How slow can a website be, but still be ok for visitors and seo?

[asbchris]

Hello to all,

my site http://www.allspecialtybuildings.com is a barn construction site.

Our visitors are usually local.

I am worried about page speed. I have been using Google Page Insight, and Gtmetrix.

Although I cannot figure out browser leveraging, I have a 79 / 93 google score

and for gtmetrix 98/87 score.

Load times vary between 2.13 secs to 2.54 secs

What is acceptable? I want to make sure I get Google love for a decent page speed, but for me these times are great. Bad times are like 7 seconds and higher. I have thought about a CDN, yet I have read horror stories too. I have ZERO idea of how to use a CDN, or if I need it. I just want a fast site that is both user and Google speed friendly.

So my question is, what is a slow speed for a website? Is under 3 seconds considered ok? or bad for seo?

But any advice is greatly appreciated.

[vmialik]

Hi Chris,

Under 2 sec is what you should aim for. Under 2 seconds for human brain is fast enough.

Now 2.54 secs is good. Now is that the same for all if not most of your clients? What if your clients are using DSL vs High Speed Cable connection? These things you would need to test here: http://www.webpagetest.org/ select the apporiate geographic locations and possibly test with DSL speed and see if you are happy with the results!

Hope this helps!

[GPainter]

You can also test with Google - http://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/

They also give you some handy tips on how to help increase the speed of your site.

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Although Google say you site needs to be quick enough for visitors, there are also times when it doesn't matter because what you have is an experience.

There is an increasing trend to build specialist sites that require a bit of initial loading - sometimes as much as 10 seconds or more, yet Google will continue to rank them well because people love them.

If you were still on a 9600 baud dial up connection, then yes, speed is critical. But that isn't the case today.

One of my own sites takes almost 7 seconds to load, yet I am 1st-4th for a range of highly competitive phrases.

As long as the content is worth it, the wait (to a degree) doesn't matter.

-Andy