Page Speed....Does it matter in 2021?

Roger Marquez said:

Page speed matters and a lot, not just to improve your site´s organic rankings but, also, when it comes to improving your site´s conversion rate.

Page speed is strongly related to offering your visitors with a better user-experience (UX) and this is something Google cares about a lot. So, saying page loading speed doesn´t matter is just BS.

There are exceptions to this rule of course. If you´re already an authority on your industry/niche, Google won´t care too much if your site loads in 10secs for example.

But, if you´re launching a brand new site on a brand new domain and would like to rank high on the SERP you better heavily focus on offering your visitors with the best possible UX you can and that includes page speed.

Let me ask you this...When was the last time you waited more than 5 seconds for a website to load on your phone?

Now imagine having an e-commerce website with a product page taking 5+ seconds to load...Will you have the patience to complete the checkout process? - I don´t think so.

Personally, I think whether or not is a ranking factor it´s secondary to the main fact that page loading speed affects your site´s conversion rate and the UX, and this is more than enough for me to take notice and work on this.

Cheers and stay safe!

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schttrj said:

A great answer by @Roger Marquez.

To add to this, for those of you saying that it won't affect your ranking, even Google said, "content triumphs page experience". That's nothing new.

And to say that improve loading speed would improve rankings would mean that it is the most important ranking signal there is. There are 200+ ranking signals, and we don't even know the hidden ones.

What needs to be understood though that page experience is still something Google cares about a lot.

It is a part of user experience, and it affects conversion rate. (As per an Amazon's study, even a second delay resulted in a loss of billion dollars for their business)

Also, let's consider this scenario. You are trying to rank for a competitive keyword.

All else being equal, if your competitor's page loading speed is better than your site's, then competitor = 1, you = 0. You lose.

If your competitor's page loading speed is equal to your site's, then competitor = 1, you = 1. So your site stands on par with your competitor's for this ranking signal and the result will depend on other factors.

If your competitor's page loading speed is worse than your site's, then competitor = 0, you = 1. You win.

Do you see why working on the page speed might be that important? I always tell my clients that "technical health does not make a site but it can break a site."

From my experience, that's a good adage to follow in SEO.

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