As part of an ongoing user experience crusade that has also included the introduction of AMP, Google has now rolled out its speed update to all users.
Improving the speed of your website is something that you should invest in regardless of SEO – Google’s own data[1] shows that a 3 seconds load time increases bounce rates by 32% (when compared to a one second load time) and a 5 seconds load time can increase your bounce rates by 90%; and don’t forget, every bounce represents a potential customer lost.
1Source: Google/SOASTA Research, 2017.
Bounce rate can also affect organic search rankings in itself
If Google sees that most of the visitors to a page are going straight back to the search results then it doesn’t consider that page to be giving a good user experience.
Google sees a bounce as negative to their own user experience and drew a clear line in 2010 in the sand for site owners introducing site speed as a direct ranking factor[2]. Being 2010, this was a desktop-only search update, at the time Google stated that only 1% of search queries would be affected, and it would only appear for searches in English on Google.com.
At the start of this year, Google introduced site speed as a mobile ranking factor[3] in a limited roll-out, and earlier in July they announced that the update would now apply to all users.
Google once again stated that the update would only affect a small percentage of queries but with no accurate indication of percentages. Typically, vague and frustrating advice from Google that creates more questions than answers, but here’s some useful advice to