It took long enough for this to happen, but Google is now offering a Site Performance tool within their Webmaster Tools. What this tool provides, is information regarding the speed at which your site loads, while offering a variety of recommendations in order to fix or speed up the website.

Page Speed has always been an issue, but has never really factored into search rankings, nor have slow, bloated websites been penalized whatsoever. While it hasn’t been implemented yet, the rumors are heavily pointing to Google including a website’s speed into their search algorithm.

This would be fantastic for those who have spent the time and effort cutting down load time on their website, simply to see slow competitors rise above them in search rankings.

The tool is still in testing phase, but can be found as a ‘Labs’ tool in Webmaster Tools. Above you will see a site that is currently faster than 95% of other sites.

Here is an example of some techniques that can be used in order to speed up a site. If you have ever used YSlow or Firebug it will no doubt seem familiar.