The speed in which your Web site loads serves two purposes ~
1.) To improve user experience
2.) To improve the efficiency of Google’s servers for indexing purposes
Therefore, knowing that Google weighs heavily on the user experience — and has a need to maintain the efficiency of its servers and indexing due to the widespread popularity of its Web site, it would make sense that Google would make this a key part of its ranking and algorithm.
By fixing your slow pages, you can bring your ranking up and — most importantly — improve user experience. A homepage that loads slowly brings down sales conversions. Load time is something that can be fixed and therefore should not be a factor that affects your bottom line.
Flash elements and graphics are two of the most common reasons that Web sites load slowly, however there are many other reasons from a design and content perspective.
You can test your site’s load time using Google Analytics’ site speed report. There are also many other free online tools that you can use.
Content is still king. Site load time is just one of approximately 200 factors that Google uses. However, its important to consider the fact that load time has an impact on bounce rate, which is the average time that searchers stay on your site after landing there. A high bounce rate indicates that users are not finding what they came for, and are clicking away to find information that is more targeted to their search. A high bounce rate can also indicate that the site’s load time was slow and that the user didn’t have the time or want to spend the time to wait until the site loaded.
Here’s a great explanation of the importance of site load time from Google, which encourages business owners to do what’s best for the user=
