How to Improve Google Recommended Page Load Time?

If you’re running Google Ads, you need to optimize your page load time. The Google recommended page load time is under 3 seconds. The reason for this is clear: a faster page equals a better user experience. Thus, Google is going to reward you with better (cheaper) bids on your advertisements.

Why does Google do this? Because if users have a great experience using their products, they’re more likely to stick around. That means more ad revenue for Google. Thus, they have a vested interest in encouraging advertisers to make users happy. On the flip side, they’ll punish you for having a slow landing page.

In this article, we’ll explore Google recommended page load time, so you know how to keep search engines and prospective customers happy with your page speed.

Meeting the Google Recommended Page Load Time Boosts Your Quality Score

Your Quality Score will help determine how much you pay for your ads. It is on a 1 to 10 scale. The better your Quality Score, the less you pay, making it a cost-effective endeavor to improve this metric. Quality Score takes your keywords, ads, and landing page into account. The more relevant and user-friendly your landing page, the more it boosts your score. Page load speed is a factor in this calculation, among other vital aspects such as relevant content, links, and easy navigation.

How Quickly Does Quality Score Change After Improving Your Landing Page?

Google has algorithms to check your Google Ads landing pages on a regular basis. If you have recently made improvements, they will adjust your Quality Score eventually. However, it’s best to expect this on a timeline of several months or weeks, instead of days.

Will My Website Layout Also Affect Conversions?

Your website layout and the content will affect conversions in various ways. Here are a couple of examples:

• You have poor site navigation. The menus and other options are not easily accessible to the user. Therefore, a user may arrive at your site only to leave a few moments later due to the struggle. Furthermore, a higher bounce rate will negatively affect your Quality Score, compounding the problem.
• Your landing page content is not delivering on the same promise as your Google Ad. This confuses users but also tells Google to decrease your Quality Score. The result: fewer conversions and higher prices to bring new visitors back.

What Frameworks Help With Faster Landing Page Load Speeds?

Specific development frameworks and tools can help boost your speed to meet the Google recommended page load time.

Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is one of the more popular options today. It is incredibly fast. However, it does have some constraints. Namely, you cannot add your own custom JavaScript (JS). If by any mean you add custom JavaScript it will not be validated as AMP page.. Thus, Angular is your best bet for a fast, responsive, and modern landing page.

Sure, there are other options out there. But since Angular tends to be the best for meeting the Google recommended page load time, let’s start there.

1. AngularJS

Based on typescript, Angular is a leading front end framework for web applications. Google Engineers Misko Hevery and Adam Abrons created AngularJS (“Angular 1”) back in 2010, with a revised Angular 2 version launching in 2016.

How Many Websites Use This Framework?

About 350,000 (0.3 million) websites currently use AngularJS. This includes major companies like Amazon, Lyft, and Google.

Pros of AngularJS

• Data binding: Apart from 2-way binding, angular 2 and beyond support 3 other types of data-binding namely one-way property binding, event binding and interpolation.
• Enhanced RXJS: Has led to lightning fast compilation time of approx. 2.9 sec and modified start HttpClient.
• Abundant resources and support: Google offers a rich treasure trove of resources and rolls out new updates and improvements every 6 months.
• Support for Progressive web applications: Angular is the first framework to integrate features for development of progressive web applications.
• MVVM (Model-View-View Model) allows developers to work on the same application and data pool in isolation.
• Native mobile app: Native Script powered by angular enables development of native mobile apps for both iOS and android.
• Single Page Application: Best for single page application.

Cons of AngularJS

• Difficult Syntax – Angular has made a big leap in terms of syntax complexity after adopting Typescript in angular2 and beyond. Yet it poses a steep learning curve for anyone making a transition from vanilla JS or jQuery.
• Migration – Moving from an older version of Angular to a new one presents unique problems.
• Big Learning Curve – Angular has the steepest learning curve out of the major front end frameworks. This has historically caused a high rate of abandonment.
• MVC Knowledge Needed – It is necessary to know the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture, which not every development team has.

2. ReactJS

React is used for creating an interactive User Interface (UI). Jordan Walke, a Facebook engineer, authored the software in 2013. React has grown to surpass Angular in terms of the user base. React has the advantage of rendering data and updating information without reloading a page. It excels at both web apps and mobile apps. It can be a useful tool in meeting the Google recommended page load time.

How Many Websites Use This Framework?

React is used on around 400,00 websites, including at companies like ESPN and Microsoft.

Pros of ReactJS

• Performance – React is known for being flexible and efficient. It also integrates nicely with other frameworks with minimal hassle. You can opt to have it fetch resources from the client-side or server-side. All of these contribute to better performance (speed), and the Google recommended page load time.
• Resources – Since Facebook has a team maintaining React, there is a lot of documentation that is well explained. Furthermore, many industry-leading blogs and additional resources exist to help you learn and optimize the framework.
• Backward Compatibility – If you use CodeMods, it is relatively easy to transition to either newer or older versions to fit your needs.
• Easy to maintain component structure: Component based architecture of ReactJS helps in increasing the reusability of code and makes maintenance of large scale projects quite a bit easier.
• Rich community: React has close to 1300 contributors on GitHub which is more than any other library/framework.
• Unidirectional Data Flow: One way/Unidirectional downward only data binding in react via flux controls helps to make sure that any changes made to child element structure don’t affect the parent element structure.

Cons of ReactJS

• Bloated – This may seem counterintuitive. However, compared to some other frameworks, it can almost offer too many options. It is intended for larger sites and applications, where it excels.
• SEO Issues – Google, Yahoo, and Bing can run into issues trying to crawl and index sites using React. In turn, it is not the best fit for those relying heavily on search engine optimization (SEO) for web traffic.
• JSX: The use of JSX adds another layer of complexity. JSX is a pre-processor, it adds XML syntax extension to JS. Although JSX helps to code react in a safer and faster manner, it is difficult to grasp for new developers.
• Need for Assembly-Tools: React requires a wide array of assembly tools to function properly and be compatible with other libraries and frameworks.

3. Vue.js

Vue is another JS framework that is intended to streamline UI design. It is an open-source framework that was created in 2014 by Evan You. It has increased in popularity recently, even replacing AngularJS according to a 2018 Google “State of JS” survey. Its primary draw is that the development team maintaining it constantly provides updates and innovations. It borrows heavily from its cousins Angular and React to provide a lightweight yet robust option.

How Many Websites Use This Framework?

Around 400,000 websites implement Vue. This includes gitlab, Upwork, and Zoom.

Pros of Vue.js

• Quick Configuration – With an integrated MVC model, the configuration is fast and easy compared to other frameworks such as React and Angular.
• Flexible – Using flexible modules, Vue assists developers that have experience in other frameworks. They can adapt to the terminology quickly without much effort.
• Fast Learning Curve – Vue is known for having a faster learning curve than Angular or React. With some cursory knowledge of HTML and JavaScript, you can get to work quickly, implementing solutions as needed.
• Lightweight – Vue is very lightweight and compact when compared to other frameworks. When compressed, Vue sits at an impressive 18 kb. This is key in staying under the Google recommended page load time.
• Integration – Whether you need a SPA for a landing page or a large application, Vue can handle the demands. It also allows easy integration with server-side software such as Django and Laravel.
• Transitions – Vue allows you to make DOM (Document Object Model) elements responsive for easier transitions in real-time.

Cons of Vue.js

• Poor Support – Compared to other options, Vue fails to impress with its relatively small pool of learning resources. It could take longer to find support or answers for those new to the framework.
• Small Community – Part of the lack of support for English speaking developers stems from the fact that many in the community are from Eastern Europe. The additional language barrier and small community compound the difficulty of finding help for pressing questions. However, Vue is still on the rise, so that could change sooner rather than later.

4. Ember.js

This open-source front end framework is built off of JS. It was previously known as Sprout Core until 2011 when Yehuda Katz pivoted its name and took it in a new direction. It is derived from an MVM (Model-View-Model) pattern. Thanks to the Glimmer engine it uses, Ember offers fast rendering speeds. Its inspection tool is renowned for its ease of use in error debugging. Furthermore, its ability to bind data across linked properties sets it apart from many of its competitors.

How Many Websites Use This Framework?

Ember is in use on around 40,000 websites worldwide, including LinkedIn.

Pros of Ember.js

• Templates – Ember tends to be user friendly. This is due in large part to the vast array of templates it provides for UI creation. Handlebars comprise the core of these templates, which eliminates unnecessary code for greater efficiency.
• CLI – The command-line interface (CLI) of Ember comes with the Ember Stack, already built-in. For web developers who rely heavily on Sass/Less, Handlebars, or Coffee Script, they will be happy to know it integrates nicely with these frameworks.

Cons of Ember.js

• Falling Market Share – Ember has not grown as quickly as other frameworks. Netflix and Airbnb are two notable companies that have moved on to React.
• Lack of Updated Support – Due to the shrinking community, a lack of online resources makes it difficult to find help.
• Complex — IT is difficult to learn and for smaller projects, it takes too long to configure. There are far easier ways to get to the Google recommended page load time.

5. Meteor

Meteor JS is an open-source backend, developed by the Meteor Development Group. It is a JS framework written in Node JS, and it is intended for use in cross-platform web and mobile apps. It works on iOS and Android alike. Meteor comes with the Blaze engine. One major pain point it solves is the need to have multiple libraries up to date. Meteor simply uses Vanilla (standard) JavaScript.

How Many Websites Use This Framework?

Meteor is in use on about 13,000 websites around the world, including MTV.

Pros of Meteor

• Simple – Meteor makes life simple. It can handle client-side code, front end tasks, and backend tasks. It does this all without needing to learn another JavaScript framework. For this reason, it is often touted as being easy for beginners. Those with relatively green dev teams may opt for Meteor because they can get applications up and running faster.
• Helpful Libraries and Packages – While you only need JS, there are many different libraries created by and shared by those in the community. They tend to be reliable and updated.
• Testing in Real-Time – Testing is critical when developing applications and landing pages. Meteor comes with its own built-in tool for this. It is called velocity and is integrated with most of the common JS frameworks. This includes Jest, Jasmine, and Mocha.
• Helpful Community – There are numerous tutorials online from those in the Meteor community. They offer documentation as well to aid beginners in shortening the learning curve.
• Database – MongoDB is quickly becoming one of the more popular databases to use. Meteor works seamlessly with MongoDB, which offers advantages over SQL and other legacy technologies.
• Live Reloading – When a piece of code gets modified, Meteor will load the page live. Only the DOM elements that have been changed will reload, saving computing resources and time to enhance the user experience.
• Native Mobile Apps – Meteor is versatile. Not only can it be used to build web applications, but also robust native applications on iOS and Android, making it cross-platform.

Cons of Meteor

• Branding – Due to poor branding, Meteor has seen a decline in users. This has shrunk the available community and knowledgebase.
• Poor Integration – Integrating Meteor is notoriously difficult compared to other technologies.
• Limited Database Support – It does not support relational SQL databases. Instead, it only supports NoSQL and MongoDB.

6. Polymer

Polymer is another open-source JS library that can create cross-platform and cross-browser applications. It leverages web components that are reusable and versatile. Most of Google’s main web services use Polymer. This includes Google Play Music, YouTube, Allo, and Google Earth. As a developer, you can use HTML and CSS to create your own components.

How Many Websites Use This Framework?

Polymer is in use on an estimated 65,000 websites.

Pros of Polymer

• Customization – Sometimes, customization is necessary. Polymer makes this seamless.
• Lightning Speed – When compared to similar front end frameworks built off of JS, it clocks in with impressive speeds. Achieving the Google recommended page load time is made much more possible.
• Binding – One way or two-way data binding can be achieved with the same level of ease.
• Cross-Browser Compatibility – Cross-browser testing is not just an afterthought — it is a primary feature of Polymer. It runs particularly well on Chrome and Safari.

Cons of Polymer

• Does Not Render Server-Side – This creates additional bottlenecks that reduce speed.
• Scarce Resources – Since it is primarily intended for in-house use by Google, there is not a lot of public information available about Polymer.

7. BackBone.JS

Backbone provides an underlying structure for web applications. It offers models binding to custom events. There is a robust API of various functions and views. Its event handling allows you to connect to your current API via a Restful JSON interface.

How Many Websites Use This Framework?

About 1 million websites use it, including Reddit.com.

Pros of Backbone.js

• jQuery – You can deploy small applications quickly with jQuery.
• Removes Clutter – Instead of a mess of code, you can use event-driven communication.
• Syncing – RESTful APIs are simplified.
• Minimal Coding – Using the standard Backbone conventions, you can achieve more with less code.

Cons of using BackBone.js

• Difficult to Understand – JS newcomers will find the syntax complex and confusing
• More Development Time – You might eat into precious development resources or push up against deadlines.

8. Flutter

This UI software development kit is open source. Google created it in order to streamline the development of apps for Linux, Mac, Android, Windows, and iOS.

How Many Websites Use This Framework?

There is no precise estimate of the number of websites using this framework at this time but developers are trying this frameworks too with interest.

Pros of Flutter

• Quick Development – Stateful Hot Reload allows for fast development. Widgets are easily accessible and offer a range of rich features to creative, beautiful native interfaces.
• Expressive UI – The architecture is layered to allow for fast shipment of new features in a native environment.
• Native Performance – The native performance that Flutter allows is key to speeding up development. Code, icons, and compilers are all part of the software suite that makes your life easier.

Cons of Flutter

• New – The technology is still relatively new and still growing. That means you won’t get support for every library you need off the bat.
• IOS: As Flutter is a Google product! Apps built by Flutter are quite enjoyable in Android but face some difficulties in iOS. Also the size of app is bigger.

9. Ionic

Completely open-source, Ionic is a Software Development Kit (SDK) meant for mobile app development. Max Lynch, Adam Bradley, and Ben Sperry are behind the software, initially releasing it in 2013. It is an offshoot of the popular AngularJS framework.

How Many Websites Use This Framework?

While the exact number is not known, it is believed there are 10’s of thousands of developers utilizing the software to create native applications on mobile devices.

Pros of Ionic

•  Develop it Once – Ionic offers superior cross-platform development. Once you develop your app one time, it can be deployed on Windows, Android, and iOS seamlessly.
• Robust Application Development – Since it is built on Angular, this is a robust SDK that allows you to customize your application in virtually any way you see fit.
• Little Maintenance – There is little maintenance to speak of, as it relies on tried and true web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Cons of Ionic

• Performance Can Suffer – What you gain in cross-platform compatibility and simplicity, you lose in speed. Ionic can cause you to fall outside the bounds of the Google recommended page load time.
• Specific Knowledge – It takes a very specific set of skills to develop effectively in Ionic.
• Complicated – The process of building navigation within the app is complex, as the UI process is buried behind mounds of documentation.

10. Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)

AMP is an open-source framework built on HTML. It is maintained by the AMP Open Source Project. Google created it to compete with Facebook Instant Articles as well as Apple News. It is built primarily to deliver mobile pages in the fastest way possible. It’s almost as if it was designed just to meet the Google recommended page load time.

How Many Websites Use This Framework?

Around half a million sites are using AMP.

Pros of AMP

• Fast Load Times – AMP loads pages almost instantaneously, allowing you to create quick mobile pages across various devices.
• Convertible – Even if you’re using Drupal, WordPress, or another content management system, you can convert your pages to AMP quite readily.
• Popular – Twitter, Bing, and of course, Google use AMP consistently. Resources abound for those looking to improve their understanding and use of AMP.
• Can Use CSS – Being able to use CSS is a huge benefit. In moments, you can customize your page style and fetch other resources to create a user interface that appeals to visitors.
• Optimized Out of the Box – Optimizing your website can take time. Luckily, AMP removes much of the need to make these tweaks, working well right out of the box.
• Open Source – By being open source, you know exactly what code you’re getting behind the scenes.

Cons of AMP

• Difficult to Implement – Unless you’re using WordPress, it can be challenging to get up and running at first.
• Little Analytics – For analytics lovers, the lack of data analytics which can present a lot of frustration.

Wrap Up

Since the Google recommended page load time is a significant factor in your campaign performance and user engagement rate, you will have greater success when you use a lighter, faster framework. Doing this allows you to achieve faster times that benefit the visitor, your ad costs, and your conversions.

The frameworks in this article each have advantages and disadvantages. If you’re developing primarily for a mobile experience and driving ads accordingly, then AMP seems to be the clear frontrunner. However, you should choose the framework that aligns with your team’s skillset, your current setup, and your specific advertising goals.

If you need help regarding landing page you must read about: How to Make a Good Landing Page: The PPC Advertiser’s Guide