What is WPO?

One of the main quality criteria used by Google is website performance. So, if we want to improve our page rank, we will have to optimize the speed of the website as much as possible. This is where we should know what Web Performance Optimization (WPO) is and how it can help us to improve this aspect of SEO.

what is Web Performance Optimization (WPO)?

Web Performance Optimization (WPO) means “performance optimization”. As the term itself indicates, it is the SEO discipline that consists of detecting which elements negatively influence the loading speed of a website and how to solve it. The ultimate goal is to have a site as efficient as possible.

what is WPO in SEO for?

WPO in SEO is vital, since a website that loads fast will be better positioned in search engines than others of the same quality but slower. So optimizing the loading speed positively influences the page rank of the site.

Just keep in mind that Adwords calculates the ranking taking into account two factors: cost per click (CPC) and quality level. And one of the main criteria it follows to determine the quality level is the page performance.

Main criteria of Web Performance Optimization

When it comes to measuring the performance of a website, there are many criteria. Some, in fact, very specific. But the main ones are:

• Initial load speed: i.e. the average time it takes for pages to load completely from the time the user makes the request.
• File weight: dynamic content sections, embedded objects or using large and heavy images decrease not only the loading speed of the site, but also the interaction between the site and the user once loaded.
• Server connections: a server that does not support a considerable amount of traffic will make the site slow to respond (and even hang) when there are many users trying to access it.
• Number of file uploads: the number of times the same file is uploaded from scratch during one or several sessions of the same user

how to do WPO for SEO?

Here are some of the main Web Performance Optimization or WPO techniques:

1. Reduce CSS and JS files: for this you can use tools to “host” the code, i.e. remove unnecessary characters such as tabs and line breaks.
2. Activate the server cache: this way you can reduce the number of times this or that file is loaded, so that it does not have to be loaded every time the user requests it.
3. Compress images: you should reduce the size and quality of the images as much as possible without affecting the user experience. At the same time, you should choose a format (JPG, PNG, GIF, etc.) suitable for each one.
4. Minimize the use of redirects: every time there is a redirect, the browser has to load a different page, which negatively impacts site performance.
5. Avoid embedded objects: Flash, ActiveX and Java objects slow down the website and do not help the site’s indexing. So it is best to replace them with JavaScript code or other formats compatible with the WWW.
6. Optimize (or change) the hosting: you must make sure that the hosting has the optimal performance and is configured correctly so that your website runs smoothly.

When doing WPO, we could also resort to file compression, use of CDN to speed up requests, remove unnecessary plugins, change to a less loaded theme, etc. Most of the time, the solution is obvious when we see what aspect of our website negatively affects its performance.

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