Keep in mind, these steps are in addition to SEO not instead of. If a SEO campaign is outside of your budget, implementing these steps can help improve organic search results in a cost effective way.
Around 2006, Amazon reported that for every 100 milliseconds they sped up their website, they see a 1% increase in revenue. Then Google announced, in an effort to improve the web, that page speed was a consideration in how they rank search results. Since then, there have been no shortages of case studies showing the benefits of having a fast site. In the outline below, I have tried to pull together a few things that will enable you to improve your website’s loading speed.
Improve Rankings by Getting a SSL Certificate
So what is a SSL certificate? A SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate, is a method of encryption that involves obtaining a verification from an SSL provider and installing that certificate on the site. This connection secures information between a website visitor and a website. Think of an SSL certificate as a data file from a trusted provider in your website’s root directory and says “I own this site, and I am who I say I am”. It is a cryptographic key that encrypts any web traffic between a website and server so it’s unreadable to prying eyes.
If there was only one item wanted to complete to improve website rankings (outside of SEO)… this is the one to do. It would probably be the less expensive than the others and it will give websites tighter security, better Google indexing and it help gain visitors trust.
Depending on the hosting provider… you “may” have a free SSL available. Other hosting providers and/or SSL certificate providers have SSL certificates ranging from $30.00 – $150.00 and up depending on the type that you get.
Need assistance installing your SSL certificate and configuring your website? I can help.
Improve Rankings with Page Speed Optimization
This is the second most important item to improve Google website rankings – if not as equally important as the SSL certificate. Don’t have a SEO campaign? Having a faster running website can still improve website rankings.
You can get a good idea of your current page speed at GT Metrix and entering your URL. There is no cost to test your website speed.
Websites, when originally designed use a wide range of styles, scripts, plugins, etc. that cause overhead on a browser when visiting them. Without taking extra steps to reduce these loads, a website can take several seconds to load. If the load is too slow… it will often discourage visitors from staying around. Slow loading sites can also discourage search engine bots from effectively crawling your website therefore cause problems with properly indexing your website pages.
Page speed optimization, image optimization, scripts and styles minimization and etc. are necessary to achieve a fast loading website. There are many reasons why faster loading sites are better but the primary reason is that Google will give you better rankings simply for having a faster loading site. Again, slow loading pages can also have a direct negative impact on indexation.
Another way to vastly improve the speed of your website is using a CDN. A content delivery network is a system of distributed servers that deliver pages and other web content to a user and is based on the geographic locations of the user, the origin of the webpage and the CDN.
One such CDN service is Cloudflare.
Get assistance in setting this up for your own website by contacting me – I will be happy to help.
Improve Website Rankings with Monthly Management
An automated solution for your website (for WordPress websites only) can also help to improve Google website rankings. While it is definitely not a requirement as much as the other two… it does help keep your website more secure and up to date. Keeping your website secure is always a plus.
What I can provide for you for only $50.00 a month. Weekly services include:
- Backups
- WordPress core and plugin updates
- Security checks
- SERP ranking checks
- Up-time monitoring
- Broken Link Checks
Contact me today for more information on these management solutions.