Facebook has introduced a new tweak to its ranking algorithm that will rank faster webpages higher in the news feed. Facebook will estimate how long it takes for the webpage to load on its mobile app and penalize slow websites in the news feed of users.
“Factors such as the person’s current network connection and the general speed of the corresponding web page will be considered. If signals indicate the web page will load quickly, the link to that web page might appear higher in your feed.” Engineers Jiayi Wen and Shengbo Guo said in a blog post on Facebook.
Websites having a high load time need to worry as Facebook has clearly mentioned slow loading sites will rank lower on the news feed. Slow websites were already penalized by Google starting 2010 as it became a ranking factor.
The update will be gradually rolled out in a few months and most of the pages won’t notice any significant changes to their reach and engagements. Facebook has also shared the link to best practices for improving mobile site load time, the article can be viewed here.
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