How relevant is page speed for SEO?

Q: How relevant is page speed for SEO? What are the other factors which one should take into account?

A: Page speed is certainly of great significance to SEO. Google’s Head of Search Spam, Matt Cutts has already indicated several times that Google is paying more and more attention to this factor. This is due to a tremendous growth in mobile searches. Site speed matters because mobile devices draw websites over relatively slow data paths. Therefore, it is advised to consider your website page speed and execute a mobile friendly site design.

However, there are several other factors which are of greater significance to SEO other than page speed. These include quality content, keyword heavy tags and links or social mentions. So, before focusing on the page speed issues, it is recommended to take into account these factors first.