The Google Webmaster YouTube channel regularly releases SEO Mythbusting. In the third episode of season 2, Google search employee Martin Splitt made a guest appearance.
During the conversation, he dispelled the main myths about website loading speed by answering the most common questions.
What Martin Splitt said about page loading speed
Key points from the Google expert’s speech:
- Pages with more relevant content will rank higher in Google search results than pages with high loading speeds. The last factor is not as important as many SEOs believe. However, if we are talking about two pages with approximately the same content quality, then the one whose loading speed is faster will get the best place in the SERP.
- There are a large number of regions in the world where the Internet is slow. All developers should keep this in mind.
- The recommended page weight size is 500 KB.
- It is a controversial fact that the minimum image size has a positive effect on page loading speed. SEO specialists forget about lazy loading.
- Lighthouse is not the last resort in measuring the page loading speed of a site. Changes based on the recommendations of such services do not necessarily lead to improved performance.
- Websites load at different speeds on different devices. The best option is to track the devices from which users open your site and optimize the download speed for this particular list.
- AMP is not a ranking factor. However, technology is just as important as ranking speed.
Note that Martin Splitt’s comments do not at all negate the importance of the work of SEO specialists to improve the speed of loading pages of sites. In contrast, Google Customer Solutions President Mary Ellen Colon the Think with Google blog strongly recommended that businesses pay attention to this indicator. Particularly in the mobile version. After all, this directly affects the conversion rate of the site.
“ 54% of people say that as brand mobile site load times increase, so does their frustration. And this affects net income. In retail, we have seen that a one-second delay in loading a mobile phone can affect conversion rates by up to 20% ,” states Mary Ellen Coe.
The Web promo expert told us more about errors in the mobile version of the site that lead to a decrease in conversion. He also advised how to check and improve website page loading speed.