Speed test of site - does load speed affect rankings?

[member22]

Hello,

I am currently doing a speed test for my website and my competitors website and was wondering what is the most important data to look at :
is it the load time or the average speed per KB ?

and is it possible that my competitors rank higher than me for the same keyword because their speed is higher than mine ?

Thanks,

[Brett_Tabke]

Time to load the first page. People want info and info now. If ppl have to wait, even a few seconds until something shows up on their screen, they hit that back button and return to Google.

> rank higher

Google maintains that there is no such criteria in the algo.