more weighting when compiling search results. This mobile weighting even carries through to desktop searches. Therefore, delivering a fast website experience on mobile can help your site rank better across all Google searches.
Update
From mid-June Google will be including Core Web Vitals metrics to the page experience signals mix. This means that poor page speed and experience may start to impact your SEO. I've covered Core Web Vitals in another post.
What can you do about this?
Well the first thing to do is to make sure you page is optimised for the best possible mobile experience. You can test pages through Google Search Console, or by entering a URL in this tool. Hopefully you are presented with a nice big message in green saying "Page is mobile friendly". If not, you might be looking at having to redesign your site so that it can be served responsively.
Next, use Google's Page Speed Insights test to see how your page performs on mobile (which is now the default). If there are any issues, you'll see some suggestions on what you can address to improve performance.