Faster is better. That's the logic behind Google's latest decision to factor in page load time to a site's Quality Score.

Google first revealed its plan back in March, saying that issues of load time directly impact the user experience.

According to Google, interstitial pages, multiple redirects and excessively slow servers all slow load time, which in turn prompts many users to abandon a site altogether.

The changes, which are now effective, mean that sites with a lower Quality Score will have to pay a higher minimum bid for relevant keywords, whereas a better score will result in lower minimum bids for keywords. The minimum bid price for keywords matters because it determines the extent to which websites can leverage Google's AdWords program to draw traffic.