Google has announced that, starting July 2018, page speed will become a ranking factor in mobile search. Speed has been used as a ranking signal for desktop search since 2010, marking the first time it will be used to rank pages on mobile devices.
The update, known as the “Speed Update,” will target only the slowest loading pages. The specific criteria for this are unclear, as Google indicates there is no tool that will definitively determine whether a page is affected by this algorithm update.
Google advises developers to take a broad view on how performance affects a user’s experience and to consider various user experience metrics.
Despite the growing importance of speed, Google notes that query intent can override speed. This means a slow page may still rank well if its content is highly relevant to the user’s search query.
Although this update does not spell the end for slow pages in mobile search, it’s beneficial to optimize your page speed as much as possible before the update is implemented.
A good starting point is to test your pages using tools that deliver results based on real-world data.
