Is Your Site Faster than a Fortune 100 Company?

Google and Yahoo on Faster Web Pages

Earlier this month, Google announced that they would start considering the speed of a site as one of the ranking signals that they use to rank pages in search results.

Yahoo published a patent filing last year that also described how they might use page load and page rendering times as ranking signals as well. I wrote a post soon after it was published, Does Page Load Time influence SEO? exploring how Yahoo and other search engines might look at different factors regarding the speed of pages, including the experience of users on web pages.

Google’s Matt Cutts wrote about the recent Google announcement, and provided some more details, telling us that it’s likely that less than 1 percent of queries would be affected by this change.

Who Benefits?

Even though the number of queries affected is on the small side, there are many benefits to increasing the speed of your site, and it’s one of the things that you have control over, as opposed to changes to search engine algorithms and changes that others make on their sites that might influence where they may rank in search results compared to your site.

Matt also noted in his blog post that this change can benefit small sites as much or more than big sites, by increasing their speed and improving the experience that visitors have on their pages.

Given that statement, I started wondering how fast some bigger sites were when it came to page speed. I decided to look at the home pages for companies that where in the Fortune 100 in 2009, figuring that they would find it easiest economically to create fast web sites.

Search Engine Speed Tools

The Google Webmaster Central blog post pointed out a number of tools that a site owner or webmaster could use to see how quick their web sites might be, and two of those tools are from Google and Yahoo. I’ve found both of them helpful, and they are worth trying out.

Both are FireFox Add-ons that work with Firebug. Google’s tool is Page Speed, and the Yahoo tool is YSlow.

There are a number of different settings that you can use with YSlow for different kinds of sites. One setting is aimed at blogs and smaller sites, while the other two, YSlow(V2) and Classic(V1) base the performance speed of pages on a series of speed performance rules described in the YSlow User Guide.

Google’s Page Speed is also based upon what Google calls Web Performance Best Practices

Fortune 100 Rankings by Page Speed and YSlow

The two tables below list the Fortune 100 of 2009 first by Page Speed scores and then by YSlow Scores, to give you an idea of how quickly or slowly your site might compare to theirs.

I used the YSlow(V2) setting for these sites, but if your site is a smaller site or a blog, you may want to use the “Small Site or Blog” settings instead.

Fortune 100 rank by Page Speed

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Name	Fortune 100 Rank	Page Speed	Yslow
Deere	87	90	90
CHS	72	89	76
News Corp.	70	88	73
Enterprise GP Holdings	65	88	77
Target	28	86	69
General Electric	5	86	69
Walt Disney	60	85	64
General Dynamics	83	85	75
Dell	33	85	75
American Express	74	85	78
Hewlett-Packard	9	84	80
Amerisource Bergen	26	84	75
Humana	85	83	82
Wells Fargo	42	82	78
United Parcel Service	43	82	81
United Health Group	21	82	71
Motorola	78	82	64
Johnson & Johnson	29	82	69
Conoco Phillips	4	82	66
Wal-Mart Stores	2	81	68
Sysco	62	81	76
Microsoft	35	81	69
HCA	88	81	74
Time Warner	48	80	72
PepsiCo	52	80	65
Lockheed Martin	54	80	74
International Business Machines	14	80	70
Ingram Micro	67	80	74
Coca-Cola	73	80	70
Tesoro	91	79	65
Safeway	50	79	68
Occidental Petroleum	98	79	69
McKesson	15	79	71
DuPont	75	79	71
Cisco Systems	57	79	63
WellPoint	32	78	77
Sears Holdings	49	78	74
Murphy Oil	92	78	71
Medco Health Solutions	45	78	80
Liberty Mutual Insurance Group	86	78	76
Kraft Foods	53	78	71
Emerson Electric	94	78	66
Best Buy	56	78	64
Macy’s	96	77	66
Chevron	3	77	65
Archer Daniels Midland	27	77	68
Supervalu	51	76	71
Rite Aid	100	76	68
Plains All American Pipeline	79	76	68
Northrop Grumman	69	76	72
Hess	55	76	78
Goldman Sachs Group	40	76	74
Citi group	12	76	63
Cardinal Health	18	76	70
AT&T	8	76	66
Abbott Laboratories	80	76	75
Walgreen	36	75	64
Intel	61	75	65
FedEx	59	74	80
Boeing	34	74	67
Bank of America Corp.	11	74	64
Apple	71	74	73
Alcoa	90	74	73
Aetna	77	74	64
Valero Energy	10	73	61
Tyson Foods	89	73	63
Travelers Cos.	99	73	65
TIAA-CREF	82	73	59
Prudential Financial	84	73	65
Morgan Stanley	30	73	66
Johnson Controls	58	73	61
International Paper	97	73	64
Ford Motor	7	73	58
Dow Chemical	38	73	64
Caterpillar	44	73	69
3M	95	73	70
State Farm Insurance Cos.	31	72	65
Procter & Gamble	20	72	58
Costco Wholesale	24	72	64
Berkshire Hathaway	13	72	95
Philip Morris International	93	71	55
MetLife	39	71	61
Sprint Nextel	64	70	64
Marathon Oil	23	70	59
Kroger	22	70	61
Home Depot	25	70	61
General Motors	6	70	64
Allstate	81	70	60
Sunoco	41	69	71
Honeywell International	63	69	63
Exxon Mobil	1	69	64
CVS Caremark	19	69	65
New York Life Insurance	76	68	63
Comcast	68	68	63
Lowe’s	47	67	66
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.	16	67	67
Pfizer	46	66	58
United Technologies	37	65	51
GMAC	66	65	57
Verizon Communications	17	60	57

Fortune 100 ranked by YSlow

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Name	Fortune 100 Rank	Page Speed	Yslow
Berkshire Hathaway	13	72	95
Deere	87	90	90
Humana	85	83	82
United Parcel Service	43	82	81
Medco Health Solutions	45	78	80
Hewlett-Packard	9	84	80
FedEx	59	74	80
Wells Fargo	42	82	78
Hess	55	76	78
American Express	74	85	78
WellPoint	32	78	77
Enterprise GP Holdings	65	88	77
Sysco	62	81	76
Liberty Mutual Insurance Group	86	78	76
CHS	72	89	76
General Dynamics	83	85	75
Dell	33	85	75
Amerisource Bergen	26	84	75
Abbott Laboratories	80	76	75
Sears Holdings	49	78	74
Lockheed Martin	54	80	74
Ingram Micro	67	80	74
HCA	88	81	74
Goldman Sachs Group	40	76	74
News Corp.	70	88	73
Apple	71	74	73
Alcoa	90	74	73
Time Warner	48	80	72
Northrop Grumman	69	76	72
United Health Group	21	82	71
Supervalu	51	76	71
Sunoco	41	69	71
Murphy Oil	92	78	71
McKesson	15	79	71
Kraft Foods	53	78	71
DuPont	75	79	71
International Business Machines	14	80	70
Coca-Cola	73	80	70
Cardinal Health	18	76	70
3M	95	73	70
Target	28	86	69
Occidental Petroleum	98	79	69
Microsoft	35	81	69
Johnson & Johnson	29	82	69
General Electric	5	86	69
Caterpillar	44	73	69
Wal-Mart Stores	2	81	68
Safeway	50	79	68
Rite Aid	100	76	68
Plains All American Pipeline	79	76	68
Archer Daniels Midland	27	77	68
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.	16	67	67
Boeing	34	74	67
Morgan Stanley	30	73	66
Macy’s	96	77	66
Lowe’s	47	67	66
Emerson Electric	94	78	66
Conoco Phillips	4	82	66
AT&T	8	76	66
Travelers Cos.	99	73	65
Tesoro	91	79	65
State Farm Insurance Cos.	31	72	65
Prudential Financial	84	73	65
PepsiCo	52	80	65
Intel	61	75	65
CVS Caremark	19	69	65
Chevron	3	77	65
Walt Disney	60	85	64
Walgreen	36	75	64
Sprint Nextel	64	70	64
Motorola	78	82	64
International Paper	97	73	64
General Motors	6	70	64
Exxon Mobil	1	69	64
Dow Chemical	38	73	64
Costco Wholesale	24	72	64
Best Buy	56	78	64
Bank of America Corp.	11	74	64
Aetna	77	74	64
Tyson Foods	89	73	63
New York Life Insurance	76	68	63
Honeywell International	63	69	63
Comcast	68	68	63
Citi group	12	76	63
Cisco Systems	57	79	63
Valero Energy	10	73	61
MetLife	39	71	61
Kroger	22	70	61
Johnson Controls	58	73	61
Home Depot	25	70	61
Allstate	81	70	60
TIAA-CREF	82	73	59
Marathon Oil	23	70	59
Procter & Gamble	20	72	58
Pfizer	46	66	58
Ford Motor	7	73	58
Verizon Communications	17	60	57
GMAC	66	65	57
Philip Morris International	93	71	55
United Technologies	37	65	51

On Navigational Queries and Rankings

The vast majority of these companies ranked number one in Google for their home pages, regardless of how fast or slow those pages might be.

They are well known businesses, and chances are good that their rankings are in good part determined by virtue of queries for the names of these businesses being perceived as navigational queries by the search engines, with their home pages being considered as “perfect” or ideal pages that should rank most highly for queries that are also the names of those companies.

Why increasing Your Page Speed is a Good Idea

Regardless of the difficulty of competing with such large businesses for their own names, it is possible to target queries that aren’t considered “navigational” in nature and outrank those sites. While many of those sites don’t perform well under Page Speed and YSlow, there are other areas in optimizing their pages that they also may be missing. Site speed is just one ranking signal that the search engines may be using, and the search engines have told us repeatedly that they may be looking at hundreds of other signals.

I was discussing this topic with David Dalka, a business leadership consultant and marketing speaker who advises c-level executives and board of directors on how to effectively and strategically utilize search to improve corporate performance, and this was his response on why Fortune 100 companies don’t seem to invest heavily in things like optimzing their web pages to provide better user experiences such as increasing the speeds of their pages:

Most business leaders have not yet had exposure to fully understanding the complex and senior level strategic nature of search marketing which can raise corporate earnings in a positive manner. The only difference between executing search marketing strategy with a CEO, CFO and board of directors in a medium size business and doing this at the Fortune 500 level is the ability, understanding and willingness to transform outdated and entrenched legacy processes which are rapidly losing their effectiveness.

Strategic, highly personalized and customized training and use of a new breed of leadership advisors who fully understand the transformational nature of emerging marketing channels like search can mean the difference between being an industry leader or being a laggard that becomes an acquisition target of private equity firms or goes out of business.

There are opportunities for small and medium sized businesses to take advantage of this slowness to change corporate practices involving search and the Web amongst the Fortune 100, or Fortune 500.

Focusing upon things like providing faster pages, a better user experience on your site, and knowledge about topics such as search marketing may bring you benefits that the bigger companies don’t seem to quite fathom yet.