Site speed is an important ranking factor, right? With tons of evidence pointing to page speed being a critical ranking factor, many were convinced that slow sites could not compete with fast ones with all else being equal. And while there is no doubt that a faster site results in a bigger bottom line, is there a direct ranking impact from improving site speed? See full post here: https://ipullrank.com/does-website-speed-really-impact-search-ranking/

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Does Website Speed Really Impact
Search Rankings? | iPullRank Blog

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Table of Contents
• Page Speed as a Ranking Factor
• 1. Core Web Vitals
• Verdict
• 2. Crawl Budget
• Verdict
• 3. User Engagement Statistics
• Verdict
• Conclusion
Does Website Speed Really Impact Search Rankings?

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Page Speed as a Ranking Factor
DoesWebsiteSpeedReallyImpactSearchRankings?
There are 3 site speed aspects that will affect a slow site
consistently..
1. The first and arguably most important is Core Web Vitals (recently added to Google Search
Console reports)
2. The second being Crawl Budget Impact
3. Lastly is User Engagement Statistics which may or may not be used for ranking depending on
whom you ask.

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1. Core Web Vitals
• On May 5, 2020, Google introduced its Core Web Vitals on its Chromium blog. The three main
metrics mentioned were Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative
Layout Shift (CLS).
• LCP measures the time to load the main content on a page
• FID is the time it takes for a user to begin interacting with a page
• CLS would measure unexpected shifts in page layout.
DoesWebsiteSpeedReallyImpactSearchRankings?

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1. Core Web Vitals (Cont.)
• PageSpeed Insights “Core Web” Additions
• Google Search Console “Core Web” Additions
DoesWebsiteSpeedReallyImpactSearchRankings?

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1. Core Web Vitals (Cont.)
Verdict
• Core Web Vitals will be a ranking factor in 2021. If you are not
convinced that page speed is a critical factor for your site’s SEO,
this is proof that you will need to address your site speed in the
next year. Review your site’s performance with respect to LCP, CLS,
and FID before these metrics become official ranking factors in
2021.
DoesWebsiteSpeedReallyImpactSearchRankings?

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2. Crawl Budget
• Crawl budget is a popular SEO buzzword that often has no teeth when you begin to dig
deeper. While some have obsessed over it for the past few years, the concept of crawl
budget may not be something that needs to be a priority for every site.
• Per John Mueller, smaller sites that a powerful crawler like Googlebot can review daily,
page by page, without breaking a sweat simply don’t have as much to gain from crawl
budget optimization.
DoesWebsiteSpeedReallyImpactSearchRankings?

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2. Crawl Budget (Cont.)
• So how does page speed tie in with crawl budget?
• A way to think of crawling done by Googlebot is an allocation of resources (kilobytes downloaded per day) that
tends not to deviate a great amount. You will not have days where no crawling has occurred, nor will you have
your entire site recrawled unless something drastic like a migration happened. With that resource being
relatively static, a drop in the time it takes to load your pages results in a spike of how many pages Googlebot
can process and vice versa.
• Google is pretty transparent about increasing the parallel connections to a site as the site’s
responsiveness goes up. In layman’s terms, if your site can handle the load of more crawling, Google will
crawl more.
• While their “good citizen of the web” explanation gives us a warm fuzzy feeling about Google trying not
to crash your site in an attempt to crawl it, the reality is that crawl budget resources are literally worth
money.
• If Googlebot spends too much time crawling your site with consistent server issues, it may crawl less of
other awesome sites that have their ducks in a row. So unless you are in a niche so small that users
have no choice but to go to your site, page speed is already an indirect ranking factor for you.
DoesWebsiteSpeedReallyImpactSearchRankings?

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2. Crawl Budget (Cont.)
Verdict
• Your crawl rate will likely see immediate improvements if site
speed becomes faster. While the impact may not push the needle
for a small site, it will provide an advantage to sites with millions
of pages.
DoesWebsiteSpeedReallyImpactSearchRankings?

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3. User Engagement Statistics
• The third and arguably most controversial reason your site speed is already a ranking factor is
user engagement.
• You may immediately scoff at this idea as many members of the Google team have repeatedly
refuted the idea that things like clicks, bounce rate, and dwell time are used for ranking.
However, evidence often suggests otherwise despite what the likes of Gary Ilyes say.
• Though you may be on the fence for user engagement statistics as a lever for optimization,
consider the (near) future of organic search.
• With the primary ranking factors being constantly manipulated by anyone with an understanding
of ranking factors, Google’s end goal is to rely as much as possible on things that ensure
optimal user experience and as little on things that can be “optimized” through deceitful tactics.
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3. User Engagement Statistics (Cont.)
Verdict
• While user engagement metrics may have an indirect effect on your
SEO performance, they currently are not an official direct ranking
factor. Pay it forward by optimizing your site speed and you may
eventually see metrics like bounce rate, dwell time, and
pages/session improve which in turn may affect your future
rankings.
DoesWebsiteSpeedReallyImpactSearchRankings?

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Conclusion
• Though site speed is not currently a direct ranking factor that
carries a lot of weight unless your site is super slow, site speed still
contributes to many factors that can impact your rankings.
• While user engagement metrics may not be a ranking factor, crawl
budget is and can be improved with a faster site. Conversely,
Google’s upcoming Core Web Vitals integration into their
algorithm in 2021 will make site speed a direct ranking factor.
• It remains uncertain what weight speed will be given in comparison
to other factors like links and content, but it is certain that site
speed can affect your bottom line.
DoesWebsiteSpeedReallyImpactSearchRankings?

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