Right now, maybe nothing…but very soon, maybe a lot.

Barry Schwartz of SEL and SER ran across some chatter that Google AdWords is going to start using page load time as a factor for a landing page’s quality score.

The speculation started on the WebmasterWorld forums, but has spread to other outlets as people found this section of the About AdWords page:

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.

Now I know that watching costs is something that all affiliates try to do, but this change solidifies that affiliates should make sure their sites are hosted with a reliable, speedy hosting company. (Of course, you should be doing this for conversion and user experience reasons anyway).

I know that in my daily perusal of sites I run across a good number of affiliate sites that take way too long to load, especially if they are sites that are being hosted on a third party’s domain. So if that describes you, it might be time to start looking for a new host.

Luckily, there are a number of decent hosts out there that can get you quick load times without busting your budget. Personally I like Site5 and our developers tend to favor Westhost…but if I were you I’d shop around and find someplace that works for other affiliates.

If you have a personal hosting favorite, let us know in the comments…but don’t leave an affiliate link, ok? :)