subject: Google Officially announces Page Upload Speed as Ranking Factor [print this page] Google has in a recent statement, made it public that they have commenced using website upload speed as part of the 200 signals that determines the placement of a website in Google's search result page.
Since the speed of a page upload shows the response time of a website in replying to a web request, Google has decided to consider site speed in their search rankings. In order to ascertain the speed of a website in comparison with other websites, they will employ a wide range of sources.
Effect of the decision on your website ranking
Math Cutts from Google affirms that the new development will affect only certain websites and that less than 1% of search queries will be altered as a result of including website speed in their ranking factor. This implies that only fewer search results will be affected. This is because, the average search request returns about 10 search results on each page.
Although 1% seems insignificant, it may pose an issue if your website is among the webpages that will drop in their ranking. Presently, this is only applicable to web visitors who are searching on Google in English.
Techniques for Keeping your Web Pages Listed on top Google Search Results
Take a tour of these simple techniques and enhance the speed of your web pages.
Go for a fast and dependable web host that has excellent connection to the internet. You can encounter problems by settling for a "cheap" web host.
Merge external JavaScript code files into a single file. When the server has fewer files to request, your web pages will load faster.
In order to make the JavaScript smaller, you need to compress your JavaScript code.
Merge external CSS files to a single file, and then compress the CSS files.
Enable gZip compression; but this is only if it is supported by your web server. This is what a web host can help you achieve.
The images in your website should be as fewer as possible, and ensure that the images are compressed. A good number of graphic tools will give you the option to select a compression rate when an image is being saved for the web.
At the end of your web pages, include tracking codes as well as JavaScript snippets.
Those who search the web are usually desirous of immediate result, and as such are not willing to wait even a moment longer. When your web pages load faster, there is an increased chance of visitors getting to see your website contents.
Web page speed is not the top ranking signal used by Google. This is confirmed by a statement made towards the end of Google's page speed announcement; "Although site speed is a latest signal factor, the relevance of the page is weightier than its speed when accomplishing ranking".
However, it is essential that you optimize the speed of your web pages; you also need to have other features of your web pages optimized in order to be listed on Google's first result page.
Google Officially announces Page Upload Speed as Ranking Factor
