Page load time is, of course, the period of time it takes for any page on the Internet to show up fully on your computer screen. And if you want to know if the time it takes to load a web page matters, the quick answer is: Yes it does. In fact it matters a great deal.
Why Page Load Time is Important
The time it takes for any web page to load is an important factor that search engines, including Google and Yahoo consider when ranking a site on a search engine results page (SERP). While it is one of hundreds of other variables, if the page loads slowly the search engines will take longer to collect data from your site. This will invariably result in the page ending up low down on the listings cause of page load time.
How to Measure the Speed/ Page Load Time of Your Web Site :
Even though load speed is only one of the many factors Google and others consider when doing rankings, it will pay you to make this is a top priority. Google has recently improved its Analytics tool, and you can add it to the bottom of all your web pages to optimize page loads. Google calls the tool “asynchronous syntax”.
It’s in the form of Java code that won’t load until your page has loaded. Google has also developed a new tool that measures the speed of web sites with analytics reports. It also determines what to do to improve speeds.
Google’s site speed reports
Google maintains that one particularly effective use of its new site speed report is that it can measure speed for a web site’s most critical pages. For instance if you have a target market in a specific part of the world, it can tell you if this geographic region experiences slower page speeds than visitors who live in the same country as you do. According to Google, their new Analytics site speed reports will:
- Show which web site landing pages are the slowest,
- Indicate which campaigns correspond to faster page loads overall, in relation to the source of traffic,
- Look at the effect on visitors and identify how page load varies “across geographies”, or in different countries and regions,
- Analyze whether sites load faster or slower for different browsers, thus assessing different technologies.
It can also inform you if pages download more quickly (or slowly) when people use different browsers – and which are more effective for your web site. In addition to its site speed report, Google has also created a custom report that you can use to determine load speed efficiency.
Factors that affect Page Load Time
There are numerous factors that affect the speed at which web pages load. These include the code that has been used to create the page as well as any errors the person writing the code may have made. The amount of text on pages as well as the number and size of images, as well as media like video and widgets will also have a profound effect.
Then there are hardware factors including your internet connection speed and the speed of the server you are using for the site. Your browser will have an effect, as will the volume of traffic in the form of visitors attempting to access your site, as well as the distance between your server and your own computer. You should take all these factors into account when creating web pages.
Always remember that Google and other search engines have their own priorities for page load time importance, what is most important to them is how long it takes for them to access your pages.
