The short answer? Yes, bloody hell yes.

But if you’re looking for a bit more detail than that (and I suspect you are), let’s get into why your slow-as-shite server could be killing your rankings – and more importantly, what you can do about it.

Google does care about speed

Google’s been banging on about site speed for over a decade now. They officially made it a ranking factor back in 2010, and they’ve been gradually turning up the dial on its importance ever since.

But it’s not just because Google’s developers are impatient. There’s solid reasoning behind it.

Core Web Vitals: The speed metrics that matter

Google’s Core Web Vitals are the closest thing we’ve got to a speed scorecard that actually affects rankings. These three metrics measure:

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): How long it takes for the main content to load (should be under 2.5 seconds)
First Input Delay (FID): How responsive your site is when users try to interact with it
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): How much your page elements jump around as they load

Your server speed directly impacts all three, especially that crucial LCP metric. A slow server means a poor LCP score, which means Google’s less likely to rank you highly.

The crawl budget problem nobody talks about

Here’s something many SEOs miss – server speed affects how efficiently Google can crawl your site.

Google allocates a “crawl budget” to each site – essentially the number of pages they’ll bother looking at during a given time period. If your server responds like it’s wading through treacle, Google will crawl fewer pages.

Fewer pages crawled = fewer pages indexed = fewer opportunities to rank. Simple as that.

I’ve seen sites with thousands of product pages where Google only bothered indexing a fraction because the server kept timing out. Nightmare scenario if you’re an ecommerce site.

Visitors hate waiting even more than Google does

Even if Google didn’t care about speed (which they definitely do), your visitors certainly do.

Studies show that:

53% of mobile users abandon sites that take over 3 seconds to load
Every second of delay reduces conversions by about 7%
Slow-loading sites see higher bounce rates and lower time-on-site

Google tracks these user behaviour signals. If people are bouncing back to search results like your site’s on fire, Google gets the message: “this site isn’t helping users.” Your rankings will suffer accordingly.

Speed matters even more on mobile

With Google’s mobile-first indexing, how your site performs on mobile devices is now your primary concern.

Mobile users typically have less patience and often deal with less reliable connections than desktop users. Server speed issues that might be tolerable on a fast broadband connection become absolute conversion killers on mobile.

How to tell if your server is the problem

Before you start optimizing, make sure your server is actually the bottleneck. Use:

Google PageSpeed Insights: Look specifically at the “Server Response Time” section
WebPageTest.org: Check the “First Byte Time” (TTFB)
GTmetrix: Review the “Server Response Times” metric

If your Time To First Byte (TTFB) is over 200ms, your server is likely holding you back.

Fixing your server speed without going insane

You don’t need a computer science degree to improve server speed. Here are the fixes that will work:

Get Better Hosting

The £4.99/month hosting deal might seem like a bargain until it costs you thousands in lost sales. Shared hosting is like trying to run a restaurant out of someone else’s kitchen – it might work when it’s quiet, but it falls apart when things get busy.

If you’re serious about SEO, consider:

VPS hosting at a minimum
Dedicated servers if you’ve got decent traffic
Managed WordPress hosting if you’re using WordPress

I use Krystal hosting, which is not only fast, but sustainable and eco friendly – you can get £10 if you move to them using my code NIKKIP.

Implement a CDN

A Content Delivery Network puts copies of your static files on servers around the world, so visitors get served from the location closest to them. It’s like having mini-versions of your site stationed globally.

Cloudflare offers a free plan that’s better than nothing, but paid CDNs like Fastly or KeyCDN can make a massive difference.

Set up proper caching

Server-side caching saves your server from having to build each page from scratch for every visitor. It’s like pre-making sandwiches before the lunchtime rush instead of making each one to order.

If you’re on WordPress, plugins like WP Rocket or W3 Total Cache can make this relatively painless.

Optimise your database

If your site runs on a database (and most do), regular maintenance can prevent it from becoming a bottleneck:

Remove unused tables and data
Optimise database queries
Set up database caching

Talk to your web developer about these fixes.

Reduce Server Requests

Each element on your page requires a separate request to your server. Fewer requests = faster load times.

Combine CSS and JavaScript files
Use CSS sprites for small images
Lazy-load images and videos
Remove unnecessary plugins

Is it worth fixing your server speed?

Is every millisecond going to send you rocketing up the rankings? No. But fixing a genuinely slow server might be the single most impactful SEO change you can make – especially if your competitors are leaving the door open with their own sluggish sites.

But it’s not just about SEO

Server speed isn’t just an SEO ranking factor – it’s a fundamental part of providing a decent user experience. And ultimately, that’s what Google cares about.

Every second your visitors wait is another chance for them to hit the back button. Every timeout when Google tries to crawl your site is content that won’t get indexed.

So yes, server speed matters for SEO. But it matters even more for the people you’re trying to reach.