Google to consider page speed for mobile search rankings
Google on Tuesday announced it will begin considering page speed when ranking webpages in mobile searches starting in July 2018. The search giant attributed the change to its users caring about the speed of a webpage.
Google said the "Speed Update" applies the same standard to all webpages regardless of the technology they're built on. It will only affect webpages that "deliver the slowest experience to users and will only affect a small percentage of queries," Google explained in a blog post.
Desktop searches have been ranked by Google with speed in mind since 2010. Google claims a slow webpage may still rank highly if it has relevant content.
Google said developers can use the Chrome User Experience Report, Lighthouse, and PageSpeed Insights to evaluate their webpage's search performance.
It's not surprising Google is serving its mobile users with the fastest content. Since 2016, Google has used faster AMP webpages for expanded previews in its mobile search results.
