Answer
Jan 30, 2021 - 04:52 PM
The Google page speed test is helpful but it's not 100% accurate- especially from the user experience perspective.
Site loading time and perceived speed are the two main measures that count toward SEO and user experience. Perceived speed is simply the measure of how fast users find your site to be and the Google page speed test started measuring it in 2018- they formerly didn't.
You will often find that even a site with a poor score on Google Page Speed and GTMetrix, has a fast load experience for users. This is what matters. The actual user experience.
While it's a great tool to use, you can use it as one of many tools in order to improve your site by fixing things that may be slowing it down as opposed to using it as a stand-alone tool.
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One reason why following the results of Google's page speed test alone religiously isn’t such a good idea, is that it may recommend fixings things that you can't necessarily control like:
• Suggesting you add expire headers to a file that's not even hosted on your site.
• Asking you to optimize external files coming from places like Optin Monster.
• Saying you need to eliminate render blocking resources (both JS and CSS).
It's not all gloom and doom though, and two things that the tool points out that you can actually fix and use to improve your site are:
• Alerting you if you have too many large images which can be compressed for better functionality.
• Giving you a warning for when your content has text compression disabled.
Additional Resources Required to do better on Google’s TestSo, is it important to spend resources on getting all the errors that the test calls out?
Not necessarily.
Like we said, the speed test by Google is more like a grade in school and it's known that this may not be the best indicator of intelligence- there are many ways to get good grades after all which just reflects ability to pass tests for the most part.
It is, however, a good idea to fix what you can and focus on actual user experience, using the Google tool as an aide to help you troubleshoot. Read and assess the recommendations and fix what you can but ignore the rest.
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Speed-testing tools like GTMetrix will help you get a more accurate report on whether the changes you have made have reflected so their score is more useful for you.
How to Organically Increase Conversion Rates and TrafficSince this is the focus for most of us online, here are a few tips on how you can increase traffic and conversion rates in an organic way alongside using the Google speed test tool. Many of these things will frequently trump page load times in increasing your conversion rate.
• Know your site's visitors and what they expect to find when they browse to your site.
• Solve their problems or answer their questions effectively.
• Use pop-ups that are easy to close and only show once to each visitor to ensure they aren't annoying.
• If you have forms, only keep essential fields to avoid intimidating prospective clients.
• Provide reviews and testimonials in order to keep your consumers at ease.
• Have a clear and concise landing page that is easy to navigate to ensure your visitors focus on what you are offering.
• Have a very easy initial step such as asking for a user's email. The rest can be filled out as they proceed and you will have their email for future outreach rather than nothing at all.
• An alternative sign-up such as using one's Facebook or Google to sign-up will help drive conversions due to the added efficiency and elimination of an extra form.
• Avoid generic CTA copies like 'sign up' but instead use applications like Crazy Egg to help you come up with creative copy.
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• Use live chat tools to help any customers with their queries and improve conversion speeds in this way.
• Try different offers to find which one works best for you. If you notice one driving higher conversions, stick with it while experimenting with others to switch things up.
• Give a money-back guarantee to help customers feel at ease and secure in their dealings with you.
• Adding upsells on different points of purchase may inspire an extra purchase therefore extra income. This is applicable to ecommerce owners selling goods or services.
• Make sure that the headline on your landing page is great because Copyblogger states that 8 out of 10 people will read your headline but only 2 out of those 10 will read the rest. You therefore need to make sure that it's attractive enough to capture visitor's curiosity and have them hang around.
Stick With What WorksIn the end, you need to go with what shows you tangible results that you can translate and implement.
Because the online space is constantly evolving, be sure to stay informed and flexible enough to make changes you may need to make.
As with everything else in life, be ready to change tact and drop unnecessary methods or tools when they no longer work in favor of new ones.
And if Conversion Rate is what you are most worried about, try this course for free.
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