In a further push to make websites take loading speeds seriously, Google have announced a new range of plans to help pre-warn users on how quickly or slowly a site may load.
“We think the web can do better and want to help users understand when a site may load slowly, while rewarding sites delivering fast experiences.” – Addy Osmani, Ben Greenstein and Bryan McQuade from the Chrome team
The plans include the rollout of warning messages within load screens on slower websites, alongside a new green progress bar for sites with faster load times, both seen in the examples below:
Rather than implement strict criteria for what is and isn’t a fast site immediately, Google plan to gradually increase this over time. Google’s long-term goal is to clearly badge sites that load quickly or slowly for users, with further plans to expand the badging of sites to cover a range of signals beyond just site speed.
Google recommend using the following resources to help identify areas where improvements to site speed can be made:
Google also suggest checking web.dev/fast in order to learn the best practices for site performance.
To add to the above list, we would also recommend also utilising the following resources:
These additional resources will be able to provide valuable insights on page speed performance, and can be used alongside Google’s own resources.
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by Zack Cornick
