IF YOUR WEBSITE IS SLOW, FACEBOOK WILL SEND IT TO THE BOTTOM OF PEOPLE'S NEWS FEED.

Facebook's algorithm will calculate how long a page takes to load from its mobile app and will use that

information to rank stories in people's News Feed.

Facebook plans to start estimating how long it takes a web page to fully load from its mobile app and will use that estimate when determining how high or low a link to that page should appear in people's News Feed.

<< Factors such as the person's current network connection and the overall speed of the corresponding web page will be considered. If signals indicate that the web page will load quickly, the link to that web page may appear higher in your News Feed,” Facebook engineers Jiayi Wen and Shengbo Guo wrote on the company blog announcing the change, which will roll out “gradually over the coming months. >>

Sites with slow-loading pages will likely see their reach on Facebook decline and their traffic from Facebook drop, according to the blog. This comes as no surprise, especially for brands and publishers that already went through this in 2010, when Google's search algorithm officially began using site speed as a ranking factor (in English).

For sites worried about being hurt by Facebook's latest algorithm update, Facebook published a “best practices” guide, and it did so shortly after this article was published; it offers steps you can take to reduce page load times, as well as a list of tools you can use to check speed. Another alternative is for sites to convert their pages to Facebook's fast-loading format, an option that, surprisingly, Facebook does not promote in the guide or in the blog post announcing the algorithm change.

A Facebook spokesperson has not yet responded to an email asking how Facebook will estimate web page load speeds and what factors it will use to make these estimates, such as the number of ads on a page or the number of photos or videos the page contains.