Page speed to become a ranking factor in mobile search from July - Google

Posted by Edith MacLeod on 23 Jan, 2018
View comments Keyword Research
Google has confirmed that page speed will become a ranking factor for mobile searches starting in July 2018.

 

Google says only a small percentage of queries will be affected and slow pages may still rank highly if they have high quality, relevant content.

The “Speed Update,” as we’re calling it, will only affect pages that deliver the slowest experience to users and will only affect a small percentage of queries. It applies the same standard to all pages, regardless of the technology used to build the page. The intent of the search query is still a very strong signal, so a slow page may still rank highly if it has great, relevant content.

Source: Google blog

As the change comes into effect in July, webmasters have time to make sure their site performs well.

Google recommends using a number of their tools to check and evaluate page performance:

Lighthouse audits the quality of web pages (including performance, accessibility and more)
Page Speed Insights indicates how well a page performs on the Chrome UX Report and makes improvement suggestions
Chrome User Experience Report provides experience metrics for how real-world Chrome users experience popular destinations on the web.

See Google’s blog post for full details.

Recent articles

Google springs December 2024 core update
Posted by Edith MacLeod on 12 December 2024
Google Search Console recommendations now live for all
Posted by Edith MacLeod on 3 December 2024
Google tightens site reputation abuse policy
Posted by Edith MacLeod on 28 November 2024
How to increase website traffic with email marketing
Posted by Maria Fintanidou on 26 November 2024
Google retires Page Experience report in Search Console
Posted by Edith MacLeod on 19 November 2024