Last year, Google had mentioned that eventually site speed would become a factor in how they rank sites in their algorithm. Well the time is here because Google officially announced it. However be smart, don’t sacrifice relevance and quality for speed because even Google says it will have little impact.
The reason why this was implemented and that page speed matters is that according to studies delays in loading have a significant impact in your business metrics. It is a known fact users respond negatively towards slower loading pages. Google is trying to limit the impact on search behavior which isn’t such a bad idea.
Googler, Amit Singhal says: “When we slow our own users down, we see less engagement”. “Users love fast sites. A faster web is a good thing all around.”
Although Google’s algorithm has over 200 different ranking factors, quality should still be the first and formost concern for website owners. Page speed is in place now as a ranking factor and has been for a couple weeks. If your site was going to be impacted, it probably would’ve happened already.
