We’ve got some exciting news to share with you!
Your website (if your site is hosted with us) is faster than ever before, something Google has said in no uncertain terms it wants to see. So, let’s back up and explain how it got faster than it already was.
*Cliff-notes Version
As part of our continuing effort to ensure the best results for all our clients, we’re happy to announce that our hosting platform recently underwent an upgrade to Google’s newest infrastructure the Compute-Optimized Virtual Machines. Now that’s a big techy sounding name, but what does it really mean? It means sites we’re hosting saw on average a 26% increase in performance and a reduction in average server processing time from 592ms to 438ms. This is something to celebrate! Being able to process a site faster leads to quicker responses from the server and reduces the “time to first byte” metric we’ll explain further.
Your site is faster, but why does it matter so much?
As is the answer with most things SEO related, simply put, Google. For the last year or so Google has really pushed for sites to load faster. At first, it was just a series of strong recommendations coming out of Google on the different ways sites could improve their load times. As time has gone on Google’s obsession with site speed and load times has slowly begun to creep into their search results and PageSpeed is becoming a larger factor in how Google determines its search rankings.
For those who like a bit more explanation
For the last 12 to 18 months a newer Search Engine Optimization (SEO) metric simply called PageSpeed has really moved to the forefront of the SEO world. It’s not hard to find many articles and videos being published by the biggest names in the SEO industry highlighting the various ways site owners and developers can better optimize their websites to improve their speed. So what is PageSpeed and why has it suddenly become such a big focus of the marketing world?
PageSpeed: What is it?
In its simplest form PageSpeed is simply a measurement in seconds (or even milliseconds) of how long it takes for a web browser to display a website. This can be measured in one of two ways either “page load time” or “time to first byte”. In the case of page load time, we measure how long it takes between clicking a link or entering a URL into a browser and when the website has fully loaded. The second measurement time to first byte is a little piece we’re going to focus on here. We measure time to first byte by again calculating how long it takes clicking a link or entering a URL into a browser and when the web browser receives its first byte of information back from the webserver that hosts your website.
Time to First Byte
The time to first byte can be affected by several factors, some of which are outside both the site owners and site developers control such as the physical distance between a website’s user and the physical location of the webserver that hosts your website. Certain steps can be taken and technologies can be used to help mitigate these factors and reduce the time to first byte, but one of the biggest things a site owner can do is make sure their website is being hosted on the best infrastructure available; something we’re committed to that really sets us apart.
Having a fast site is not only good for improving your website’s overall user experience, but it can now have a direct impact on how well your site performs in Google’s search results. At Vivid Image, we’re proud to continuously work to provide the best solutions for our clients so we can deliver the best results. To chat more with us about your website needs, email [email protected] or call 320-587-8974.
