Every time Google comes out with some amazing yet surprising updates that affect your SEO one way or another. Google recently announced that page speed will be a ranking signal for mobile search starting in July. This is something that mainly SEO professionals have suspected for quite some time, but we are glad that it is now confirmed, as Google has also started to implement the mobile index, which directly puts mobile devices first.
Page speed is extremely important to the user experience. Pages that take a long time to load are likely to have higher bounce rates. Pages that load slowly can also have an unconstructive impact on your conversion rates because end users won’t wait without complaint for pages to load.
But why else should you care?
Now, the question that arises here is why did Google launch the mobile index and embrace a mobile-first move by dedicating a main index for mobile? I think page speed could become more of a mid-level signal than a trivial signal like HTTP.
If you provide users with high-quality content and user experience and they can discover what they are looking for, and the happy experience meets their intentions across devices and platforms and delivers value, why not?
Here are some things you can do to prepare
You need to prepare for the mobile index by making sure you provide the right content experience and have high-quality content that meets consumer intent.
Make sure your pages load as fast as possible, preferably within a second or two. It is your responsibility to check the speed of your page and speed up the loading time in order to find a solution to your problem or find something you are looking for. In your competition, there are certainly other sites that are other sites that are trying to get the click, so your site needs to load as fast as possible to remain reasonable.
In addition to this, to make your website high mobile speed is important as it will affect your SEO and rankings. While AMP is not a ranking factor right now, it could be in the future. There are other behaviors to speed up your website if you don’t want to use AMP. However, you should believe in using AMP because these pages load tremendously fast, and you could increase your conversions and see improved search engine rankings once AMP becomes a ranking signal.
Recap section
Another situation could almost certainly be to take some page that ranks well in the top spots and strip the page of everything except a few very light elements, like a small amount of images and content: no CSS styling, no unnecessary fancy JavaScript, etc.
With the release of this mobile update and Google indexing now indicating that speed will be an aspect of mobile, it’s time to start taking this seriously.
Applying all of these factors is sure to help improve your user experience, boost conversions, keep users on your site longer, and drive more organic traffic.