Do you Google Fonts? How Does it Impact Website Page Load Speed?

[sageshark]

I am asking this question after spending hours struggling with website page load time and doing millions of things to improve it. Finally I came to a conclusion and want feedback of fellow webmasters on this.

Google as well as your readers love fast websites. Website speed is one of the major factor in SEO these days. Google also recommends that your site should be mobile friendly and should load fast on mobile devices. However using external resources like javascripts files, plugin css files and other scripts cause the initial render blockage that makes a page load slower.

If you are fetching external fonts like Google fonts then it can further slow down your website.

This issue can be resolved by using caching as well as minification plugins. These plugins have the option to completely disable google fonts loading in your website. This can certainly make your website load faster, but the look and feel of your design will be spoilt since no fancy fonts will be there.


Please also note that if your site is not that design centric and focuses more on content, then it will be a good idea to discard Google fonts because the default fonts in your website will still render smooth and readable on mobile devices.

What do you think, should you still use google fonts that make your site load slower or do you prefer to disable them to make your site load faster? What is your opinion? Please share your own experience with this.

[soleseriouss]

Nice detailed thread on the website font. And yes, we've noticed that using external font impacts website speed but I guess not everyone thinks as you've explained. Most website owners ignore it.

[sageshark]

Thank you. The point here is that if you do not need fancy fonts to beautify your website then you should avoid using Google fonts in your website. As I said in my first message, handheld devices like mobiles and tabs display the fonts smooth and beautiful anyways. Why compromise with speed if you can still serve attractive content to your readers?

[kavyasharma561]

Yes, it will have an impact on loading time. The more Google Fonts you use the higher the impact so if a font has 20 weights from light to extra-bold only load the few you really need.