Google is experimenting with a badge of shame for websites that load slowly in Chrome. “In the future, Chrome may identify sites that typically load fast or slow for users with clear badging,” explains a blog post from the Chrome team. “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.”

A new badge could appear in the future that’s designed to highlight sites that are “authored in a way that makes them slow generally.” Google will look at historical load latencies to figure out which sites are guilty of slow load times and flag them, and the Chrome team is also exploring identifying sites that will load slowly based on device hardware or network connectivity.

This is a common issue I come across when building websites in Donegal, a lot of small business owners in Donegal put this down to bad internet in their area but a lot of the time their site is not optimised.

Google is testing a variety of slow site warnings
Google is experimenting with having a loading screen (splash screen) to warn Chrome users, or 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,” explains 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.”

What Can I do?
Make sure your site is on a fast server like Siteground or Cloudways. Have a cache running on your site. You can look at getting me to optimise your website and make sure its going at the best speed it can.
Get in touch with me today.
Serving website design and development in Letterkenny, Donegal and all of Ireland.