At the beginning of the year, Google presented an update of its algorithm (Speed Update). Objective: penalize the slowest sites on mobile. Google then announced that the widespread deployment of this update would take place in July. Here we are: Google has announced the application of the Speed Update.
Only the slowest pages will be penalized
Many things have been said about this update. The sites will not be classified according to their loading time. Only sites whose performance is very bad will be penalized by the Speed Update. Google has a limited scope: “it will affect a small number of requests,” ie a very low percentage of sites indexed on the engine. Google also specifies that the relevance of a result to a query remains a strong signal, a slow page can be ranked better than a fast page if its content is better or better matches the expectation of ‘an user.
To check the speed of your site and avoid the penalty, several tools are available. Google offers Lighthouse and PageSpeed Insights, now based on Chrome’s UX report, for real-world testing.
As our second lead editor, Brit Martinez provides guidance on the stories The Marketing Folks’ reporters cover. She has been instrumental in making sure the content on the site is clear and relevant to the readers. Brit received a BA and and MA from University of Alaska Anchorage.
