Google’s plan to give ‘loading pages’ to slow performing websites

This past week at Google’s Chrome Dev Summit in San Francisco, the tech giant announced that they’re experimenting with a new loading page for websites that load slowly in their Chrome browser.

“In the future, Chrome may identify sites that typically load fast or slow for users with clear badging,” explains the Chrome team in a recent blog post. “This may take a number of forms and we plan to experiment with different options, to determine which provides the most value to our users.”

What will it look like?

These experiments by Google include having a loading screen (splash screen) to warn Chrome users that the site they’re visiting is either slow or fast. Other possibilities include a loading progress bar that would appear green if the site is fast and, presumably, red if it’s slow.

“We are building out speed badging in close collaboration with other teams exploring labelling the quality of experiences at Google,” continues the Chrome team. “We are being very mindful with our approach to setting the bar for what is considered a good user experience and hope to land on something that is practically achievable by all developers.”

So what can you do?

The most important take-away from this discussion is to make sure your website is healthy and performing well. Having a healthy, fast and user-friendly website is the key to digital success with Google.

How to check if your website is healthy

You can check the health of your website by visiting Google’s Pagespeed Insight page and running your URL through it’s site analyser.

Once it has finalised its analysis of the URL you entered, it will provide you with two scores. One for the mobile version of the URL and the other for the desktop version.

These scores will differ slightly at first and both will be ranked out of 100. If your score is between 0 to 49 and in red, that means you’ve got some serious work to do. If it’s in orange and between 50 to 89 then a few tweaks should have you up to speed. With a score above 90 and in green, consider yourself lucky. Google’s potential loading screen won’t affect your website.

For those who were under 90, it’s okay because Google actually provides a ‘to-do’ list to help you improve your scores. If you’re pretty handing with a mouse and keyword, you should be able to bring your score up within the hour. If you’re not so handy, that’s okay too because we’re always here to help. Simply give us a call on 1300 809 722 or send us an email through our contact page and we’ll help you level up your score with some web design magic before Google implements it’s loading screens.

What do these loading pages mean for businesses?

Without intending to sound apocalyptic, these new loading pages could be devastating for businesses.

Here in Australia, internet speeds have been dismal for so long that having a ‘slow’ website hasn’t been too much of a concern for most businesses. However, having a ‘usually loads slow’ badge shown to customers before they enter could change the game entirely.

But it’s not all doom and gloom, this loading page suggestion by Google is their attempt to improve the customers’ experience with their products and software, and businesses world wide should take note.

It’s not rocket science to know that the quicker a visitor can get to the finish line, the more likely they are to buy your product or convert into a lead. So, businesses should doing everything they can to make sure their site is nice and healthy, regardless if Google implements their loading pages or not.