Get ahead of Google and switch up your site speed

The importance of site speed to SEO and indeed user experience isn’t anything new, however, with the announcement from the UK’s most used browser, Chrome, that they will start to identify slow or fast loading sites with clear badges, the priority of speed optimisation is even more pressing.

The exact nature of the “badging” has not been decided on and Google has announced that they plan to experiment with various options to determine which one is the most valuable to users.

Factors that will be considered when looking at badging sites will include historical load tendencies and later on, may also evolve to include when a site is likely to be slow due to network conditions and devices.

Judging criteria will become stricter, over time, with the intention of letting Chrome users know which sites provide the very best experience.

Being alerted by Google that your site doesn’t respond quickly is likely to lead to an immediate “bounce” off the site by your potential customers, potentially before they even get there.  This could affect leads and/or sales.

So, what can you do to check if your site is performing to its potential and therefore prevent it from being negatively “badged” by Google Chrome?

First Internet utilises a number of tools to both analyse and optimise your site for site speed – simply get in touch for a free site speed audit and speed improvement recommendations to ensure you’re ahead of Google’s game.