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What People Say about Site Speed

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Site Speed Matters. It's Official

News has struck the SEO industry. The speed of a website now officially has an effect on its Google search engine rankings. It has been speculated that Google was going to implement this factor into its complicated 200-factor algorithm for a long time, but this is still a major shock to most internet marketing professionals.


According to the official Google Webmaster Central Blog, it is important to speed up your site. I agree. A faster site will leave visitors satisfied and on your site for a longer period of time. Users do put a lot of value on speed, but does it make sense to rank websites on their speed? It just seems like a lateral move to me.

What Others Are Saying

Most webmasters feel the same way. Out of the 140 comments to the post, most of them are webmasters complaining about this change. One commenter shared a similar opinion to mine. My additions to the comment areĀ italicized.

dianosq said…

I do not think that this is a solid idea. What about sites that post lots of photos on their pages or use complex services that take longer to load? What about all the sites that use advertisement? They obviously load slower than a plain HTML site. And a plain HTML site obviously is less interactive and probably less useful to searchers. Great job, Google – you just leaned your top search results toward useless websites. šŸ™

It would be nice if Google would add more transparency to the new signal, including if a website’s rankings are affected by its loading time (in webmaster tools for instance). Great idea, but even if it was implemented, it wouldn’t make up for basing search results on the speed of a website, even in the slightest.

You guys hopefully look at the connection speeds and origins of visitors as well. A website with lots of Indian users for instance will likely have slower speeds reported than a website with Japanese or Swedish users. Are those factors included in the calculation? Another great idea, but I don’t think Google is capable doing this without drawing legal attention.

How can a webmaster check to see if a recent ranking drop (say on April 1) is related to that new factor? I think Google should extend this so that whenever a site’s rankings are changed, positively or negatively, Google should tell us why so we can improve. A great place for Google to do this is within Google Webmaster Tools.

Another commenter said that “since Google Analytics is slow, does it have an effect on Google’s rankings? That would be the ultimate irony.”

Google’s Reaction

In an attempt to cool things down with outraged webmasters, Google has stated within the post that page speed doesn’t carry much weight and that fewer than 1% of search queries have been affected by the new algorithm factor implementation. Still, if you are in about 1 in a hundred of search queries, your site ranking in particular may have been affected.

Google also linked to a few tools for webmasters to use to examine, analyze, and optimize webpage speed:

  • Page Speed, an open source Firefox/Firebug add-on that evaluates the performance of web pages and gives suggestions for improvement.
  • YSlow, a free tool from Yahoo! that suggests ways to improve website speed.
  • WebPagetest shows a waterfall view of your pages’ load performance plus an optimization checklist.
  • InĀ Webmaster Tools, Labs > Site Performance shows the speed of your website as experienced by users around the world as in the chart below. We’ve also blogged aboutĀ site performance.

You can learn more about tracking siteĀ performanceĀ using Google Webmaster Tools here: Site Performance In Google Webmaster Tools

Google also defends itself by saying that by using page speed in ranking, it is helping satisfy its users by giving them faster webpages. That is a good point, but I’m still against using page speed as an indicator of the importance of a page.

Since Google has gone through with the new page speed implementation, the best thing you can do as a webmaster is improve your… page speed. The best way to do this without spending hours staring at the computer working and coding to make your website faster is switch to a better webhost.

Back to Google’s new algorithm change, I hope they know what they’re doing.

About

Karan Singhal is a well-known professional search engine and social media optimizer. He founded the Trafficke SEO Consulting Firm. He also shares more advice at the Trafficke Blog

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{ 30 Responses }

  1. Leo says:
    Site Speed is indeed now officially a ranking factor but it will still be less important than elements such as links, page titles and "trust". Relevancy, which is what all search engines aim to achieve, is not determined by speed of site, even if the latter can become a factor to "push down" slow sites out of the top 10.
    • Jason Jumat says:
      Once you have a big brand (very known brand online) like cnn.com and the likes I guess you don't really need to worry about things like SEO much. Like having a very fast loading site.
  2. Jason Jumat says:
    It's a fun thing that Google keeps updating the way they rank websites, and that this becomes even more complex as time goes by. It keeps the right people where they should be. And the wrong people out.
  3. Aj Clarke says:
    I think it is about time that they implement it. I think it makes no sense for a site to be ranking number 1 on google if it takes 5 minutes to load. People need information quickly and this is one way google can help provide that. .-= NEW from Aj Clarke @ Top Wordpress ThemesĀ“s last blog ..Stockphoto Shop Wordpress Theme =-.
    • Karan says:
      This is true, and if I was a web surfer searching using Google, I'd want sites I visit to load faster, but there are other ways of solving this problem. My point is that a site with simple text and images will get a bonus over a complex wordpress blog providing great interactive information. Otherwise, I don't have much to say about the new algorithm implementation. .-= NEW from Karan @ Trafficke SEO Services FirmĀ“s last blog ..How To Target Keywords Using Links =-.
      • AJ says:
        I agree completely... I think Google is taking this into account though...At least lets hope that sites that are purely text do not outrank. But I guess you can also think about the fact that a site that is better looking and so forth will have a much higher bounce rate. Tip: I recently used smush.it on my sites images and saved around 800kb just on my layout images! .-= NEW from AJ@Best Wordpress ThemesĀ“s last blog ..MiniBuzz Wordpress Theme =-.
  4. Tushar says:
    i personally believe considering site speed for PR calculation is not the best idea...speed can considerably vary because of some incontrollable aspects and you cant punish a blog for this .-= NEW from TusharĀ“s last blog ..Higher Visits = Higher Popularity!!!! Not Always Dudeā€¦. =-.
    • Karan says:
      Exactly, search engines shouldn't penalize a website just because its hosting company is having problems or on shared hosting, the website is unfortunately on a server with many other accounts. .-= NEW from Karan @ Trafficke SEO Services FirmĀ“s last blog ..How To Target Keywords Using Links =-.
      • Aj Clarke says:
        I do not think speed is going to be that big of a criteria...if your content is good, you have great link backs...and your site loads in under a few seconds you will be fine. There are so many different things that are taken into account and this is just 1 of them.Slow sites will probably still rank on first page. I think it is mainly going to hurt sites that literally take over 10 seconds to load or something crazy. .-= NEW from Aj Clarke @ Top Wordpress ThemesĀ“s last blog ..MiniBuzz Wordpress Theme =-.
  5. Steve says:
    I think the issue of site speed is going to become irrelevant in a years time anyway as people's internet connections get upgraded and these increased speeds make the difference between a "fast" and a "slow" site almost unoticeable. So why Google are incorporating this into their search algorithm now is beyond me.
  6. DiTesco says:
    This is just like the PR thing right. If someone has no PR, it is not important. If someone does, then it is a good thing. Site speed as you said is amongst 200+ factors. That's 200+ and not alone by itself. So i guess that the importance of site speed is just like any other SEO factor one should be concerned about. I said concerned and not worry nor panic. Google has proven itself to be a major search engine and I do not believe that they will take steps that will be "negative" on their part. And if they do think that it is generating a negative impact, they change it. Should we be worried about speed? I personally think that YES. Thinking like a user myself makes me enjoy visiting sites that loads quickly rather than those that I can almost drink a cup of cofee:) .-= NEW from DiTescoĀ“s last blog ..Google Releases Best SEO Tips Ever =-.
    • Karan says:
      First, thanks for the valuable comment. Second, you are very correct. We should think about the speed of our websites when developing them, but we shouldn't panic about it or go overboard. .-= NEW from Karan @ Internet Marketing ConsultingĀ“s last blog ..d3Dblock ā€“ Free 3D Wordpress Theme =-.
  7. Julius Kuhn-Regnier says:
    I don't like the change partly because my web site is slow :P Actually I am going to switch web hosts so that shouldn't be a problem. I believe it's good to include site speed because what good is a web site if you are not going to see it anyway because it is loading so slow?! Nice post there ;) .-= NEW from Julius Kuhn-RegnierĀ“s last blog ..7 Real Life Bloggers to Inspire You =-.
    • Karan Singhal says:
      I'm on HostGator which I heard before I subscribed had great server speed and I'm sure it does, but I'm loaded with about 40 other websites. (shared hosting) .-= NEW from Karan Singhal @ Trafficke Website Optimization Consulting FirmĀ“s last blog ..Site Speed Now Officially Important =-.
  8. Andrew says:
    I welcome the change. Website load speed is about customer service. If it makes people take a little action to improve the speed then that is good for customer service. And I can see Google increasing the percentage over the next year or so. Andrew .-= NEW from Andrew @ Blogging GuideĀ“s last blog ..The Power of Blogging and Politics =-.
  9. Brendan says:
    Site speed has always been a factor, but content will always outweigh everything else. .-= NEW from Brendan @ Online Marketing ConsultingĀ“s last blog ..StumbleUpon Advertising: Worth It? =-.
  10. Melvin says:
    I dont really have problem whatsoever with that new factor. In fact for me its a challenge since I have to make sure my sites are clean so it will load faster and eventually rank better.
  11. Dennis Edell says:
    I've always tried to make sure I'm fast for visitors and will continue to do so...if Google also likes it, that's merely a bonus. .-= NEW from Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales MarketingĀ“s last blog ..TweetMeme Installed! I Have Some Questionsā€¦ =-.
  12. Onibalusi Bamidele says:
    Great post! everybody has his/her opinion, but in my own opinion, this makes everything better for everybody. Concerning the person who wrote a comment about sites with lots of images, google can't crawl images so they won't count images as a factor, google can also read the "alt text" you use for your images. Lets see how everything goes and how others feel, but in my opinion, it also gives your visitors the best experience because they don't have to wait for ages before they can access your website. I discovered the site speed problem is mostly with sites with lots of ads from various ad providers and also lots of videos. Once again, Thanks a lot for the great post, Onibalusi
  13. Jonathan says:
    It always made sense to me that a website should load rather quickly. This is one issue I encounter with clients who still prefer heavy flash animation and other time hogs like unoptimized external scripts, toolbars, pop-ups and the like. Now I'll have to be extra careful and further optimize projects that I am involved with. .-= NEW from Jonathan @ Archon DigitalĀ“s last blog ..Facebook Fan Page & Fan Box Script ā€“ Image Replacement Fix =-.
    • Karan Singhal says:
      I'm not a fan of flashy websites either, but I still think it's a mistake counting the speed of a website in its rankings. .-= NEW from Karan Singhal @ Trafficke Website Optimization Consulting FirmĀ“s last blog ..Is Twitter Truly Powerful? =-.
      • Jonathan says:
        it's a sad fact of life that we have to face now Google can dictate the terms because their on top right now Anyway, HTML5 is here and I think we could be on to something better and faster loading .-= NEW from Jonathan @ Archon DigitalĀ“s last blog ..Why Re-Invent the Wheel? Because Great People Do So. =-.
  14. Blogetize says:
    I'm not sure how I feel about this change, does this mean that .blogspot.com and .wordpress.com blogs will get better rankings than self-hosted blogs that don't have optimal hosting..? I'll have to follow this issue closely, I'm still not sure how I feel about it. .-= NEW from BlogetizeĀ“s last blog ..12 Blogs That Have Dofollow Comments =-.
    • Karan Singhal says:
      Yes, I believe it does mean exactly this. .-= NEW from Karan Singhal @ Trafficke Website Optimization Consulting FirmĀ“s last blog ..Is Twitter Truly Powerful? =-.
      • Kharim says:
        But why? :( .-= NEW from KharimĀ“s last blog ..Index Your Articles On Google Search =-.
        • Karan says:
          Truthfully, I think that there are still many more benefits of a self-hosted blog, including a lot more respect from search engines and readers. Not spending a maximum of $10 a month for shared hosting along with a domain just shows how little you're dedicated to blogging. So really, I don't think the self-hosted thing is a big issue. .-= NEW from Karan @ Trafficke SEO FirmĀ“s last blog ..How To Target Keywords Using Links =-.