Your Google Page Speed score is an essential factor in ranking your site. So, in addition to SEO, you should focus your efforts on improving it to get ahead of competitors.

Carefully Consider Your Hosting

Good web hosting is crucial for your overall site health. On the other hand, poor hosting is insecure, slow, and prone to data loss. Some of the best web hosts for business include BlueHost, InMotion, and HostGator. SSL, low downtime, and minimal latency are primary features you should look for. However, you could also consider hosting yourself. Hosting configurations aren’t as complex as they once were. You can even install hard drives for servers in a desktop PC. But you will eventually need to upgrade as your business grows.

Monitor Page Speed Score After Changes

Many things impact your Page Speed score, and even the most minor changes can have a massive impact. You should carefully consider every change to your site and take steps to reduce any harmful consequences. For example, switching to image-based headers over text-based will add more loading time to your site. So, you should compress these as much as possible since images are far larger than text in terms of storage size. No matter what you change, constantly monitor your score and revert any changes that make a negative impact.

Switch to a Responsive Theme

Your site’s theme can significantly impact your SEO and speed score. Many themes come with redundant features that slow down the loading times of your business or blog website. Additionally, it might not be responsive. A responsive theme detects the device on which your site is viewed, such as a phone, PC, or tablet, and adjusts the display accordingly. Google factors responsive themes in your score when ranking your site. A non-responsive theme is unlikely to rank well in a world where 90% of people use a mobile device to access the web.

Optimize Images

It’s almost impossible to develop an attractive site without images. And you need them for a better SEO score. But you will harm your SEO and speed score with uncompressed images. Therefore, it is recommended you use the best tool you can afford and convert pictures to either web JPGs or GIFs. Adobe Photoshop is excellent for reducing JPGs to as small a file size as possible while retaining much original detail and clarity. Unfortunately, most free tools cannot keep the quality while reducing the size. Still, GIMP is highly recommended on a budget.

Minify Extraneous Code

As your site grows, it will become cluttered with code. However, most of the code from themes and plugins isn’t required and can be safely reduced. Fortunately, you don’t need to be an expert programmer to minify your code. For instance, you can use WordPress plugins like Autoptimize, WP Super Minify, and W3 Total Cache for removing unused JAVA scripts and similar code. These plugins are safe to use and will never remove based code or anything that is used by your site. However, use only one of these tools as they can conflict with each other. 

Summary

Your Page Speed score is essential for ranking in Google. Fortunately, you can increase this score with good hosting, using a responsive theme, and optimizing images and code.