16 November 2009 | Author: D. Warburton Search Copywriter

Page load times become Google ranking factor

Top search engine Google has revealed that loading time may become a ranking factor for webpages in 2010, a move that could see the Mountain View giant giving pride of place to websites hosted on faster servers.

Econsultancy reports that Google's Matt Cutts unveiled the company's proposal at last week's PubCon in Las Vegas, where page loading time was included in a list of 'what to expect in 2010.' Mr Cutts explained that page loading time is already a factor in AdWords advertising searches, and that there is a strong push to make speed a quality factor in Google's organic search ranking algorithm.

With over 200 other ranking factors being taken into consideration by Google's search algorithm, page loading time may not ultimately prove to carry a significant weight, and is only expected to punish webpages that take an excessive time to load - around 20 seconds or more. Nevertheless, loading time is a factor that webmasters have some degree of control over, and Google' decision may encourage users to take measures in ensuring that their pages are loading as quickly as possible.

The decision may provide a justification for webmasters to spend more money on hosts with high connectivity, or even to lease a dedicated server - but it isn't all down to investment. Webmasters are being encouraged to focus more on the quality of dynamic pages, employing best SEO and coding practices to produce high-performance websites and reduce loading times.

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