Does site load time/speed REALLY matter for ranking?

by mooble
7 replies
  • SEO
  • |
So i'm a little confused. My sites each contain several pictures, several widgets, and several iframes. All of these reduce the loading time, obviously. However, i have fiber optic internet so my sites all load instantly for me and i'm never aware of any "delay." But when i look around these days i see nothing but high speed internet for the most part. As a result of this, many web sites these days (popular ones) are all built with flash and decked out with all kinds of pictures really complex templates and what not.

I visited websiteoptimization.com and it said that for a T1 1.44mb connection my site takes 5.5 seconds to load. I suppose that's fairly high.. but like i said i'd never know this because i have fiber optic and i load sites instantly. So should i try to reduce this time? To be quite blunt about it, reducing my current load time would directly result in making my site worse for the visitors altogether. but websiteoptimization.com is telling me my page is too big, i have too many objects and much more. Telling me to reduce all kinds of things like total html, scripts and images.

I suppose my sites load slightly slower than most plain and boring sites, but is this actually hurting me? Does a crappy looking web site with nothing but text and some adsense really have an edge over me in the rankings simply because that site loads faster? My site loads slower becuase i'm bringing more to my visitors... which i would think would be a good thing.

So what is the truth these days? Does load time matter? IF SO, then what is the margin at which it actually hurts you? Is there a magic number of seconds of load time or something?
#load #matter #ranking #site #time or speed
  • Profile picture of the author dadamson
    Google wants a better browsing experience for everybody.

    I have done my own testing and yes, a faster site is easier to rank than a slower site.

    There are a number of ways to overcome the speed issue. It may be as simple as just pulling down your images and reformating them to smaller file sizes.

    If you don't want to speed your site load time up, build more backlinks to it.

    A slower site can always outrank a faster site... it just needs higher quality backlinks
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  • Profile picture of the author s62731
    Definitely,

    Faster sights are much, much better in terms of SEO
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Hi mooble,

      Yes, Google does in fact use page load speed as a factor for ranking.

      You seem to be equating fast load speed with plain and boring web pages. This not necessarily true. Yes, it may be a bit more challenging to spice up your webpages while maintaining fast page load speed, but it does improve the overall user experience.

      Keep in mind that very few people care about the aesthetics when doing a search on Google. Generally, people aren't looking for the "prettiest page" on "veterinary science" or "growing summer squash", they are typically looking for the most useful information.

      Ask yourself how "useful" are your speed hogging graphics and widgets to your users. If they aren't finding them essential then they are likely annoyed by them instead of appreciative. If they don't truly add value specific to your user's interest, eliminate them. Be kind to your users!
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  • Profile picture of the author SEOpsychic
    faster site better.
    you can reduce your site files and remove unnecessary scripts or combine scripts....gzip stuff and you'll be good to go.

    if you want you can install pagespeed and firebug. it will be a big eye-opener for you know what to reduce and how to improve your page load speed.
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  • Profile picture of the author App Developers
    I am not convinced. I have made sure my site is faster than my competitors and after checking some of the top ranking sites, they were much much slower. I am not sure how much speed weighs in. If I had to guess I think it is a very small fraction of the equation.
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Originally Posted by App Developers View Post

      I am not convinced. I have made sure my site is faster than my competitors and after checking some of the top ranking sites, they were much much slower. I am not sure how much speed weighs in. If I had to guess I think it is a very small fraction of the equation.
      Hi App Developers,

      I think you may be reading too much into page load speed factors. As long as your page load speed is better than average it makes no difference in ranking. It's when your page load is very slow that it has a significant influence in lowering your ranking.

      There are many other factors that are more important to ranking than slight differences in page load speed. You can't outrank another webpage based solely on page load speed, it's just one of hundreds of factors. However, if your page load speed is slower than a certain threshold then your ranking score will be lower than the same page with faster page load speed.

      There are other very important reasons to consider page load speeds that center around your users' experience. If search engine users are hitting the back button in their browser because your page is loading too slow then that will have an influence in your rankings as well.
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  • Profile picture of the author finemoves
    If site load time matters, it's probably a lower ranking factor. I'd focus on backlinks and on-page content well before looking at load time.

    In case you want to test load speed, here is a tool I always use:
    Website Speed Test - iWEBTOOL.com

    If this really keeps you up at night, try switching to a faster server. If you're on a dedicated server already, realize that there are websites out there ranking just fine with ultra-slow shared servers.

    Compare your load speed with some high ranking websites, and see what the difference is. The tool above will allow you to plug in multiple websites, and make this task a snap.

    Honestly, I've never tweaked load times for SEO. Our client sites rank using On Page Content and Backlinks.
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