Did My Site Lose Google Page Rank Due To Slow Site Speed?

Did my site lose PR because Google is now including site speed as a ranking factor? This is a question many, at least me, were asking who had lost PR in the last January 2010 update.

The Buzz in 2009

Matt Cutts announced: “Historically, we haven’t had to use it in our search rankings, but a lot of people within Google think that the web should be fast,” and “It should be a good experience, and so it’s sort of fair to say that 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.”

Matt Cutts Later Clarifies Speed as a Ranking Factor Issue, Noting that Relevance is Still the “Primary Component”

Matt Cutts set the record straight in 2010 to some degree from my perspective. It does appear that there will be some preference, all things being equal as far as number of votes pointing back to a site, to give better ranking to a site that is faster. Cutts is reported to have said “…If you have two sites that are equally relevant (same backlinks…everything else is the same), you’d probably prefer the one that’s a little bit faster, so page speed can be an interesting theory to try out for a factor in scoring different websites…”

So it is clear then, that you should be concerned about site speed, as it could be one of the many Google ranking factors for both Local Search and Organic search ranking factors that Google could utilize in a super competitive industry. And lately, everything is super competitive when it comes to ranking in Google.

The Yellow Pages seem to be tanking as a form of advertising. I never use them. Do you? I mean other than as a doorstop? So as you can see, you need to keep an eye on what is coming and be ready. Site speed is important to some people at Google, as it should be. Slow sites are a bummer. Slow connection speeds add to the problem. So find a way to speed up your site.