Google Page Speed Update Rolls Out

[engine]

Google's long awaited page Speed Update is now rolling out to all users.

Page speed has always been a focus for Google, but now it's taken the step further by confirming its now live.

will only affect pages that deliver the slowest experience to users and will only affect a small percentage of queries. It applies the same standard to all pages, regardless of the technology used to build the page. The intent of the search query is still a very strong signal, so a slow page may still rank highly if it has great, relevant content.

[webmasters.googleblog.com...]

Earlier stories
PageSpeed Insights "Speed" Metric [webmasterworld.com]
Page Speed Insights Use Data From Chrome User Experience Report [webmasterworld.com]

[aristotle]

will only affect pages that deliver the slowest experience to users

So are they only talking about the very slowest of the very slow?

There are a lot of sites that are irritatingly slow. I strongly doubt that google will demote all of them because there azre just too many.

[EditorialGuy]

There are a lot of sites that are irritatingly slow. I strongly doubt that google will demote all of them because there azre just too many.

Well, the announcement did say that "The intent of the search query is still a very strong signal, so a slow page may still rank highly if it has great, relevant content."

Obviously, it makes sense to avoid molasses-slow page delivery if you don't want to be the loser in a tie-breaker. It's like anything else: When the world goes HTTPS, and when Google is promoting the use of HTTPS, it makes sense to go HTTPS if you don't want to be left behind.

[Robert Charlton]

This is going to be a constantly moving target. The approach that Matt Cutts describes in this video from five years ago is clearly still the philosophy Google is using. It is looking at load speed in the context of other factors. As Matt suggests, it's important that you don't be an outlier, either among your competitors, your niche, or in your location.

Is page speed a more important factor for mobile sites?
Matt Cutts - Aug 21, 2013 - trt 1:39
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-I4rWnQxxkM [youtube.com]

Also, I recommend this thread from the same period, which discusses the issue in more detail...

Google's Speed Insights - is page speed a ranking factor?
Sept 2013
https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4612557.htm [webmasterworld.com]

[RedBar]

What a load of crock ... Google is the biggest BS'er in the world.

[RedBar]

Quite simply try Google's own sites ... So they are that good?

[robzilla]

Get a grip, RedBar, and stop ruining threads.

As a user, especially on mobile, what annoys me most is an overly long TTFB (time-to-first-byte) where you're just facing a blank page. That'll have me going back to the SERPs within a few seconds, since there'll usually be another result with similar content. I should hope that feeds back into rankings, but these pages still seem to rank well or I wouldn't run into them... it just doesn't do them much good to rank well when users exit before the page can even begin loading. So make it snappy y'all. Latency aside, long TTFBs are unnecessary.

[keyplyr]

What always gets me is this statement that's displayed during the Page Speed test:

Testing on a standard connection (3G)...
70% of cellular network connections globally will occur at 3G or slower speeds through 2020.

If we're talking Indochina and the Sudan, then I can see how that may be relevant, but over 80% of my visitors are in the USA. Hell, we're putting up 5G towers now.

[robzilla]

It's probably an old prediction, seeing as in 2018 we're already at about a 38.5% market share for 4G [5gamericas.org] globally. North America does seem to be leading [5gamericas.org] in terms of 4G adoption, so you can expect faster users generally, but about a quarter of them will still be on 3G or lower, which is significant enough. Also, while availability and adoption rates look good for the United States, speed is apparently not so good [opensignal.com] ("4G Speed"), on par with countries like Egypt, Morocco and Peru.

[keyplyr]

In all those studies, I believe, the entire US is included; this means all the fly-over country where many (most?) don't have access to high-speed broadband so no home WiFi to connect on their phones.

This means they must use their mobile network full time, which is slower than that in major cities also.

Midwestern mobile users also tend to not use their phones as much also, but their connectivity is being counted as if it were equal to all other regions.

All this artificially drags down the stats.

Also, when you look at the maps where most of the connectivity (both desktop & mobile) it is in the big cities on the West & East coasts... the areas with the fast connectivity.

Towers in my area still support 3G but 2G is no longer in use at all. I assume that's what Google is referring to when they say "3G or slower."

[aristotle]

Connection speed isn't the only factor affecting a site's loading time.

robzilla -- Only the very slowest of the very slow will be demoted. Popup ads on top of the content don't matter either.