Gary Illyes at SMX Advanced this week confirmed that it is a minor ranking signal but that it acts as a tie breaker rather than something that will cause a significant boost in the rankings for a speedy site. He also confirmed it was similar to the https ranking boost Google does, which also acts as a tie breaker when there are two similar results, and the https can be the reason it scores the higher position in the search results.
So if you are struggling breaking into the next position, upping your page speed could make the difference to move up a position, especially if your site is currently slow, or at least slower than your competitors.
Jennifer Slegg
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