It’s not exactly a secret that site speed is an important ranking signal, although not all SEO experts are in agreement over just how much it matters.
Nonetheless, it is an area of concern, especially since the vast majority of online shoppers will scoot right off a web page if it takes more than 3 seconds to load.
Now, let’s look at this from the lens of a Magento merchant. Magento hosts somewhere around 170,000 websites around the world, accounting for over a full percent of all websites on the internet.
Although that’s a rough estimate, Magento must be doing something right. It’s probably the most customizable eCommerce platform in the world, and like WordPress, is open-source, so there is a huge community of support.
However, since it is not a SaaS platform, a lot of responsibilities get thrown back in the court of the website owner; responsibilities like making updates and patches, securing hosting and security, and much more.
Many of these affect Magento site speed, and thus the manner in which Magento SEO services are set up.
What Makes Magento Websites Slow?
One of the most common reasons Magento websites are slower than they should be is that there just isn’t enough server space.
Now, additional server space can be purchased if you work with a hosting company, but if your company has its own data center and the wheels are slow to turn, you might need to add servers or update your old equipment.
But that’s not the only thing that gums up the works. Server misconfigurations can also slow down Magento websites, even if there is adequate space.
RAM shortages, outdated PHP settings, and even disabled MySQL settings can slow down websites. Check the settings on your servers and update or enable if necessary.
Too many integrations can also bog down a Magento website, even if there is enough server space; this can also throw a wrench in RAM availability if the website is running too many applications at once.
Delete any apps your website doesn’t need, any apps you don’t use anymore, and consider a queueing service to allocate resources as necessary.
Additionally, poorly optimized front-end content can also slow down a Magento website. Slow-loading themes and huge images can all create extra work for the website which will translate to slower load times.
Also, the lack of a CDN, can overload servers and slow download times; but if you implement one, it will keep important content up close to the user without taxing the servers.
So why does this all matter?
How Does Site Speed Affect SEO (But Wait, There’s More!)
First, any slow online store, built on Magento or otherwise, is going to get dinged by Google if it doesn’t make the grade. It just so happens that some of these speed challenges are unique to Magento websites.
However, there’s another edge to the sword, in keeping with the old maxim. Even if a Magento is not slow enough to categorically reap a proverbially Google-penality, if user experience suffers, the whole ship goes down.
Site speed is massively impactful with respect to user experience. A high bounce rate can not only adversely impact your Magento SEO strategy, but it will also prevent your Magento store from concluding any sales.
Can Magento SEO Services Help?
Fortunately, Magento SEO services can help solve some of these problems with Magento-specific search engine optimization.
Magento SEO agencies can help suggest faster loading themes (or even potentially develop them) and help optimize images and content on your website. Magento SEO experts can also audit your website for site speed and identify apps and plugins that can be removed, as well as potential server misconfiguration issues.
And, while many Magento SEO companies don’t keep spare servers in their back pockets, they can help Magento eCommerce merchants identify if the problem is, in fact, a lack of physical resources.
With such an important ranking factor hanging in the balance, and between you and higher rankings in the search results pages, there’s little reason not to invest in a Magento SEO campaign.
Besides, experience Magento SEO experts will also optimize your website in other ways, too, removing duplicate content, building backlinks, publishing optimized content, and optimizing on-page ranking signals like meta tags and alt data.
Many Magento SEO agencies, like Genius eCommerce, also specialize in other digital marketing efforts, too, like eCommerce PPC and social media management, such as Facebook advertising services. Visit their website and get on your way to higher organic rankings and more organic traffic today.
For more information about Shopify Seo Expert and WordPress SEO Services Please visit: Genius Ecommerce.
