At the recent PubCon in Las Vegas, Matt Cutts from Google delivered a presentation on what to expect in the year 2010. One of the bullet points discussed how, over at Google, there has been strong lobbying to introduce a new ranking factor into the algorithm: site speed. Soon, Cutt said, site or page speed may be a factor in the organic ranking algorithm. It can happen as early as next year, although we believe Google has been testing this as part of the algorithm for some time.
This is a new insight to how Google determines page rankings. How fast a page loads is already a factor in the AdWords quality score; making it matter in the organic ranking algorithm should reward sites with fast load times, and which use fast servers. Right now there are over 200 ranking factors in the algorithm, each of them weighted differently. And while adding page loading speed to the mix won’t dramatically shake up websites’ rankings (it won’t significantly worsen your rankings, if your webpage loads slowly), it can positively affect sites which load more quickly than their competitors.
This should be good news. It promotes faster searches, while not necessarily burning dead wood pages into Page 10 or later. If fast-loading sites are more likely to earn links, tweets, and shares than slow-loading sites, then it’s only fitting that they should also benefit from higher search rankings.
Here at Lakeshore Branding, we help you stay ahead of the game by offering fast – really fast – servers. We’re one of the first and few hosting companies that provide performance-boosting 15K5 RPM SAS drives, the fastest in the industry. We run powerful enterprise-level LiteSpeed servers that let your pages load faster and your operations run smoother. We also offer 100% uptime. So yeah: while the algorithm may be a-changing, our priority remains the same. Keep you fast. Keep you on top.
Looking for ways to speed up your website? Check out this article from our friends at SEO Consultants Directory.