Page Load Speed or PageSpeed is ultimately now a major factor in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for Google.
If you’ve been under a rock or just haven’t heard, about a year ago Matt Cutts announced on the Google Webmaster Central Blog that Site Speed is a factor in Search Ranking.
And about a year before that, Google posted a YouTube video hinting about this PageSpeed enhancement, titled “Let’s make the Web Faster“.
Let's Make the Web Faster
Google's PageSpeed or Page Load Speed in Detail
As a matter of fact, an entire section of Google Code was dedicated to Making the Web Faster.
PageSpeed Makes the Web Faster for SEO
So now it’s official – Page Speed definitely affects your page’s search engine rankings & SEO efforts.
And Google’s released a new tool to help you with it: Google Page Speed Insights, wherein you give it a URL, and it will analyze the speed factors of the page, giving you a “Page Speed Score” out of 100.
Not to mention that you can also generate a Page Speed Mobile analysis, for mobile browser optimization!
The Page Speed Score indicates how much faster a page could be. A high score indicates little room for improvement, while a lower score indicates more room for improvement. The Page Speed Score does not measure the time it takes for a page to load.
The results are broken down into four categories:
- High Priority
- Medium Priority
- Low Priority
- Rules without Suggestions
The great thing is that’s not where it stops. They actually give the details of where you can improve and HOW you can do it.
Go test a site and improve it – you’ll notice the difference.