Site Speed — Google’s Next Ranking Factor. How Fast is Your Site?

Keyword use and density in all page elements.World Wide Web is soon going to become the Wild Wild Web where the fast guys rule. According to Google’s engineer Matt Cutts the search giant is inclined to introduce a new ranking factor into its algorithm — site speed. Once that happens, your site load time will have a direct impact on your Google rankings.

 If you’re a fast site, maybe you should get a little bit of a bonus. If you really have an awfully slow site, then maybe users don’t want that as much , says Cutts.

Google is pushing towards a faster web where web pages can be turned as quickly as those of a print magazine. If your site doesn’t catch up with the pace it doesn’t belong on the first page of search results.

When will Site Speed Become a Ranking Factor?

Google’s already using load speed as a Quality Score factor in its paid search platform AdWords, where advertisers with faster web pages pay less. It’s hard to tell for sure when site speed factor will be officially brought into organic search though. Some experts believe it already has an effect on rankings and Google will give it more weight. Google says speed is yet to become a factor in the ranking algo.

Anyway, it seems reasonable for Google to introduce the new factor together with the new search architecture known as Google Caffeine which is to be rolled out after the holidays (early 2010). Google wants Caffeine to be faster. Higher speed will be hard to achieve with slow sites ranking in top 10, so it makes perfect sense for Google to apply the site speed factor in Caffeine.

Check Your Website Load Time

If your site depends on Google rankings for traffic and sales (which is true for a vast majority of sites) you should be ready for any change in the game, big or small. Taking action before the change even happens is a key to the prosperity of your business.

The new version lets you quickly check your site speed and compare it against your top ten competitors. Doing this is easy as ever with SEO PowerSuite tools. You simply specify your website or web page address and the keyword(s) you’re targeting. WebSite Auditor then finds your top 10 competitors for the keyword and compares your site against them in a variety of ways:

• Keyword use and density in all page elements.
• Most popular keywords and keyphrases on your and  competing  webpages.
• Problem areas in your content, etc.

And now it also lets you check your site’s load time. If you click through to the Report Tab you’ll see a special Site Load Time section closer to the end of the report. In it you get all the information you need to check whether your site is fast enough to rank in the top 10 of Google.