How is Load time measured and when is a site called slow?

How it is measured

• The audit asks for the homepage the way a browser would and times how long the website takes to start sending the page back, including any redirects along the way.
• It does not wait for images, scripts or the rest of the page to appear, so a site can answer quickly and still feel slow on a phone.
• The audit waits up to 10 seconds. A site that does not answer at all shows as Unreachable rather than slow. See Why does a lead's website show as Unreachable?
• Each new check measures again. When the proof page re-checks the site, the lead's load time is updated, so the number can change from one check to the next.

What you will see

• In the lead's Live Website Audit, the Load time row shows the time in seconds with one decimal, such as 4.2s. It is green under 3.5 seconds and red from 3.5 seconds up.
• Above 3.5 seconds the lead gets Slow load time under Detected Problems. A slow homepage also always adds Weak rankings (the Needs SEO filter).
• On the proof page your prospect sees a Load speed row that reads, for example, Responded in 4.2s, with the same 3.5 second pass mark.

Load time is measured directly, so Slow load time is never held back in the Worth a look, not verified box. When a site answers with a bot-protection page instead of its content, there is no Load time row and no speed problem.

Google's official speed score

For Google's own measurement, click ⚡ Get Google's Official Score in the Live Website Audit section (the button shows until the lead has a score, and takes about 20 seconds). Google loads the whole page on a phone and scores it out of 100, shown in the Google PageSpeed row as, for example, 42/100 (official). It is a separate test: it does not change the Load time row or the Slow load time problem. See How do I get Google's official PageSpeed score for a lead?

Good to know

The free Local Lead Grader and your branded audit link use the same timing with a stricter pass mark, shown as Loads in under 2 seconds.