Google REALLY Wants You to Speed Up Your Web Site

By Andy Beal on December 2, 2009

Google REALLY Wants You to Speed Up Your Web Site

When Google’s Matt Cutts makes this statement on Twitter:

“This is important. Google provides webmaster tool to see how fast your site is…”

You can pretty much take to the bank that Google is getting ready to add site load speed to its complex search algorithm.

In fact, Cutts points us to this Google announcement:

On Site Performance, you’ll find how fast your pages load, how they’ve fared over time, how your site’s load time compares to that of other sites, examples of specific pages and their actual page load times, and Page Speed suggestions that can help reduce user-perceived latency. Our goal is to bring you specific and actionable speed information backed by data, so stay tuned for more of this in the future.

So, why is Google adding “speed” to its algorithm? The clue is given by Google:

Studies have repeatedly shown that speeding up your site leads to increased user retention and activity, higher revenue and lower costs.

Oh, you thought Google was talking about your revenues and costs? No, silly, it’s Google’s.

PS. Want to check your site’s performance? You’ll need a Google Webmaster’s account, then follow this navigation path: yoursite>labs>site performance (thanks NC_SEO)

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8 comments on “Google REALLY Wants You to Speed Up Your Web Site”

Google GERÇEKTEN web sitelerinizi hızlandırmanızı istiyor Says:

December 3rd, 2009 at 12:45 am

[...] PS. Want to check your site’s performance? You’ll need a Google Webmaster’s account, then follow this navigation path: yoursite>labs>site performance (thanks NC_SEO) via marketingpilgrim.com [...]
links for 2009-12-02 « Scott Jangro Says:

December 3rd, 2009 at 2:10 am

[...] Google REALLY Wants You to Speed Up Your Web Site This is important! (tags: google, webmaster, performance, affiliate) [...]
Jaan Kanellis Says:

December 3rd, 2009 at 7:54 am

I dont think they are adding it, it has been in there for some time now.
.-= Jaan Kanellis´s last blog ..Year In Reviews and Zeitgeists from the Search Engines =-.
Richard V. Burckhardt Says:

December 3rd, 2009 at 12:14 pm

Yep. I agree with Jaan that site load time has been a part of the algo for a while. But, it’s possible Google is going to add additional emphasis to it as far as ranking.
Trent Carter Says:

December 3rd, 2009 at 1:56 pm

I guess the real question is, how fast is fast enough? Ever since I read about this development, I’ve been using utils like YSlow to see how I could improve things, and I’ve been able to make minor improvements.

But I’m at a point where I feel it’s as fast as I can take it, without SERIOUSLY overhauling our code.
David Reske Says:

December 4th, 2009 at 10:15 am

It might be self-promotional, but in the end it all comes back to the fact that our customers are online (and use Google). Increasing site loading speed can only help.
.-= David Reske´s last blog ..Search and Social Media Survey Results: Are Marketers Practicing what they Preach? =-.
Links for December 3rd Says:

December 5th, 2009 at 8:23 am

[...] Google REALLY Wants You to Speed Up Your Web Site – This is important! [...]
Google’s New URL Shortener Goo.gl: Is it Goo.d or Evi.l? | Technoinspire Blog Says:

December 16th, 2009 at 6:08 am

[...] if Google insists that sites with long URLs slow down the web and insists you convert to Goo.gl? Not that far fetched!What if it was added to the Google Toolbar because PageRank is going away–and Google needs a [...]

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