I'm making some good progress with my site with regular blogs and good useful content out there. I installed the Yoast SEO plugin on my WP site and fixed everything I could, but when I run one of the online SEO checkers, it marks the page load time as a problem. I launched the site via Google and got 58% for desktop and 39% for mobile. I have tested the competitors above me and they all have higher speeds than mine, although some of them are only minor to be fair.
How important is page loading speed to improve Google rankings? I am currently ranked 8th, which is only on the first page, but would like to go higher if possible (like everyone else!).
The site is running a theme that I bought, and I think that, like any of the "general" themes, they are quite cumbersome, so may slow things down a bit? My site is hosted with TSO on their economy package, which I know is now getting a lot of mixed reviews since they were bought out by GD.
Anything I can look at that will improve the situation?
Thanks.