Does Page Speed Still Matter? What’s Changed in the Age of AI Search

What Used to Matter

For years, the SEO playbook was straightforward: make your site fast, mobile-friendly, and optimized for Google’s requirements.

The checklist looked like this:

• Load in under 2.5 seconds (Google’s LCP target)
• Pass Core Web Vitals (LCP, FID/INP, CLS)
• Mobile-first indexing compliance
• Compress images, enable caching, minimize scripts
• Page Speed Insights score above 90

The logic was simple: Google measures these things. Google ranks based on these things. So optimize for these things.

And it worked. Properties that loaded fast, performed well on mobile, and checked Google’s technical boxes earned higher rankings. Higher rankings meant more traffic. More traffic meant more tours.

That was the game. Things have changed. 

Multifamily properties need to fundamentally change how they think about their online visibility.

Research suggests that organic click-through rates for search queries featuring Google’s AI Overviews fell 61% since mid-2024. Paid click-through rates on those same queries dropped 68%.

But here’s the really interesting part: even on queries without AI Overviews, organic CTRs fell 41%.

What does that mean?

People are clicking less everywhere. Not just when AI overviews appear, but across the board.

Why?

Because prospects are becoming less likely to start their apartment search on Google. They’re asking ChatGPT “best apartments in Atlanta for young professionals.” They’re asking Perplexity “which apartment communities in Denver have the best reviews.” They’re asking Claude “compare rent prices in Austin for 2-bedroom apartments.”

By the time they get to Google (if they get to Google), they’ve already narrowed their options. And when they do search, they’re often looking for specific properties by name—not browsing through generic “apartments in [city]” results.

The shift:

Traditional search sent traffic to websites, where properties competed to convert visitors into tours.

AI search answers questions directly, citing a few trusted sources. Properties compete to be one of those sources.

The One Metric That Still Matters

Here’s the data point that changes everything:

Seer Interactive mentions that brands cited in AI Overviews earned 35% more organic clicks and 91% more paid clicks than those not cited.

It’s not about ranking #1 in Google anymore. It’s about being citation-worthy when AI engines answer questions about apartments in your market.

The question shifted from: “How do I rank higher in Google?”

To: “Why would ChatGPT recommend my property?”

 

What Makes You Citation-Worthy?

AI engines cite sources they trust. And unlike Google’s algorithm (which you could game with technical optimization), AI engines are looking for genuine quality signals.

What they’re evaluating:

1. Authority
   

• Do other credible sources mention you?
• Do you have authentic reviews from real residents?
• Are you referenced in local news, community sites, or industry publications?

 

2. Clarity
   

• Can AI easily understand what you offer?
• Is your content well-structured with clear information hierarchy?
• Do you answer questions directly without marketing fluff?

 

3. Authenticity

• Are your reviews real?
• Is your content original, or recycled marketing copy?
• Do you provide specific, detailed information or just generic claims?

 

4. Consistency

• Does your information match across your website, Google Business Profile, apartment listing sites?
• Are your amenities, pricing, and availability clearly stated and up-to-date?

 

Notice what’s NOT on this list:

• Your Page Speed Insights score
• Your Core Web Vitals metrics
• Whether you load in 2.5 seconds or 3.5 seconds

But page speed still affects user experience.

While AI engines may not penalize you for a 3-second load time versus a 2-second one, your prospects absolutely notice. Research shows that 53% of mobile users abandon sites that take longer than 3 seconds to load. And every additional second of delay can reduce conversions by 7%.

Here’s the reality: whether someone finds your property through Google, ChatGPT, or Perplexity, they eventually click through to your website. If it takes 6+ seconds to load, or if images are still appearing after 10 seconds, you’ve created friction right when a prospect is deciding whether to schedule a tour.

The distinction:

• AI engines don’t rank you based on milliseconds of load time
• But prospects abandon slow sites just like they always have
• So fix obvious speed problems, but don’t obsess over perfect scores

 

Does Technical Performance Still Matter?

Yes, but not as a stand-alone marketing strategy.

Here’s the honest breakdown:

You still need:

• A mobile site that actually works (not just “responsive design”)
• Pages that load in a reasonable time (under 5 seconds on mobile)
• A site structure that AI crawlers can access and index

What you DON’T need:

• Perfect Core Web Vitals scores
• Sub-2.5-second load times
• 90+ PageSpeed Insights ratings

 

Bottom line, user (actual people) experience (UX) is still important!

If your website is not functional or cumbersome to use, you’ve lost the person.

So fix the obvious problems:

• Broken mobile layouts
• Images that take forever to load
• Forms that don’t work on phones
• Content that requires horizontal scrolling
• Incessant pop-ups and chat bots that keep you for accessing the content you want to see.

The Real Competition for Attention is Not Just Your Comps

Let’s be honest about what and who you’re actually competing against.

You’re competing for AI citation against:

• National apartment listing sites (Apartments.com, Zillow)
• Local news coverage
• Review platforms (Google, Yelp)
• Community forums and social media discussions

How can you stay relevant? Here’s what wins:

A property with 4.8 stars and 200 authentic reviews will get cited by AI over a property with perfect Core Web Vitals and 3.2 stars.

A property mentioned in a local “Best Places to Live” article will get recommended over one with a faster-loading website.

A property with detailed, specific content about its community, amenities, and resident experience will be favored over one with generic marketing copy—even if the generic site loads faster.

You can’t optimize your way past mediocrity anymore. AI rewards properties that are actually good.

In the old SEO world, a mediocre property with great technical optimization could outrank an excellent property with a slow website. You could “game the system” with SEO tricks, backlinks, and keyword stuffing.

Now, with AI search, that’s harder to do. AI engines look at reviews, mentions, authority, and actual quality signals. So a truly excellent property (reviews, and valuable user content) has a better chance of being recommended than a mediocre property with perfect technical SEO.

You can’t optimize your way to the top anymore. You have to earn it.

What Success Looks Like Now

The metrics are changing.

Old success metrics:

• Organic traffic
• Keyword rankings
• Click-through rates
• Time on site

New success metrics:

• Share of voice (are you being mentioned?)
• Citation frequency (are AI engines recommending you?)
• Branded search volume (are people searching for you by name?)
• Direct traffic (are people coming straight to your site?)

Here’s why:

If ChatGPT recommends three apartment communities in response to “best places to live in [city] for remote workers,” and you’re one of them—you don’t need to rank #1 in Google for that query. You’re already winning.

If prospects ask Perplexity “which apartments in [neighborhood] have the best reviews” and you’re cited as a top option, traffic becomes less relevant than visibility.

The goal isn’t more clicks. It’s being the property that gets recommended when it matters.

So What Should You Do?

If Core Web Vitals and page speed aren’t the strategy anymore, what is?

Fix the basics (so you’re not disqualified)

• Run your site on your phone. Does it work? Can you easily tap buttons? Can you read the text?
• Test your load time, yes it matters still. Is it under 5 seconds? If not, compress images and remove unnecessary scripts.
• Check mobile usability in Google Search Console. Fix any flagged issues.
• Don’t obsess. Just make sure you’re not broken.

Focus on what makes you citation-worthy

• Collect real reviews from real residents
• Create detailed, specific content (not generic marketing speak)
• Build relationships with local media, bloggers, and community organizations
• Make sure your information(NAP=Name Address and Phone) is consistent everywhere (website, Google, listing sites)
• Answer questions prospects actually ask (not just keywords you want to rank for)

Build brand authority

• Get mentioned in local “best of” lists
• Participate in community events
• Create content that’s genuinely helpful (not SEO bait)
• Encourage residents to share their experiences
• Be the property people talk about (in a good way)

Make it easy for AI to understand you

• Use clear headings and structure
• State facts directly (rent ranges, amenities, pet policies)
• Keep information current and accurate
• Use Schema markup (covered in Part 2)
• Write in natural language, not keyword-stuffed copy

You won’t believe how many websites exist where AI can’t read them.  See our article on “What the Schema” to see if your website has the framework to show up. 

The Uncomfortable Truth: If your property isn’t good enough to be recommended by AI, technical optimization won’t save you.

You can have perfect Core Web Vitals, a 100 Page Speed score, and flawless mobile performance, but if your reviews are mediocre, your content is generic, and your property isn’t actually remarkable, AI engines won’t cite you. AI is filtering for quality in ways Google’s algorithm never could.

Google could be gamed with technical tricks, backlinks, and keyword optimization. AI engines are harder to fool because they synthesize information from multiple sources and evaluate credibility.

The good news.

If you run a genuinely excellent property, great staff, well-maintained community, positive resident experiences then you’re better positioned now than you were in the pure SEO era.

Because AI wants to recommend properties that are actually good, not properties that are good at SEO.

What’s Next?

We’ve covered how Schema helps search engines understand your content (Part 2), and now how the shift to AI search changes what “optimization” actually means.

But even if AI engines can access and cite your content, you still need that content to be structured in a way that both humans and AI can quickly understand and act on.

Coming up next in our Demystifying GEO series: Scannable Content—how to structure information so prospects and AI engines can find exactly what they need, fast.

This is Part 3 of the Demystifying GEO series. Read Part 2: “What the – Schema?!” to understand how structured data helps search engines understand your content.

About the Author: Christina Simms is the Marketing and Communications Manager at Sales Inc. a multifamily company that focuses on accelerated leasing.