Online businesses prepare for site speed to impact Google search rankings
COCONUT CREEK, Fla.—April 15, 2010—Last week, Google announced that it is adjusting the algorithm it uses to determine search rankings, adding site speed to the list of signals used to rank results. By measuring how quickly a Web site responds to Web requests as it calculates search rankings, Google is forcing online organizations to more closely consider the performance of its Web entities and improve the Web experience for their users.
"Google's decision to add site speed to their search algorithm changes the SEO (search engine optimization) game for online businesses," says Ken Gross, President and CEO of AlertSite®. "Companies now are going to have to evaluate and optimize all of the content on their sites—not just keywords or links—to ensure they perform quickly and rank well. Web performance monitoring is going to become even more critical, as businesses look to out-load and outrank the competition."
To help online businesses evaluate their sites' performance and enhance their Google search rankings, AlertSite has made available a number of complementary services to test the performance and speed of Web sites, and see where they rank amongst competitors.
To determine the speed of their sites, online businesses can simply visit AlertSite's Web site test page, enter their URL into the available field, and click Go! In mere seconds, testers can see the availability and response time, HTTP status, IP address and component response time of their site. Testers receive a report that lists the total page response time in the upper right corner, as well as individual object response times to demonstrate exactly which Web components (if any) are causing a slowdown.
Organizations can then consult AlertSite's Business Benchmarks to compare their own sites' response times to competitors in a variety of industries, including: Financial Services, Healthcare, Online Retail, Technology and more. To compile these indices, AlertSite uses DéjàClick full-page measurements to record load times for the home pages, including images, JavaScript, Flash and third-party objects, of major online brands every five minutes, 24/7, from more than 50 locations across the globe. AlertSite's Business Benchmarks provide the latest accessibility and response time statistics for some of the Web's most popular brands.
"If you're at all invested in the SEO of your brand, now is the time to take advantage of these performance testing tools, and make sure your site is ready for Google's changes," says Gross.
AlertSite offers a wide array of Web performance management solutions that allow online businesses to test and optimize the availability and response times of their Web sites and applications. To learn more, please visit please visit www.AlertSite.com or call an AlertSite performance advisor at 877-302-5378.
In addition, AlertSite's Web performance advisors will be at Interop, April 25-29 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas. Show attendees are welcome to visit Booth #2412 to consult a Web performance expert and test the performance and speed of their sites.
ABOUT ALERTSITE
AlertSite is a leading provider of Web performance management solutions that ensure a customer's Web-based services and applications are always available and running at peak performance. More than 2,300 customers worldwide rely on AlertSite to understand and enhance the end-user Web experience, including AT&T, Honda, Ryder, Symantec, and Purina Mills.
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