5 Tools to Improve Website Performance and SEO
Consistently improving a website’s performance and Search Engines Optimization (SEO) bring more traffic to the website. Google also offers a few excellent tools to improve website performance. Here we are mentioning 5 such tools from Google to optimize a website for speed, performance, and SEO.
These tools not only help you to monitor the performance but also give useful information to improve the website. A wise use of these tools can increase the chances of appearing your website at the top in Search Results. Above all, keep in mind that the content is the most important key factor to attract more traffic.
5 Google Tools to Improve Website Performance
We are mentioning here the following services from Google that you should definitely use to improve website performance and traffic.
- Google Search Console
- Google Analytics
- PageSpeed Insights
- Mobile-Friendly Test
- Structured Data Testing Tool
- Google Search Console
If you have to use just one tool then prefer Google Search Console. Apart from others, Search Console isn’t a testing tool. Rather, this tool tells the performance of web pages in Search Results. Additionally, it also informs the errors that limit pages from appearing in results. One must give attention to that information and improve the website accordingly.
This free tool is a must for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as well as performance. Each item to the left in the console gives a distinct term to analysis the website. You can optimize or improve website performance by queries that are bringing higher traffic as well.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a web analytics service that provides deeper insights or reports regarding traffic to a website. This is also an essential tool for every website. Google Analytics offers proper tracking of website traffic and you can filter them using many criteria.
Further, utilize this tool to optimize the website and make full use of it. Optimizing the site based on various reports can significantly grow the traffic. Also, remember that setting up analytics code is not enough alone. If you’re not checking reports and taking actions then you’re just wasting your time.
PageSpeed Insights
The PageSpeed Insights is all about speeding up the loading of a website. Further, this tool offers speed check of a page on a desktop as well as mobile separately. While this tool is not as rich as other website speed test services, it stands unique.
Speed is the first thing that comes in the mind when we think to improve website performance. Always implement optimization suggestions provided by the test as much you can do. It will definitely make the website loading faster. But don’t get mad at 100 out of 100. A score to 90 or greater is better.
You can also utilize practical tips we shared to speed up the loading of a website. These tips dramatically reduce the time to load a web page. Further, if you make 3rd party API calls from your WordPress server then you should also read Caching with Transient API.
Mobile-Friendly Test
Every tech guy is aware of increasing uses of mobiles. So why not to check the website for mobile-friendliness. Trends are moving towards the mobile first approach more and more. Twitter Bootstrap, Google AMP as well as Progressive Web Apps are such a few examples.
Mobile-Friendly Test tool allows us to check how easily a visitor can use a page on a mobile device. In case of a failure, this tool gives nice suggestions that you can use to improve website performance for mobiles.
Structured Data Testing Tool
This tool is purely to optimize content for SEO. Structured Data or Rich Data helps Search Engines to understand the website content and further rank better. There is a dedicated section about this feature in this 10 better SEO tips article.
Google supports a number of Structured Data. Use Schema markup in your content and test the same with the tool given. Once passed, you will notice improvements in the website’s appearance in Search Results after some time.
Breadcrumb navigation is a key element for SEO as well as Structured data. Check how did we create custom breadcrumb navigation and LD-JSON data using Yoast SEO WordPress plugin.
Improve Website Performance – More Tools by Google
Those five tools don’t contain a complete list of Google tools to optimize a website for speed, performance, and SEO. There are definitely more and we should tell you about them. Google Marketing Platform offers Data Studio, Optimize, Tag Manager and Surveys services. Further, there are more powerful tools available for enterprises.
Similarly, Google Search itself is an excellent tool to know what people search with specific keywords. Just start typing “improve website speed” and notice that it brings top sought queries with those keywords.
Furthermore, Think with Google is another suite of services to help improve brand marketing and web performance. Additionally, Google is trying to convert complex figures into easily understandable reports through data visualization. Google Data Studio, as well as the new Search Console, are perfect examples of this. Try them to have a simple report with charts, graphs or pie to summarize the performance of your website.
Here we have provided a link to respective tool’s details page rather than the link to log in. So that you can be familiar with that and step ahead.
Improve Website Performance for Speed and Search Engine Optimization
Wait! Isn’t that too much? Yes, it is, many tools by Google to optimize the website. Our advice is know all but use only those tools that are most relevant to you. In other words, make a balance between your website optimization goals and time investment. Then utilize the tools that you’re comfortable with, to increase search traffic in minimum time.
Further, those first 5 services are the Google tools that we use the most to improve website performance and speed. These Google services also help us to optimize web pages for users as well as search engines (SEO). An improvement in performance tends to let a web page appear higher in Search Results, bring more traffic and increase user conversion.
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