Google has been using page speed to rank sites for desktop search results, and now it’s getting ready to do the same for mobile. In a blog post published Jan. 17, it said that starting in July, page speed will be a ranking factor for mobile searches. Google said the “Speed Update,” as it’s called, will affect pages that deliver the slowest experience to users and will only affect a small percentage of queries.
We decided to see how the top publishers’ sites perform on mobile, using Google’s own speed test. (This list is based on the comScore 200; in cases where the parent company is listed, we used the biggest or flagship site.) A few observations: The sites that ranked fast aren’t all digital natives, and some of the sites that get hyped as tech-forward don’t deliver, at least when it comes to speed. And size isn’t always an advantage: The slowest sites included CNN, MailOnline and The Wall Street Journal.
| Publisher | Mobile speed |
|---|---|
| The Atlantic | fast |
| Better Homes & Gardens | fast |
| Business Insider | fast |
| Bustle | fast |
| Cosmopolitan | fast |
| Diply | fast |
| ESPN | fast |
| Everyday Health | fast |
| Gizmodo | fast |
| The Hill | fast |
| HuffPost | fast |
| International Business Times | fast |
| Los Angeles Times | fast |
| National Geographic | fast |
| New York magazine | fast |
| NY Daily News | fast |
| NPR | fast |
| PBS | fast |
| PopSugar | fast |
| Refinery29 | fast |
| SheKnows | fast |
| Verywell | fast |
| ABC News | average |
| AOL | average |
| BBC | average |
| Bleacher Report | average |
| CafeMom | average |
| Complex | average |
| Fox News | average |
| Guardian | average |
| LittleThings | average |
| Mashable | average |
| New York Post | average |
| The New York Times | average |
| Ozy | average |
| People | average |
| Purch | average |
| Thrillist | average |
| Upworthy | average |
| U.S. News & World Report | average |
| USA Today | average |
| The Telegraph | average |
| Vice | average |
| Vox | average |
| The Washington Post | average |
| WebMD | average |
| Wired | average |
| Yahoo | average |
| CNN | slow |
| MailOnline | slow |
| NBC News | slow |
| Reuters | slow |
| The Wall Street Journal | slow |
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