Web developers will spend plenty of time, while creating and maintaining a website, optimising the site in an attempt to improve user experience.
One of these factors will be improving page speed and loading time to provide a more efficient experience for all users.
Previously, Google have rewarded sites that provide better page speeds – but is that still the case?
Page speed is based on both how long your site takes to fully load, as well as how quickly it responds to demands, such as clicking a button or a link.
The general assumption is that Google rewards sites with better user experience, meaning faster page speeds will fall under this category, and will be noticed by Google.
Google has considered this an important factor for many years, with the company stating in 2011:
“Like us, our users place a lot of value in speed – that’s why we’ve decided to take site speed into account in our search rankings.”
However, in April 2023, Google updated its ranking systems page and removed page experience as a ranking system – although it did get given its own page in the document, with Google highlighting that positive page experience is still rewarded.
As we know, page speed falls under this category. So, what does this mean for page speed when it comes to ranking?
Google stated that it is still a factor, yet it may not always be very impactful.
The search engine emphasised that relevance is the leading factor, with page speed not necessarily relating to relevance. Therefore, a site with high quality content and lower loading speeds will be more likely to rank higher than a site with low quality content and faster loading speeds.
This doesn’t mean that page speed is unimportant, as it is part of the experience, meaning that a combination of high-quality content and fast loading speeds will be extremely beneficial to your site.
If you are looking to improve your website’s performance, get in touch with our team at Engage Web today.
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