Many dentists do not know that  load time or “page speed” is a factor used to determine how well a website may rank for a particular keyword in a Google search. Load time is the time it takes your website to appear after a user clicks on a link to your website. Load time matters because Internet users have come to expect instant results, and we seldom have the patience to wait for a website to load if it takes more than 3 seconds. In fact, speed is so important that Google publicly announced the inclusion of page speed as one of the variables in their algorithm in 2010.

I am writing this post because many dentists pay for website design services and request custom features that slow their websites down. A dentist’s website should be easy to read and extremely fast. Furthermore, a comprehensive SEO strategy should include removing features that slow your website down. If you’re paying for SEO, ask your “expert” what he or she is doing to speed up your website.

You can test your website’s page speed as seen by Google by visiting: https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/