We were the first agency in Orangeville to point out to our community that there was much more to websites than having a website some judged as “beautiful.” Indeed, since 1997, we’ve stressed the importance of good on-site search engine optimization and website speed optimization. Back in the early 21st century, web site speed in of itself was not a major search engine ranking factor; but it was a factor in simply being a good “netizin” – a citizen of the community of internet users, and realizing that not looking after website loading times did both the website owner and its visitors a major dis-service.

We’ve wrote about this many times, and back in 2019, we published a comprehensive guide on why website speed is now a truly critical issue to be concerned about.

It’s been fun to watch as we view our webserver logs to note that since then, our guide has been reviewed by our competition in Orangeville on many occasions, and today, some of the local Orangeville agencies are now also promoting the benefits of website speed, and using the very same ideas that we published, two years ago. We’re actually happy about this; we had seen some of their work two years ago, and it was obvious website speed was one of the things furthest from their minds at the time!

But it’s great to note that some of those competing agencies are now seeing “the light,” and are agreeing that a faster internet is a good internet, and that faster websites do get an SEO benefit. That’s good for everyone!

Our Message Is Reaching Internationally

Some time ago, we took on a Greek client who needed some help and advice, after having a site designed and hosted by a Greek agency, but who had lead astray some important and critical education in order for them to succeed. After showing what we could do, this business recently decided to give The Ian Scott Group full control over their SEO and future website development.

The project involved a major migration from another e-commerce platform to WordPress/WooCommerce, much planning, and implementation of features (some, such as real time credit card processing is still in the works) in order to fully take advantage of the possibilities of business growth through marketing, SEO, and all the tools available to really help them grow.

Two days ago, we launched their website and provided a plan to increase their online sales moving forward.

One of the first things they noticed was the tremendous improvement in website speed. Their website went from taking about 5 seconds to fully load, to less than two seconds.

And this was with an image heavy front page!

The GTMetrix report has been screen shotted and posted at the top of this article. Our client’s website gets an A along with a performance rating of 100%.

To be honest, 100% performance rating is pretty amazing and special, and we were even surprised – we’re normally pretty happy with anything above 90%. We can’t always guarantee a 100% performance rating on website speed tests, but we won’t stop working at it until it’s an A grade, and above 90.

Website Speed Is Not The Only Thing

Of course, website speed is not the only SEO ranking factor, but with skill and knowledge, it is one of the things that can be improved instead of trying to spend tons of money on backlinks. It’s amazing at times what some so-called SEO experts will say is required to rank for low to medium competition keywords (think local), when in fact, paying attention to Google standards and technical excellence is often what it takes to start ranking.

So why not start there, with paying attention to standards in the first place? We’re not sure why many agencies don’t bother with these details

Indeed, even on issues of accessibility, we’ve been pointing out the importance of this for a few years now, and only now in 2021, are some of our competitors catching on that this is important. “Finally,” we say!

Funny to us, two+ years ago, we were reading how they (our competitors) thought our ideas and suggestions about website speed, accessibility, and SEO were rubbish. 🙂

Welcome To B-loved Boutique

We’re pretty proud to have clients throughout North America and through the years, even in the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe that have been with us since forever, in internet time. Like, since 1997-2001.

B-loved Boutique has been a client for a couple of years now, mostly in the realm of consulting and some help with increasing sales and website content. This month, the business finally took the plunge after seeing results we provide, to having The Ian Scott Group handle all of their website/internet business, including hosting, SEO, email marketing, list building, and even helping them expand into other European countries.

We care about our clients, and we love to see them grow!

We’re also pretty affordable. We don’t have sales people that we need to pay commissions to, or the overhead of “account managers” – because we take the time to intimately get to know the business needs of our clients, directly.

We’re also adaptable and can get to know and understand your precise business needs. You’re not an “account number” to us. We share our clients’ struggles and their achievements!

B-loved Boutique has realized this and that’s why they are trusting us with our experience, to help them achieve their goals in a solid way, based on principles, standards, and not simply trying to take all their profits. Or, invoicing for payments just because you can pay it.

Is this a philosophy that appeals to you? A long term partnership that goes through both the peaks and the bumps and valleys along the way, and the person you are telling your needs to isn’t just a salesperson handing you off to their production department, but it’s the production department that understands your burdens. It’s the production department that is also the sales department, and our production people know results are needed.

Website Speed Revisited

Do you know your website is not performing very well in many areas including website speed? Even if it had nothing to do with SEO, you understand the fact that it’s just plain being civil to your website visitors that your website loads in a reasonably fast time, right?
Get in touch. We’ll help you out and guide you to what needs to be done.