Website speed is a confirmed Google ranking factor and directly impacts user experience — slower sites lead to higher bounce rates and lost conversions. Common speed issues include large, uncompressed images, too many plugins, unoptimized code, and slow hosting. Tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix analyze your site and give specific recommendations, such as compressing images, enabling browser caching, minifying CSS/JavaScript, and using a Content Delivery Network (CDN). Even small speed improvements can lead to noticeably better rankings and lower bounce rates, especially on mobile devices.