In the last few months, we’ve discussed Google considering page load time for ranking and for website owners not to panic when it comes to Google measuring site performance. Ever since Matt Cutts (a prominent Google employee) first announced this a few months back, people have been speculating about how this will impact SEO. And many people have been obsessed about this new Google Webmaster tool and what it means for their ranking…

Google sets the record straight

Fast forward to last week, where WebProNews displayed an updated video from Matt Cutts. In the video chat, Matt says that although Google is interested in site performance and making the web faster overall, individual site performance is not really a ranking factor. He stated that it may be a future factor that could be a “tie-breaker” where two sites are ranked the same to determine which site is ranked above the other, but it’s not a major one. Google measures over 200 factors to determine where a site ranks. It seems site performance is not on the “big list” of important ranking factors.

But absolutely, relevance is the primary component, and we have over 200 signals in our scoring to try to return the most relevant, the most useful, the most accurate search result that we can find. That’s not going to change.

Don’t be lulled into laziness

You might be tempted to ignore your site’s overall performance and speed based on the above information. Besides, there’s much more important stuff to do. If Google doesn’t care, why should you?

BIG MISTAKE!

Google does NOT buy your products or subscribe to your services – People DO!

People are impatient

They sure are.

• On the internet, you want your information instantly.

• “Instant gratification” is often a synonym for the internet.

• Nobody wants to wait.

Google is patient though. They will try to index your site multiple times if things are slow or down. They will wait 10,20, 30 seconds to download your content. To Google, it’s the content that matters, not how fast they can retrieve it.

A recent Forrester study found many people will only wait TWO SECONDS for a website or page to load before moving on to the next site. If your website is bloated with un-optimized code, too many third party scripts and files, or your web host has slow or overloaded servers, people will go elsewhere. That’s lost revenue, lost sales, and a bad experience that people will tell others about.

Make site performance a top priority

Treat how fast your site loads as a very important factor. Make believe Google sees this as a top ranking factor to put your website at the top of the search engines. Optimize your site to be as fast as possible.

If you make your site fast, you will increase your conversions and sales. People enjoy a quick website, and a quick ordering process. Streamline the sales process, and turn visitors into buyers. And who knows, maybe Google will notice this as well and bump you up a few spots.