What is File Compression and Why Is It Important for SEO?

What is File Compression and Why Is It Important for SEO?

There are a few steps that need to happen before you can see a web page. When you type the URL of the page you want to access or click on the link you found on a search engine, your browser sends a request to the website server. The server finds the page and sends it to the browser, and then the browser downloads the page and shows it on your device’s screen.

If the size of your page is too big (images, CCS, JavaScript, and other files add to it) you’ll run into trouble and it will slow down the load process. This is a big problem nowadays because internet users have grown impatient as internet speed has evolved.

So, improving how fast your site loads is always good both to improve your site’s SEO performance and your users’ experience.

A way to achieve this is file compression. File compression is the process of encoding data using fewer bits, which reduces file size.

Compression can reduce file size by as much as 90%. You can enable compression on your server and send zipped versions of files to the browsers that request your site. This means it will take less time for the browser to show users the page they want to see.

There are different formats for compression files, but only Gzip is supported by all browsers.

How does file compression help improve a page’s SEO performance?

One of the most important criteria for a page’s ranking is loading speed. The “lighter” the website is, the faster it will load.

Why is this important? As we said before, people don’t want to be waiting for pages to load. They want instant access to whatever information they are looking for. So, how fast Google is able to access your website and its content has a direct effect on SERPs’ rankings.

If you’re looking for professional assistance in optimizing your website’s SEO performance, you may consider partnering with an experienced SEO company.