What is pagespeed?
And how does it affect organic Google rankings?
Pagespeed, as Google uses it, refers to the speed at which a Web page loads and is fully visible to the user. It's about how quickly your website's content loads so that visitors don't have to wait long. Speed is important because people online are often impatient: if a website loads too slowly, they quickly click away and look for something else. Google places a high value on pagespeed because it is an important factor for a good user experience.
Within the context of SEO (Search Engine Optimization), pagespeed is a crucial factor. This is because Google uses the speed of your website as one of the factors in determining how high your website will rank in search results. A faster website often gets a better position in search results than a slower website, because Google assumes that people like a faster website more. Therefore, it is important to make sure your website loads quickly so that you not only retain visitors, but also rank better in organic search results.
An important link that can be made to pagespeed are Google's Core Web Vitals. These are specific metrics that measure user experience, such as how fast a page's main content loads (Largest Contentful Paint, or LCP), how quickly the page responds to user interactions (First Input Delay, or FID), and how stable a page's content is while loading (Cumulative Layout Shift, or CLS). Pagespeed plays a big role in these Core Web Vitals, because a slow Web site often has problems with LCP and FID. Google offers tools such as Pagespeed Insights and Lighthouse that allow you to test and analyze these metrics. These tools not only give you insight into how fast your Web site is, but also how well it scores on the Core Web Vitals. By optimizing these aspects, you not only improve the loading speed of your site, but also ensure that your website meets Google's latest SEO guidelines, which can contribute to higher organic rankings and a better user experience.
