I know the fight isn’t over, and Net Neutrality is still breathing, even kicking in some states. But the fact is this battle has been fought for a long time, and during that time internet service provider consolidation, along with media consolidation, has accelerated. This mostly involves the big companies, their small competitors and of course, the consumer. We’re all consumers, so we’re all getting screwed that way, but unless your business is trying to take some of Google’s or Facebook’s market share, it’s safe to say that you’re not really going to be affected, right?
Probably not. The effects of having a “slow lane” on the internet aren’t very well known globally, and unknown here in America. Will SEO be affected by the divide? Will ISP throttle traffic containing content of their parent company’s competitors? One thing is sure. Your audience will not be more patient for a page to load.
Load time matters
A leading cause of bounce traffic (one page and done) is slow page load, especially with mobile traffic. Optimizing your website for speed is going to be even more important if new neutrality keeps getting chipped away. You will likely be in the same lane with your competitors. Why not start the race with an advantage.
Page speed is already a ranking factor with SEO. The weight of it isn’t known outside of Google, but I would guess that it’ll increase, not decrease or stagnate, over time.
Perfection vs. Perception
Going for a perfect 100 on desktop and mobile on Google Page Speed Insights at the cost of a good looking, well designed website obviously not the way to go. And get a second opinion at https://tools.pngdom.com and a third at https://gtmetrix.com/. Check your website several times before getting started with optimization. This will help eliminate anomalies like server issues or network issues.
Finally, test it yourself. Empty your cache and load your own website every once in a while on any device you can get your hands on. Have your friends do the same. Friends don’t let friends have slow websites.