Are HubSpot websites slow?
Oct 03, 2024
SEO is a fundamental part of many B2B marketing strategies, so choosing the right platform to support your optimisation efforts is crucial. We often hear marketers asking whether HubSpot is good for SEO, particularly around website performance. In this blog, we'll explore HubSpot's SEO capabilities and show you why it's a great choice for businesses serious about search.
When discussing HubSpot's SEO capabilities, performance often dominates the conversation. That's no surprise. Speed and technical optimisation are crucial ranking factors that impact your search visibility. However, the concerns we hear about HubSpot's performance don't match reality.
When comparing the speed of popular website platforms, HubSpot consistently ranks among the top performers. Pingdom's analysis revealed that HubSpot CMS was second only to WordPress, with just a 0.1-second difference in load times.
For most SMEs and enterprise businesses, HubSpot's speed and infrastructure are more than sufficient to support strong SEO, deliver a great user experience, and drive website conversions.
HubSpot's impressive performance isn't just a coincidence – it's the result of significant investment in infrastructure and optimisation features. The platform includes several powerful features that ensure your website is primed for search engine success:
The platform also handles crucial technical SEO elements automatically, removing the need for complex configurations or additional plugins. Your SSL certificates are managed automatically, and the platform supports the HTTP/2 protocol for faster page loading – all working together to create a solid technical foundation for your SEO efforts.
HubSpot's commitment to SEO extends far beyond background performance optimisation. The platform provides a comprehensive suite of tools that make it easier for you to optimise your website and content effectively.
HubSpot's SEO recommendation tool looks at ways to optimise your entire website. These recommendations are ranked in priority order to show which optimisations will have the biggest impact on your site's performance.
The platform scans your website and provides suggestions for:
Each recommendation shows exactly which pages need attention and provides clear steps for implementation. You can track your progress as you make improvements and monitor your site's SEO health over time.
It's important to remember that fixing all of these recommendations is unlikely to transform your SEO results on its own. There will be some optimisations that are worth fixing for incremental performance gains. But there will also be recommentations that won't give you a big, if any, positive impact in SEO, so choose where you spend your time and resource wisely.
When you're creating content, HubSpot provides real-time SEO suggestions, these help you optimise your content as you write, ensuring you're targeting the right keywords and following SEO best practices.
The platform's content strategy tool helps you plan and organise your content around topic clusters – a proven approach for building search authority. By connecting related content pieces to pillar pages, you create a clear structure that search engines can easily understand and index.
For those looking to use AI in their content creation process, HubSpot's AI blog generator offers intelligent suggestions based on SEMrush data. This ensures your content isn't just written to align with your prompts, but strategically optimised for search visibility.
Understanding your SEO performance is crucial for ongoing optimisation. HubSpot makes this easier by:
Having all these tools in one place streamlines your workflow and makes it easier to maintain consistent optimisation across your entire website.
While HubSpot provides an excellent foundation for SEO, certain implementation choices can impact its effectiveness. Understanding these potential pitfalls helps you maintain optimal performance.
While HubSpot provides an excellent foundation for SEO, certain implementation choices can impact its effectiveness. Understanding these potential pitfalls helps you maintain optimal performance.
Several common elements can slow down your HubSpot website:
However, remember that SEO success extends beyond technical setup. While HubSpot provides an excellent foundation, you still need:
To maximise HubSpot's SEO potential, you need to focus on both technical and strategic elements of your implementation.
Start with a streamlined theme – either chosen from the marketplace or custom-built for your brand. This ensures your website's codebase remains efficient and performant. If you opt for the custom-theme route, it's important to work with an accredited and experienced HubSpot website designer who understands how to create websites that are both visually impactful and technically built for SEO.
Develop a clear SEO strategy that outlines your goals, target keywords, and content approach. Use HubSpot's built-in tools consistently, and measure your results to identify optimisation opportunities.
Remember that SEO isn't a "set and forget" activity. Regular monitoring and optimisation are essential for maintaining and improving your search visibility. You can use HubSpot's analytics tools to track your performance and make data-driven decisions about your SEO strategy.
HubSpot provides an excellent foundation for SEO success, combining powerful performance features with comprehensive optimisation tools. While there are elements that can impact its effectiveness, these can be mitigated through proper implementation and ongoing optimisation.
If you're evaluating HubSpot CMS for your website and want to ensure it's optimised for SEO success, book a demo with one of our experts. We'll show you how you can maximise HubSpot's SEO capabilities and create a website that drives organic growth for your business.
