SEO Atlas
GoogleAlgorithmConfirmed

Speed Update

Page speed became a ranking factor for mobile search, affecting only the slowest pages.

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What changed

Google announced in January 2018 that from July page speed would be used as a ranking factor for mobile searches, and said the change would affect only pages delivering the slowest experience to users. It emphasised that relevant content could still rank well despite slow loading, and pointed publishers at Lighthouse, PageSpeed Insights and the Chrome User Experience Report. The update prefigured the later Core Web Vitals programme.

Timing

Announced on 17 January 2018, with rollout beginning 9 July 2018. No completion date was announced. Rankings typically remain unstable for the whole rollout window, so measurements taken inside it are not a reliable read on the outcome.

What it affected

Page SpeedMobilePerformance

Related terminology

Chrome User Experience Report

Google's public dataset of real-user performance measurements from opted-in Chrome users, and the official source of Core Web…

Edge SEO

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Google ranking systems

Google's documented list of the systems that generate rankings, distinguished from one-off 'updates' to those systems, and…

PageSpeed Insights

Google's public tool that shows CrUX field data and a Lighthouse lab audit for a URL and its origin, side by side.

Further reading