Landing Page Load Time To Be a Part Of Adwords Quality Score

[Edwin]

I don't know if this is already brought up, but Google will be using the load time of your landing page as a metric for it's Adwords Quality Score.

So if your pages load very slowly then it will probably affect your overall QS (Quality Score) in a bad way causing you to pay more for a click should you have a faster loading page.

Some insight from Adwords Advisor, a Google representative:

I seem to have a morning full of meetings and other tasks, but wanted to jump in briefly with some clarification and further information.

Before I go on, though, the key information is that this is a planned initiative that has not yet launched. A precise launch date has not yet been set.

A bit more info:

[...] Well, towards the end I came across this stunner: [...]

What you came across, jkwilson78, is an outdated FAQ which was loaded into the Help Center in anticipation of a launch which has since been postponed a bit. Inadvertently, this FAQ was not removed.

The short story is this:

* Landing page load time will become an additional factor in determining landing page quality in the near future. An exact date has not been determined.

* A Inside AdWords blog post has always been planned to announce this in advance, to explain why it is occurring and outline the potential benefits to users and advertisers.

* At some point following the blog post, landing page load time will begin to be reported on the Keyword Analysis Page.

* Then, following that, several weeks will pass before load time starts to actually be factored into the Quality Score - so that advertisers will have time to make adjustments to their pages if they wish.

As an aside, now that the page load time initiative has been mentioned in this and other public forums, the Inside AdWords blog post is likely to be posted sooner rather than later - perhaps as early as this week. Once it has been published, although the WebmasterWorld terms prohibit me from linking to it, I will post the text of it here.

Makes sense to me- if your page takes forever to load, that to me is just as bad as poor quality content.

Glad to hear you say that, LifeinAsis - and agreed. As I've said a time or two in this forum in the past, if I land on a page that takes more than a moment or two to load, I'm both frustrated and gone.

I hope this sets a few minds at ease - and my apology for the confusion caused by the FAQ which should have been deleted, but wasn't.

And, all that said, a very sharp eye you have there, jkwilson78.

AWA

Source: SEO Round Table - Webmaster World