How Important is the Download Speed of a Website?
This is a very good question that one of our readers asked us to address. Website speed is an important factor to not only SEO, but to increasing conversions.
When SE spiders come to your site to index it’s content they typically have a very limited amount of time to index your website. The faster your server response time the more information the spiders will get. One way around this for Google is to use the Google Sitemaps utility. Google Sitemaps is an XML file that you place on your server that tells Google where all of you pages can be found and how often they are updated. I suspect the other major SE’s are working on something similar, but we will have to wait.
Buyer conversion rates can also be affected dramatically by the speed of your server. The longer your website takes to process pages the longer your clients have to change their minds about making a purchase with you.
How do I find out what my speed is?
An easy way to see how well your server ranks in comparison to all other servers is through the Alexa Toolbar. Using the toolbar anyone can click on the more info button to read some interesting statistics on their website.
Comit Hosting is an affordable way to increase your websites visibility. Our servers are in the top 10% in terms of server speed and are SEO Certified!
Good Luck,
Spencer Hoyt