Last month, Facebook announced its update to start ranking faster loading webpages higher on its newsfeed.
This is to increase the traffic distribution of links to faster loading web pages which will relatively roll a negative impact to slower loading web pages and sites.
The coming update will dive deeper into a published web page: consider its loading time and compare its speed result to the other competing links published by users and business pages alike.
Basically, each web page’s load time will be taken into account and be classified; higher ranking for faster pages while a lower ranking if otherwise.
What’s In It for your Businesses?
“Webpages that are particularly slow could see decreases in referral traffic” – Facebook newsroom
According to Facebook, the update will “roll out gradually over the coming months”. This allows Facebook’s development team the necessary time to adjust the new system accordingly, for better user experience.
Bottom line: You need to optimise your website’s speed as soon as possible.
Otherwise, your brand might experience a toll on its organic traffic sooner or later.
“We are making this update in response to what people have told us. We know that faster loading webpages are a better experience for people, both on Facebook and across the internet,” Facebook’s spokesperson said.
This update is a direct answer to the community’s improved user experience. According to Facebook, user complaints have been filed on clicking links that lead to slow-loading web pages.
As much as 40% of website visitors abandon a website after only three-second latency.
The social-network giant hopes that this update will allow users to access more stories and web pages within a minimal amount of time.
This concept isn’t particularly new to Facebook.
In fact, the company has been taking users’ internet connectivity into account since 2015. If users run on a slow internet connection that cannot load videos, Facebook’s News Feed algorithm will regulate itself to show fewer videos and more status updates or links.
How To Determine Your Website Load Time
Here are some of the platforms that could help you determine your website’s load time:
Google’s PageSpeed Tool measures the performance of a page for mobile devices and desktop devices. It scores website performances from 0-100 points. The higher the score, the better is the website’s execution. Try to score 85 or higher for an improved website efficiency.
GTMetrix is a free program and is one of the most preferred tools by experts. Not only does it scan and provide full reports from PageSpeed to Waterfall, but it also offers actionable recommendations in optimizing your website.
Other features include access in monitoring pages, setting up monitored alerts, tests from multiple regions, analyzing mobile performance, and even video capturing of results and reports.
Pingdom tracks the uptime, downtime, and performances of the website with live notifications on the status of your website. They also have an easy-to-use Website Speed Test in order to determine the speed of their customers’ websites.
Optimising Your Load Time
A website’s slow load time can cause friction and severe damage to your conversion rate.
One of our previous clients, Plastic Surgery Hub, experienced a dragging record of 17.4 second load time. Not only could this cause an impact on Facebook’s new feature, but it also renders little to no engagement with users.
With BidPixel, PSH’s 17.4 second load time dynamically improved to 3.27 seconds.