Is Search Rank Affected By Slow Loading Time?

I read a post of an Xisto member (Vhortex) in which he indicated that slow loading time can affect the rank of a web page in search results dramatically. I researched this topic on google but unfortunately I wasn't able to retrieve much information about it. So I am posting it here to know your opinion about it.

Yes, you will be penalized on Google and Yandex (russian search engine), Bing, Yahoo and MSN have poorer algorithm and despite that I was reported appearing on page 3-10 on their webmaster tool (their version), I don't actually see my website on those pages. I guess that 3 search engine (which all belong to Microsoft) don't care for slow loading pages.

It is also a point to be taken that Bing was doing a mirror of Google search results, what appears low on Google will now appear lower on Bing. Microsoftâs Bing uses Google search results, it is equally as bad as having lots of error 404 indexes as they are visited by Google Bot.

Yes, you will be penalized on Google and Yandex (russian search engine), Bing, Yahoo and MSN have poorer algorithm and despite that I was reported appearing on page 3-10 on their webmaster tool (their version), I don't actually see my website on those pages. I guess that 3 search engine (which all belong to Microsoft) don't care for slow loading pages.

 

It is also a point to be taken that Bing was doing a mirror of Google search results, what appears low on Google will now appear lower on Bing. Microsoftâs Bing uses Google search results, it is equally as bad as having lots of error 404 indexes as they are visited by Google Bot.

Loading time is increased depending on user's internet speed. That obviously is not going to have any effect on search results by any extension of imagination. But when the loading time increases by placing a lot of stuff on a webpage, will this affect the SERP of the respective page? In one of my other posts I have asked @VHORTEX about the impact of placing ads on webpage's SERP. I am targeting the same question here.

There is no penalty for slow pages. SE just devalues that site and puts at lesser rank on search results. Many sites use flash or other media on their pages. do they get penalized ? NO. that's not the case. Google never penalizes for slow page loading,that is just myth people are spreading. Google and bing uses clickstream data and just because google says so doesn't mean bing is using google's data. If that were to be the case then it would be patent and copyright violation. :PIf you're using wordpress themes with less javascript then you have no issues. Even sites with flash, javascript and HTML 5 effects will have no worries at all. People overestimate google algorithm too much. Bots don't see html5 effects, java and flash, so only text is visible to those bots, how they're going to penalize the site ? simple. using fishing filter, script loading standards for safe browsing that many antivirus sites set. Don't worry too much about this, your site is no close to even qualifying for fast loading.

There is no penalty for slow pages. SE just devalues that site and puts at lesser rank on search results.

This is a form of opposing ideas, if your site gets devalued by Search Engines, you are already penalized. Search Engine don't apply instant penalties, when sites loads slow, they will send bots on the same region with the hosting server. If the site still loads slow then that it the time you get the penalty. You also need to be constantly slow for a few days to get a penalty.

Flash sites are not really slow to load, there are lots of good flash sites that loads the segments parallel to each other. They only load slow when you put them into 1 bulk flash file with no segmentation.

Videos are not set to play automatically on most sites, this is to prevent bandwidth hogging on the end user. In fact, the only thing you can't speed up on the web is video loading however you can always optimize them for those who have a faster connection using streaming servers.

Also, to check if a page is slow.. it will request for the header file.

Example:
mydomain.com/slowpage.php.. in order to test if this page is really slow, bots will request will connect and request the HTTP header for slowpage.php throwing the rest of the packet away. This is still affected by DNS/domain resolutions, the more cross referenced domains that exist the slower the HTTP header will be returned. On a slow database setup (it was pretty easy to cause heavy slow downs on an improperly created database), the page will take a lot of time before it sends it response header of 200. It will wait for the database calls to complete before issuing the response.

Injecting ads on a page won't have effect on the bot, this will be dealt with on the end user browser or when the bot request the full page content.

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The method that Google use on checking the loading time is almost the same method used by site monitors that tells you if your site went down or having heavy slow downs. Even if the site monitors keep on checking your site for 1min up to 5mins interval, there are no noticeable delays caused, no wrong tracking info recorded but just like the google bots and other bots out there, those visits and http header request will appear as actual visits on your server's log file.

The sole reason why they are not messing your site trackers is merely the reason that those javascripts you add at the footer are not loaded nor even read. If you will check it, even google bot seldom appear as a visitor on your site's tracker except if they bounce on an error 404.

This is a form of opposing ideas, if your site gets devalued by Search Engines, you are already penalized.

Nope. Devalue means throwing site in sandbox and let it grow naturally for getting credibility in terms of google's algorithm. It's not penalty. Many about.com pages are devalued and thrown to page 2-3 of search result. You call that penalty ? Nope, it's not.

 

Search Engine don't apply instant penalties, when sites loads slow, they will send bots on the same region with the hosting server. If the site still loads slow then that it the time you get the penalty. You also need to be constantly slow for a few days to get a penalty.

Bots are reading text content which makes your site similar to what you can see on browser like lynx. Unless you're running site from your home server, you don't hit that much slow speed from any known or popular hosting site on the web. Also nowhere in google guidelines or by google authority it is mentioned about - 'you need to be consistently slow etc' parameters. Malware, phishing scripts etc which makes site slow are banned or penalized immediately.

 

The method that Google use on checking the loading time is almost the same method used by site monitors that tells you if your site went down or having heavy slow downs. Even if the site monitors keep on checking your site for 1min up to 5mins interval, there are no noticeable delays caused, no wrong tracking info recorded but just like the google bots and other bots out there, those visits and http header request will appear as actual visits on your server's log file.

I don't buy this. Show me official google's employee posting or support docs for this.

 

The sole reason why they are not messing your site trackers is merely the reason that those javascripts you add at the footer are not loaded nor even read. If you will check it, even google bot seldom appear as a visitor on your site's tracker except if they bounce on an error 404.

Google bot reads any javascript, java, HTML 5 and other graphical code as text on your page if they wish to render and if not that text is stripped. Again think of google bot as lynx browser view. period.

I am glad to hear that there is no penalty for slow pages but just for curiosity, I must ask something from @Starscream. Suppose there are two websites having all the stuff similar (not in terms of copied content but just as an example suppose all aspects of the websites are similar) execpt site A takes more time to load than site B. The problem might be in coding of the site or the slowness of server. Wouldn't it be injustice with site B if both these websites are ranked same by the search engine and site A is not penalized (relative to siteB )

Edited February 14, 2011 by Ahsaniqbal111 (see edit history)

I read a post of an Xisto member (Vhortex) in which he indicated that slow loading time can affect the rank of a web page in search results dramatically. I researched this topic on google but unfortunately I wasn't able to retrieve much information about it. So I am posting it here to know your opinion about it.

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hi,
offcourse it will effect & get penalized by visitors as well. now you think how?
when visitor come back from website google suggest block site list & that will penalized by the google for ranking.

site speed is strongest point to get in rank.. or sustain in rank.

BSmith
Edited November 12, 2011 by yordan
no advertising here, please (see edit history)