California, April 17 - Google announced that it would start considering website speed as a factor in web search ranking through a post on its blog on Friday, April 09, 2010. Google plans to emphasize on this aspect because it believes that Internet users prefer websites that quickly respond to their requests and generally do not like spending time on slow websites.
For now, this new parameter would only be applicable to searches made on Google.com and in English language. The updated algorithm has already been implemented and has been found to affect the rankings of some websites. Some experts share the view that speed would be considered only between websites that closely compete and would not have major affect on SEO rankings in general.
This move by Google is expected to make an impact on web designing techniques too. The best technologies now need to be used in a manner that does not increase the loading time. In the times when graphics form essential component of almost every website, it would take an expert web designer to create a good-looking website that quickly responds too.