It’s Official. Google has confirmed that your page load time – how long it takes for the browser to fully bring up your page and its graphic/multimedia contents – is considered in their ranking algorithm. Since this is the most important ranking formula in the search engine world, this requires your attention.

While it can seem to be bad news, it does have a silver lining. It means that Google is giving you direct control over an important element in moving up in their listings. If your load time is better than your competitors, you’re giving yourself an advantage you didn’t have before. So why wouldn’t you take advantage? It’s as easy as SEO gets. So how do you figure out your page load time?

It’s easy to find out. Google is making it very easy by actually telling you how they view your loading times. All you need to do is go to your Google Webmaster account. There’s a tab in there now that, when clicked on, will show you a page speed report. Now you just have to take that feedback from Google and benefit from it.

While you’re in the page speed report note down what pages Google labels as ‘Slow’. Those are the ones you need to fix. It’s that simple to figure out where the problems are on yours site. The next step in this SEO process is to take action to fix those pages.

How To Lower Your Load Time & Raise Your Google Ranking

Here are a few tips to quickly improve load time on those pages:

Optimize Your Graphics. See if you can reduce their size (in bytes) without sacrificing quality. You might even want to consider making the graphic dimensions smaller if that’s an option. Often photos and other graphic files are the largest parts of a webpage so starting there is only logical.

Cut The Code. Look for redundant code that can be taken out without altering the page’s appearance. Often, especially in template and WYSIWYG site builders produce all kinds of extra coding that serves no purpose at all. You’ll need to know some things about HTML and webpage coding, but it will be worth it if you can get rid of what’s weighing you down here.

Divide Long Pages Into Smaller Ones. If you have to scroll down a lot to see the entire content of a page, it might be a candidate for dividing it into 2 webpages. You’ll have to make a judgement on whether you lose any sales ability by chasing SEO before doing this, though. However, if there’s a logical place to divide or focus on the different points you’re pursuing, that should make this task easier.

Faster load time is something that not only Google will appreciate, but also your visitors. No one likes to wait and wait for a slow page to arrive in the browser. So, in a sense Google might be doing you a favor by getting you to provide a better experience to your visitor. Take them up on it.