Google Aims to Reduce Mobile Web Page Load Time to 1 Second

According to research by the Nielsen Norman Group, if a mobile webpage takes more than one second to load, most users will be unwilling to stay on that page. However, the current average loading time for mobile webpages is at least seven seconds.

Statistics show that in 2012, the average (Mean) loading time for desktop webpages was around seven seconds, with a median of close to three seconds; the average loading time for mobile webpages exceeded ten seconds, with a median of about 4.5 seconds.

In 2013, the average (Mean) loading time for desktop webpages was approximately 6.5 seconds, with a median of around 2.8 seconds; the average loading time for mobile webpages dropped slightly to just over seven seconds, with a median of about 3.3 seconds.

While achieving webpage loads within a few hundred milliseconds on mobile devices remains challenging given current technology and network conditions, Google has stated that it is possible to load the initial content of a mobile webpage within one second, with the remaining content being loaded progressively.

To achieve this goal, Google has today released a new set of rules and tools aimed at optimizing the priority of webpage content loading to enhance speed. Below is an overview of these rules:

1. Server response time < 200ms;

2. Minimize the number of redirects;

3. Minimize the number of round trips;

4. Avoid using external JavaScript and CSS on the homepage;

5. Reserve time for browser layout and rendering (200ms);

6. Optimize JavaScript execution and rendering time.