You already know that Google takes into account multiple factors when deciding where a website is going to rank in their SERPS.

But did you know this one?

Google has started to take into account how fast a page loads in the browser. From their end, a faster loading page = a better user experience.

Suddenly this has a big impact on which wordpress theme you should use. Many themes look pretty, but their underlying code is bloated, leading to sluggish loading times.

Here’s a case in point.

Shawn Collins found (to his alarm) that his average page load time for his blog was over 10 seconds. This was the impetus he needed to install thesis theme, because Chris Pearson is ruthless in his quest for efficient code. A lot of the power of thesis lies ‘under the hood’. The results speak for themselves – Shawn’s pages now load in 1.4 seconds.