Page Load Speed As a Ranking Vs User Experience Factor

[djbaxter]

Web Hosting for Optimized Page Load Speed
by Adam Thompson, Search Engine Journal
December 10, 2015

[T]his study shows no correlation between page complete load times and Google rankings, but it did find a correlation for time to first byte. Another study also found no correlation between rankings and page load time. It seems likely that the impact of page load speed on rankings is very small, so as SEOs it’s important that we don’t present page load speed as a major factor in rankings.

[On the other hand], the impact of page load speed on users is likely much greater than its impact on Google rankings. Multiple studies have consistently documented the impact of page load speed on user experience – slow load times lead to user abandonment and decreased conversion rates. Scale does matter when discussing this benefit, though. An incremental improvement in conversion rate (which is huge for large e-retailers) may translate to a very small monetary benefit for websites with small traffic numbers.

Thompson goes on to discuss the specific ways in which your hosting service and/or plan contributes to load speed.

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