Back in the 90’s, web designers took size and speed seriously, but with the popularity of broadband, no one seems to care how “fat” a website is. Computers are fast and so are the networks. Websites today can be quite large. Especially if you have flash components and high quality graphics. But as I said, who really cares anymore?
The answer is “Google cares”. Google has paid attention to how people use the Internet and Google has determined that websites experience a much higher bounce rate when the website takes longer to load. Even though we all have faster computers and more bandwidth, we are also more impatient as surfers. Not to mention the fact that more people will be accessing the Internet via appliance hardware (net books, cell phones, TVs, game consoles, and special function devices). These devices usually have limiting factors such as smaller screen size, challenging keyboards, and slower Internet speeds. Google recognizes the trend towards convenience and away from power. Google is starting to calculate page loading speeds as part of their ranking algorithm. I predict they will also start ranking sites based on usability factors as well.
Redesigning your site with these factors in mind could be a major boost to your own search engine rankings. Not only will your site show performance improvements, but hopefully your competitors will begin being penalized. It’s a double boost. You look good to Google and they look bad. We don’t know all the factors and formulas that Google is using. But we do know that simplicity and speed are the hot topics from Google.
Simplicity is another issue that very few designers consider when building a website. The typical conversation is, “What do you want on it?”, and “More is better!”. The third discussion is, “How can we make this easier?” The answer could be in adding special design templates for small devices, automatic browser size detection, keyboard-free surfing, larger type, larger buttons, quicker navigation strategies such as site maps. Examine your own site and ask yourself how you can simplify it. What content can you move or hide? What can you do for your navigation to make it work better on small devices? Imagine what your site would look like with super simplified graphics, more white space, larger fonts, and a clean and streamlined user experience?
Speed up your website and simplify it. Google will love you for it.
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