Page Load Time & Speed Will Likely Be a Ranking Factor in Google

Page load time (speed) is a factor currently in the AdWords quality score. But soon it may be coming to Google's organic ranking algorithm. If you have a really slow site, it may impact how high you rank in Google. That was the main news coming out of PubCon last week, minus the Caffeine launch.

It is currently not in the algorithm, according to Matt, but who knows - maybe they are testing this already. Matt was clear that Google wants the web to be a faster place and Google does control much of what people see on the web. So Google can influence that people find faster web pages, over slower ones.

You can hear Matt talk about this 2 minutes and 52 seconds into this video:

Google also has a tool to test page speed at http://code.google.com/speed/page-speed/ - so get ready.

I should add, Google has hundreds of ranking factors. Adding one more, depending on the weight they assign to it, shouldn't shuffle things up much for most sites. Just make sure your site loads fast - it is a good thing to have anyway.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

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posted rustybrick in Google Optimization at November 16, 2009 8:54 AM Comments (9)

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This makes perfect sense, but for a different reason than stated above. Google's main mission is to please its searchers. If it sends (refers) a searcher to a slow-loading site, they create frustration. If they send a searcher to a quick-loading site, the searcher is pleased. Over the course of hundreds of searches, this is a major competitive advantage vis-a-vis the other search engines.

Posted by David at November 16, 2009 09:28

David, I did state that above.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at November 16, 2009 09:30

This was one of several solid takeaways from Bruce Clay's presentation recently at ad:tech NY -- that there is a direct correlation between ranking and server speed. (Download his presentation slides via a link posted here: http://www.lohad.com/?p=4666)

Posted by Craig at November 16, 2009 10:19

I welcome this change and think its a good addition. The reason is I like my information fast and I hate it when I click on a search result and wait 20 sec before anything even begins to show up on the page. Most of the time I just leave. I think this will really limit the crap you find on search engines and instead find you quality results.

Posted by No Name at November 16, 2009 12:33

At a glance, Page speed Add-on is very similar to YSLOW. The core function is the same. which one is better? Any expert opinions?

Posted by ritikachugh at November 16, 2009 14:24

This is another good addition for Google search results, and also for the users. Slow loading pages is one of the frustrations on the web.

Posted by Rene at November 16, 2009 14:25

as google tries to measure the user experience performance is allready a ranking factor, but not measures dirctly, but indirectly via serp to page click tracking, google webmaster toolbar user tracking, focus groups, visit flow,....

now in google pursuit to make the internet faster they add in offically and directly to the mix (faster internet means more activity on google, means more money) so good move google

Posted by franz at November 22, 2009 14:39

If it is included, it will decrease the use of graphics, images and flash in websites.

Posted by karmadir at December 9, 2009 14:16

The speed of a website may be a good element to consider in SEO and I’d be very interested on how search engines would go about implementing it.

I believe that many people online, especially in the blogging world have already realized the great impact on the user experience of pages loading quicker and websites functioning better. For example, this has also led to a rise in SEO themes which are making great use of optimized code.

Posted by Cemil at January 28, 2010 04:54

Page Load Time & Speed Will Likely Be a Ranking Factor in Google

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