Page Load Times Not A Factor For Google, BUT…

This is interesting…

Our data shows there is no correlation between “page load time” (either document complete or fully rendered) and ranking on Google’s search results page. This is true not only for generic searches (one or two keywords) but also for “long tail” searches (4 or 5 keywords) as well. We did not see websites with faster page load times ranking higher than websites with slower page load times in any consistent fashion. If Page Load Time is a factor in search engine rankings, it is being lost in the noise of other factors. We had hoped to see some correlation especially for generic one- or two-word queries. Our belief was that the high competition for generic searches would make smaller factors like page speed stand out more. This was not the case.

However, our data shows there is a correlation between lower time-to-first-byte (TTFB) metrics and higher search engine rankings. Websites with servers and back-end infrastructure that could quickly deliver web content had a higher search ranking than those that were slower. This means that, despite conventional wisdom, it is back-end website performance and not front-end website performance that directly impacts a website’s search engine ranking.

Source

So don’t worry about page performance (overall). Don’t worry about the size of your page, the number of images, etc. BUT using a CDN for the HTML (not your images/videos) or having your sites in a datacenter near googlebot will help you rank better.

Re: Page Load Times Not A Factor For Google, BUT…

[QUOTE=rawTOP;139009]This is interesting…

So don’t worry about page performance (overall). Don’t worry about the size of your page, the number of images, etc. BUT using a CDN for the HTML (not your images/videos) or having your sites in a datacenter near googlebot will help you rank better.[/QUOTE]

That is very interesting. I’m relieved that page load time isn’t a factor, some pages are just impossible to get down in size. But I guess it now gives us something else to “fix” instead.