How to Boost Site Speed and Improve Google Ranking

If you wonder why people worry about improving their site speed and Google search ranking, it is pretty simple. Every online business or website owner wants to improve their content so that their visitors/customers will be comfortable with the services they offer. It is necessary that you boost your site speed and Google ranking for a better experience for your visitors and easier access to your content. Improving your Google ranking will also create a great deal of exposure to your site and content, and if your website has a slow load speed, this can affect its Google ranking negatively.  There are several ways to improve your site speed, but it is very important to get insights on your site’s performance, and with MonsterInsights new version, 7.14, website owners will get detailed information with the site speed report. The first step to attaining any improvement in your site’s speed or performance is to get a report and make changes to areas that need improvement.

Using MonsterInsights advanced tech, you can also examine other stats including;

• Total Blocking Time; this is a report on the time spent by visitors to access your site
• Server Response Time; this reports the time spent before your website server is responsive to load the site
• Time to Interactive; this report shows the time of your page’s load to its stop
• First Contentful Paint; this measures the time taken to load visuals on your site

With these analytic reports powered by MonsterInsights, website owners can examine reports and use preferable methods to improve their user’s experience.

Using a Content Delivery Network, you can boost your site’s speed, responsiveness, and ranking. A CDN works to improve site speed by storing the stationary contents on its server and directing users (your website visitors) to its nearest server, thereby delivering the contents as quickly as possible. Using a content delivery network is not only reliable in boosting your site’s speed but also in providing security to your website and protecting it from crashing. There are several CDN options, but we suggest MaxCDN.

Using MaxCDN to boost your site’s speed exposes your website to the following features and services

• Straightforward installation process
• Comprehensive reports of content delivery and traffic
• Free SSL certificates
• Easy-to-use interface
• Up to 1TB bandwidth every month
• High Storage capacity
• Intelligent (automatic) caching and erasing

These services and a few others are available on MaxCDN, helping you provide your visitors with the best experience.

With the steps below, you can set up MaxCDN on your WordPress site

• Sign in or sign up for a MaxCDN account with a valid email

• Choose a pricing plan from the options and provide your payment details
• Now that you are logged in to MaxCDN  go to the Control Panel from the dashboard
• From the given options on the top of the page, select “Zones.”

• Go to “Pull Zones”
• Select the option to “Create Pull Zone.”
• You will be directed to fill the “pull zone” form that requires the following details
• Name; you can name your pull zone as you want
• Your original (server) website’s URL
• Label; you may add a label for a descriptive title
• Custom CDN name; a subdomain can be entered for a custom domain
• Comprehension; enabling/allowing comprehension will help boost your website’s performance
• Click on “+Create” after filling the form

• Creating the Pull Zone will take a few minutes, and an indication of your zone’s provision progress will be displayed in a bar
• When the zone has been created successfully, you will get an alert that reads “Zone Successfully Created!,” as well as a URL for your Content Delivery Network Copy the URL, as it will be needed in the later setup process

The next step is to create a CNAME that enable the MaxCDN to load contents on your websites like JavaScript files, stylesheets, and images

• On the Push Zone tab, navigate to “Settings.”
• On this page, you can add numerous or CNAMES or subdomains of your website
• You will be prompted to fill at least four and at most seven CNAMES for your website asynchronously (one at a time) and confirming each CNAMES by clicking on the “+add” button

After creating CNAMES, you will need to set up a record on CNAMES DNS.

• You will be prompted to sign in to your host’s cPanel
• Go to the “Domains Tab”
• Navigate to “Simple DNS Zone Editor”

The setting might differ depending on your host, but using Bluehost, you will be prompted to provide information on;

• Domain; choose your site’s URL from the displayed menu
• Host Record; provide the name used for your CNAME record
• TTL; this field should be left untouched
• Points to; paste the URL you copied during the “pull zone” set up
• Click on “Add Record” after filling in the details

You will be prompted to provide this information to other CNAME records. The Points To” field will not need any changes.

Now that the CNAMES has been set up successfully, you will be prompted to integrate your site with MaxCDN. Using the W3 Total Cache plugin;

• Navigate to WordPress
• Select Plugins
• Click on “Add New”
• Search for, and install W3 Total Cache

• When the plugin has been activated successfully;
• Navigate to WordPress dashboard
• Select “Performance”
• Click on “General Settings”
• Scroll till you find the “CDN” option
• Mark the “Enable” box
• From the “CDN Type” options, select MaxCDN
• Click on the “Save all Settings” button afterward

After this setup, you will be directed to fill your “Authorisation Key,” which can be gotten from the MaxCDN panel, and an option to replace the default hostname. You can provide these details by clicking on the link “Specify it here,” as seen in the screenshot below

• You will be directed to a new page, which is the CDN settings for W3 Total Cache
• When you fill in the “Autorisation key: details, hit the “Authorise” button in the field for hostname’s replacement, you can fill in the CNAMES or subdomains you used earlier, and hit the “Add CNAMES” button
• Click on “Save all Settings”

Now, you have successfully integrated MaxCDN to your site, which will improve your site’s speed and Boost your Google Ranking. You can use the MonsterInsights plugin to monitor your site’s speed regularly, which will give you an insight on any hitch that may come up on your website.