At the recent Google I/O Conference in Northern California, the search giant said that speed matters. Not in so many words, mind you. But, what Vice President of Search Products Marissa Mayer did say was that users were asked whether they would like 10 or 30 results per page and they chose 30.

But, when the speed of serving those 30 results slowed down the search, the searches dropped by 20 percent. So, in essence the visitors wanted those 30 results on a page but at the same speed as for 10 results per page.

Mayer pointed out the same results for Google Maps. When the search giant cut the size of the maps by 30-percent, the searches increased by 30-percent. The faster load times meant people were willing to stick around and search more (plus click on more ads).

But, Google does not only require speed from within, it requires speed from without as well. In recent months Google has hinted that the bounce rate of websites may be a ranking factor in the SERP’s. This means, the faster a web page loads and the longer visitors stay on the site before leaving, it is assumed that this page is of interest and merits a higher place in the search engine results pages.

So, the bottom line is that Google requires speed from itself and speed from the websites it links to as well. With speed, visitors stay interested and get what they are looking for quickly. Perhaps at one time even Keanu and Sandra were hired as the “need for speed” consultants to help improve on this concept.

Filed under: Google