Weekly SEO news: 19 November 2019
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Here are the latest website promotion and Internet marketing tips for you.

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Andre Voget, Johannes Selbach, Axandra CEO

1. Google Chrome: your website usually loads slow (and how to fix it)

Does your website load slow? Google Chrome might tell potential visitors so in the future. According to a new announcement, Chrome may identify sites that typically load fast or slow for users with clear badging.

slow web pages

Badges for slow loading pages

Google says badging may take a number of forms and Google plans to experiment with different options, to determine which provides the most value to users. For example, it could look like this:

badge for slow loading page

Google's early explorations will look at a number of Chrome surfaces, including the loading screen (splash screen), loading progress bar and context-menu for links. The latter could enable insight into typical site speeds so you’re aware before you navigate.

Fast web pages are important

Google wants to deliver web pages in the search results that are displayed quickly. Your pages should deliver the fastest user experience you can achieve;

  • Users will leave websites that are too slow, frozen, or not available.
  • Most consumers expect a web page to load in a few seconds.
  • Many consumers abandon websites that do not load within five seconds.
  • Each second that your web pages need longer to load can have a negative impact on the conversion rate of your website.

If your web pages do not load quickly enough, you will lose customers. In addition, Google won't rank your web pages as well as they could be ranked.

How to check the speed of your web pages

The speed of your web pages is important for mobile SEO and for desktop SEO. The website audit tool in SEOprofiler shows you the speed of your web pages (as well as many other things):

check the speed of your web pages

Best practices

Google recommends several things to ensure that users of mobile devices can view your web pages without problems:

  • A web page should load within 3 seconds.
  • Your web server should send the first byte within 1.3 seconds after a request.
  • The number of files that are needed to display a page (images, external JavaScript files, CSS files, etc.) should be below 50.
  • Mobile pages shouldn't be bigger than 500 KB.

Google found out that the majority of websites are much slower and bigger than that. If your website isn't that fast, you're not the only one. Of course, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't improve your pages.

How to make your web pages faster

The are several things that you can do to make your website faster. Some things are very easy, other things require the help of your web host.

First of all, you should choose a reliable web host with a fast internet connection and fast servers. You can do the following to make your web pages faster:

  • Optimize your images: Optimizing your images is an easy way to make your web pages fast. Most image editing tools a "save optimized version for web" option. Use that option to create smaller images. Further information about image optimization can be found here.
  • Reduce the number of plugins on your website: Check if you really need all plugins and widgets that are used on your web pages. Many just slow down your website without adding value to your site.
  • Optimize the code of your web pages: For example, only use tracking scripts if you really need that data.

There are many other things that you can do. Check the speed of your website here. Google's tool will show you the elements that you have to improve to make your web pages faster.

Make your website faster now

Create your free SEOprofiler account now, check the speed of your web pages, and create high ranking web pages:

Make your website faster

2. Internet marketing news of the week

John MuellerGoogle: it's good to understand HTTP status codes (and how to check your website codes)
 
"Google’s John Mueller said on Twitter that it’s good to understand that the different HTTP status codes that your web pages can send. [...] If the HTTP status code of a page is not “200”, then it’s likely that there is a problem with the page."


Google: mixed HTTP/HTTPS content may break pages for Googlebot

"Google announced on the official Google Webmaster Twitter account that mixed content may break your pages for users and Googlebot. Mixed content is when a HTTPS page includes HTTP content, like an image or a video loading from HTTP."

GoogleGoogle has released several smaller algorithm updates

"Google has confirmed several smaller ranking algorithm updates on Twitter. According to Google, these were minor updates. Some webmasters saw dramatic ranking changes. [...] Use the ranking monitor in SEOprofiler to check if your Google rankings have dropped."


Google: geotargeting does not restrict access from other regions

"Google’s John Mueller said on Twitter that Google will still show your website in other regions if you use the geographic target setting in Google Search Console. This setting only helps Google understand that your website might be more relevant in particular regions."


+++ SEARCH +++ ENGINE +++ NEWS +++ TICKER +++

  • Google: malware reviews are fast, hacked content takes longer.
  • Google: m-dot domains are unnecessary time-sinks.
  • Local search: the Bedlam update.
  • Google: We rewrite page titles in a low number of cases and it is a sign you should work on rewriting those titles.
  • DuckDuckGo joins the World Wide Web Consortium W3C.
  • Google are testing dropping your ranking URL again.
  • Google experimenting with grouping of multiple results from the same domain.
  • Google removes toll free customer support numbers from the Google My Business homepage.
  • Google's 'Project Nightingale' gathers personal health data on millions of Americans .
  • Frédéric Dubut now leads Bings core ranking team.
  • Google in 2020: From everyone’s search engine to everyone’s competitor.
  • How Google interferes with its search algorithms and changes your results.
  • States step up Google scrutiny over antitrust issues.

3. Previous articles