Someone over at a webmaster world forum noticed that since 8 February, Adwords is now using load time as a factor in determining the quality score for your Adwords account.
This change appears to be so recent that Google has not updated their help system. I tried to find more information about this topic before writing this blog post and could not.. and then clicked on the link to get the full FAQ in one page – https://adwords.google.com/support/?fulldump=1.
What I found was this:
How does website load time affect my landing page quality?
Beginning in February 2008, you’ll be able to see a grade for your website’s load time in your AdWords account. ‘Load time’ refers to the amount of time it takes for a user to arrive at your functional landing page after clicking your ad.
Several weeks after your load time grade becomes visible, it will begin to impact your landing page quality and, therefore, your Quality Score. We recommend working to improve your load time during this interim if it’s received a low score.
I. Why is load time a factor?
Users value ads that bring them to the information they want as efficiently as possible. A high-quality landing page should load quickly as well as feature unique, relevant content. Fast load times benefit advertisers as well, since users are less likely to abandon a site that loads quickly.
