SEO is an effective method used to increase the visibility of your site in search engines. It increases a sense of trust in users by helping to rank websites first. It is a much less costly method than other advertising models. Anyone who wants to rank high should apply SEO methods. On-site SEO means that the elements on the pages meet pre-determined criteria by search engines in terms of user focus. In this article, “What is Technical SEO?”, “What is Technical SEO used for?”, “What are the criteria for Technical SEO?” ” and gives details about measuring site speed.
On-Site SEO
It is a type of optimization that aims to increase brand awareness. Here are the things you need to do for on-site SEO:
- You should try to understand search intent.
- Then you should try to understand the relevance of your page to the topic.
- You should use short and descriptive URLs.
- You should include your keywords in your title, meta description, and H1 heading.
- You should optimize images with subheadings.
- You should write the content in a way that is short, concise and easy to read.
- You should pay attention to site speed.
What is Site Speed?
The time it takes to open a website’s page is called site speed. It refers to the time it takes after the user clicks on a web page until that page is completely loaded and displayed. This duration is an important metric to evaluate the performance of a website.
How to Measure Site Speed?
There are many tools to measure the site speed of your website. Using these, you can measure your site speed and make the necessary adjustments. You can use the Google PageSpeed Insights tool to measure your site speed. This tool evaluates the speed of the desktop and mobile versions of your website. It analyzes the performance of your page and offers improvement suggestions. It also provides information about page speed scores and user experience.
To measure site speed, after opening the Google PageSpeed Insights page, you must enter the link of the page you want to measure in the box that appears and click the analyze button. Then the analysis will begin.
After the analysis is completed, you can see two separate devices for mobile and desktop right below the box. Since this is an evaluation for two separate devices, it is a section divided into two separate tabs.
Then, at the bottom you will see a “See what your real users are experiencing” section.
Largest Contentful Paint
The first part you will see in this section will be “Largest Contentful Paint”. Users generally do not want to wait to see the main content of a website. LCP measures user experience by evaluating this wait. Users have a more positive experience when they can quickly see the important content of the page. LCP determines how quickly a web page loads. In this process, the loading times of the elements that constitute the main content such as images, texts and graphics are of great importance. Metrically, the LCP is good if it is between 0-2.5 seconds. If it is between 2.5-4 seconds, we can call it medium level. However, if it is over 4 seconds, it is considered slow .
To improve LCP, you should pay attention to the following:
- Optimized Images: Large and slow loading images negatively affect LCP. Compressing and optimizing images will reduce loading times.
- Prioritized Resources: Prioritizing resources required for the main content of the page can reduce LCP. For example, it is necessary to optimize and prioritize important CSS and JavaScript files.
- Effective Caching: By using browser caching, you can allow visitors to load your page faster.
- Use of CDN: Using a content delivery network (CDN) to deliver content to users faster can also improve LCP.
First Input Delay
This part measures the response time of web pages to user interactions. When a user first loads the page or attempts to initiate an interaction, it measures the time between the first actual interaction processed by the browser and the browser’s response time. This interaction typically involves actions such as clicking a button, clicking a link, or entering data into a form.
FID evaluation is usually done as follows.
- Good: Between 0 and 100 milliseconds
- Medium: Between 100 and 300 milliseconds
- Bad: 300 milliseconds and above
FID good To improve it, you should pay attention to the following:
- JavaScript Optimization: Avoid unnecessary JavaScript code and load JavaScript files without blocking other content of the page using asynchronous loading.
- CSS Optimization: Optimize your CSS files and ensure high priority content is loaded.
- Lazy Loading: Load resources that are not required to load the page using lazy loading.
- Using CDN: Use a content delivery network (CDN) to deliver content to users faster.
Cumulative Layout Shift
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) is a performance metric that evaluates the user experience of a web page. It measures unexpected layout changes that occur during user interactions while the page is loading.
Let’s put it more simply. It can be annoying when you’re reading something on a website or trying to click on something and suddenly you notice that the layout of the page has changed, right? CLS measures exactly such sudden changes.
CLS evaluation is usually done as follows.
- Good: between 0 and 0.1
- Medium: between 0.1 and 0.25
- Bad: 0.25 and above
To improve CLS, you should pay attention to the following
- Reserving Space in Advance for Visual and Advertising Areas: You should reserve space for elements such as visuals and advertising. This way, the page layout does not change while they are loading.
- Pay Attention to Image Dimensions: Specify the width and height of images so browsers can better plan the correct placement.
- CSS Animations and Transitions: If you use animations or transitions on your page, check if they cause layout changes and optimize if necessary.
- Browser Caching and CDN Usage: Optimize your content with techniques such as browser caching and CDN. This can help content load faster.
- Use Performance Tools: Evaluate the performance of the page using tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights and make corrections based on suggestions.
First Contentful Paint
This is an important performance metric in the loading process of a web page. FCP measures the first moment a user starts viewing the content of a web page. So, measuring FCP generally refers to the time between the moment the page starts loading and the moment it starts drawing the first content image.
FCP evaluation is usually done as follows.
- Good: 0-1.8 seconds
- Medium: Between 1.8-3 seconds
- Bad: Over 3 seconds
To improve FCP, you should pay attention to the following
- Using CDN: You can use a content delivery network (CDN) to deliver content closer to users.
- Lazy Loading: You can make the page load faster by loading images and other content that do not come into the user’s field of view with lazy loading while the page is loading.
- Minification: By minifying your CSS, JavaScript and HTML files, you can reduce file sizes and encourage fast loading.
- Visual Optimization: You can reduce FCP time by compressing your images and avoiding unnecessarily large files.
Interaction to Next Paint (INP)
This metric measures how quickly the page responds when a user clicks on something on the page. Users expect the page to respond quickly and fluidly when they initiate an interaction.
INP evaluation is usually done as follows.
- Good: 0-200 milliseconds
- Medium: Between 200-500 milliseconds
- Bad: Over 500 milliseconds
Time to First Byte (TTFB)
Time to First Byte (TTFB) is a performance metric that measures the time between the moment the first byte of a web page is received by the browser and the moment the server completes the first response. TTFB generally indicates how responsive the page is and how quickly the content starts.
TTFB evaluation is usually done as follows.
- Good: 0-100 milliseconds
- Medium: Between 200-500 milliseconds
- Bad: 500 milliseconds and above
Next is a section called “Diagnose performance issues.” Here you will see metrics called Performance, Accessibility, Best Practices, and also SEO. The things they mean are as follows.
Performance
Fast loading of your web page ensures that users do not have to wait and get the information they want immediately.
