Does Google care how fast my website is?

I just shaved 2 seconds off my best time.

Will Google reward me for it?

Probably not, because although I just made my web page load two seconds faster, it still breaks a lot of the guidelines that Google publishes for websites.

The issue of web page speed and Google is muddled and often confused.

Google likes fast web pages.

That is known, and it is understandable. Google wants to present good results to people searching, and people are impatient and dissatisfied with pages that load slowly. This is doubly true for mobile users for whom slow pages seem even slower.

People want fast web pages. Google wants to please people. Google wants your web pages to be fast.

So far so good.

The problem comes with the multitude of ways that Google can help you to measure speed.

• Page Speed Insights
• Test my Site
• Google Analytics Site Speed
• Chrome Developer tools Lighthouse audit

All different and not always consistent.

Which one do you use?

I use tools like Pingdom and WebPageTest, or a stopwatch and my eyes.

Why?

Because they represent the visitor experience more closely. And if I please my visitors, then Google will notice and send me more visitors.

Do you agree? What speed tools do you go to first?