How much it matters.
WHAT IS TRUE
Speed is one factor among many.
WHAT IS OVERSTATED
That speed alone determines rankings.
Content relevance matters far more.
WHERE SPEED GENUINELY MATTERS
As a tie-breaker between similar pages For visitor behaviour, which affects everything else
THAT SECOND POINT
Visitors who leave because a page is slow do not convert, do not link, and do not return.
The indirect effect is larger than the direct one.
WHAT TO MEASURE
The measurements search engines publish, available in Search Console.
WHAT MATTERS MOST PRACTICALLY
How quickly the main content appears Whether the page shifts as it loads How quickly it responds to interaction
THE SHIFTING PROBLEM
Content moving as images load causes mistaken taps.
Fix it by specifying image dimensions.
WHAT TO FIX FIRST
Images and caching. See our speed articles.
WHAT NOT TO DO
Chase a perfect score at the expense of everything else.
WHAT TO AIM FOR
Fast enough on a phone on mobile data.
