Convenient: Website Load Time Impacts Google Rank. Paying Google Improves This.

Linc says:

Date: 8/4/2011 11:32:27 PM #

Interesting...

But general page speed is good for everyone:
- Users get smaller data usage on their bills and a better experience with quicker results.
- Site owners spend less on hosting bloated, slow sites, and reap the benefits of their customers' positive experiences (see #1).
- Google gets to improve service return results that are not only contextually accurate but which users will actually be able to load quickly, making their results more useful beyond keyword checking.
- Browser developers get to focus on tighter standards and cool new features and less on loading/rendering bloated sites in the wild.
- ISPs get to handle more traffic, serve more customers and STILL monopolize their markets. ;)
- We cut down on electricity consumption, the #1 reason we burn oil.

So I don't really see the downside. HOWEVER, if Google required their own proprietary "optimization certification" to be a first-page result, then you have a problem with a fabricated demand for a fake commodity. AFAIK, that isn't happening yet?

by Linc

Linc says:

Date: 8/4/2011 11:37:28 PM #

One more comment from a web designer: Page Speed is often represented as a grade like A+ or F, but the actual tools break down that rating into MANY vectors like CDN usage, use of combiners, server caching, etc. It's a complex mix of factors, and speeding up pages is something any company could offer as a service, if they understand everything involved.

Bottom line: Google doesn't have a monopoly on it, they are just the big guns pushing the industry forward.

Also - The CAPTCHA on this site is damn incomprehensible.

by Linc

PeterV says:

Date: 8/4/2011 11:46:09 PM #

"HOWEVER, if Google required their own proprietary "optimization certification" to be a first-page result, then you have a problem with a fabricated demand for a fake commodity. AFAIK, that isn't happening yet?"

Exactly what they want you the believe. Careful what you say...they have robots that read this text!

by PeterV

JameyW says:

Date: 8/5/2011 5:29:25 AM #

It doesn't sound like a bad thing to me at all. I think that page load speed coupled with other factors of their algorithm would certainly indicate a quality web site. If you are a small business and don't have internal resources it may be nice to contract someone to work on your site for you. Hey... isn't this something 352 does? Maybe this should be a new service that you offer and thank Google for creating demand.

Remember that while it may seem like Starbucks would steal demand from other coffee shops, in practice the opposite often happens. Just look at Maud's, they didn't get shut down by Starbucks.

This doesn't seem any different than optimizing your site for search engines by using H tags, front loading the first 100 words on a page, etc all became a priority because Google let a bit of "what is important in their algorithm" slip out. So really, they have been creating demand for services like this for a long time.

In the end I think any of this is really just ancillary to the actual demand that Google creates... drving traffic to one's site. That in a nutshell is their product and core competency.

by JameyW

Kim White says:

Date: 8/5/2011 8:19:27 AM #

Point my CName entry to Google, I don't think so! First they come for your CName record...next the come for your neighbor.. .then one day they come for you!

There are lots of ways a good web designer/developer can reduce load time without handing the problem off to Google. Keep in mind that Google does not do ANYTHING without a good self-serving reason, so the questions is 'what is Google getting out of this'? Better load time, so better SERPs, of course. And that means more $ for Google from selling Adwords and display ads. Peter is right, this is entirely a manufactured situation. They created their own market for a new service.