In the history of Google page speed ranking algorithms, we had three different announcements. Most recently we had the page experience update from 2020 that uses core web vitals, in 2018 we had the Google page speed update, and then in 2010 we had the Google site speed update.
Google only uses core web vitals. Google’s John Mueller confirmed on Twitter that Google now only uses the most recent update for page speed ranking, specifically the page experience update that measures page speed using core web vitals.
John said “it’s all cwv [core web vitals] now” when asked about if the old page speed algorithms are used.
Old page speed algorithms. John said “no,” to Google using the old 2010 and 2018 page speed algorithms.
Why we care. Truth is, page speed as a ranking factor is super light and does not really make a huge difference for ranking purposes. But either way, it is good to know that Google no longer uses the old page speed algorithms, even though one might consider it obvious for Google not to have two or more competing algorithms.
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About The Author
Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry can be followed on Twitter here.
