Thursday
Speed Up To Make More Money With Blogs
 Doesn't it annoy you when some websites or blogs are painfully slow to load? It does me, so much so that often I don't bother to wait and move on to something else.Most of us have a broadband connection but just think how slow some sites must be on dial up. I read somewhere that in the US slightly over 10% still use a dial up connection for the Internet. "So what?" you might say. But if our blogs are slow to load doesn't it follow that this could be costing a money making blog - well money. I'm no tech expert so I won't go into the ins and outs of how to speed up loading times. What I have noticed myself though is that some widgets and photos slow things considerably. Maybe a couple less widgets and optimizing images could speed things up. It's something we should no doubt look at because those dial up people - every one in ten hits - otherwise are going to move on without clicking on our ads or promotions. Also a lot of broadband visitors will also take umbrage as they expect things to pop up pretty quickly. Slow loading may cost us potential money, but I read recently that there could also be more to it than this. I've no idea if it's 100% true but I've heard that Google have loading times included within their search engine algorithm. If this is right then a blog could be penalised if it loads at a snails pace. Two reasons therefore to try and keep loading times at a reasonable level. (1) It'll cost possible sales or clicks if visitors get fed up waiting. (2) It'll damage search engine rankings (allegedly). It's something I'm going to look at on my own blogs. There are several free website speed checkers about such as the one at Self SEO. They write about slow loaders: "It is estimated that if a page doesn't load within 5-8 seconds you will lose 1/3 of your visitors."I think it's worth thinking about. If our aim is to make money, then every improvement we make must help. Good luck, Mike. Ad: Free Adult Website. Make big money with a free adult products website. Strictly over 18's only. Labels: loading times, money making blogs |
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I think you might just want to de-spam that link above me... :)
As to page loads, although we are on broadband here, sometimes it is also painfully slow, so I know just how those dial-up surfers feel (well almost anyway), which is why I hate all those widgets people insist on placing on their sites.
I know myself, that if a blog is taking too long to load, I will shut the tab on it, so I'm sure that surfers do the same.
And it does appear to be true about slow loading sites being penalised by Google. A friend of mine hosts most of his blogs on a pretty slow (European) webhost and all of them are low or non-existent PR and he has trouble getting them placed in the serps, despite them being well-optimised and SEO rules followed in every other way. Needless to say, he is in the process of moving them now.
Youngster: Please do not spam this blog (or any others). You won't win friends doing this!
zania: Interesting what you write about your friend. And again this emphasises the power that Google wields. They are virtual dictators.
Thanks for the comment.
Mike.
Hello Mike,
As always a very interesting post.
I'm still a dial-up surfer! Yes, in the future I'll shift to broadband connection, but at the moment, I'm in prehistoric times...
Anyway, the sites that interest me load fast. If a site or blog is very, very slow, simply does not exist to me; if that site is very, very interesting, I can make an exception. In fact, for the most part of good sites and blogs, there is no problem, because their webmasters are intelligent people and make them as simple as they can.
My sites and blogs are very simple, because I don't have the option to act otherwise. But I love simplicity as well.
As we can notice, the most visited page on the whole web is Google: it is not just simple, it is minimalist! They are intelligent, obviously, in Google house. That is real success! But simplicity does not mean lack of features or possibilities, as Google show perfectly.
You write about very interesting topics, Mike. Posts like this require attention and reflection.
Juan Bielsa, from Zania's land.