Google To Add Site Speed To Algorithm?
Until now, Google has focused more on providing users with search results that are relevant to their search, helping them find information that applies to their situation. But it seems Google plans to put more emphasis on site speed in the near future. In a recent interview, Matt Cutts explained that a lot of people at Google believe that web needs to be fast and faster websites could get a bump in the results.
It’s nice to see that Google has identified site speed as one of the factors that could affect searchers’ experience. Nothing can be more frustrating when you search for something only to find websites that just don’t load up. But the move to count site speed towards search engine rankings could open a can of worms for Google and publishers. It’s a known fact that spammers are very good at hacking, breaking, and doing everything but providing value. Does that mean these guys will get away with making their sites fast and climb the rankings once again?
Site speed should absolutely count for something. But how would you define a fast or slow site? Is waiting 5 seconds for a site to load up slow? Also, a lot of small businesses may not have the servers and resources to make their sites super fast. Will those folks get penalized for trying to provide value on a budget?
To be fair, we still don’t know how Google plans to implement these changes. Sites that are super slow and down most of the time should probably get moved down the search engine results. I would be very surprised if site speed played a significant role for websites that are not too slow or too fast. You don’t want your site to load up fast, but I doubt Google will sacrifice relevance for speed. We will have to wait and see.