---
title: "Page weight and rankings: what the Backlinko study actually found"
url: https://seomadman.com/research/page-weight-byte-size-ranking-correlation-backlinko
section: research
published: 2026-09-21T00:00:00.000Z
modified: 2026-09-21T00:00:00.000Z
author: Adam Hafez
topics: ["Technical SEO", "Page speed"]
---

# Page weight and rankings: what the Backlinko study actually found

## The short answer

Backlinko and Ahrefs analyzed 11.8 million Google search results and found no correlation between page HTML size and ranking position. The same study also found zero correlation between page loading speed and rankings, with first-page results averaging 1.65 seconds to load. The authors call it correlation only, not causation.

## Key takeaways

- Backlinko and Ahrefs analyzed 11.8 million Google search results and found no correlation between page HTML size and ranking position.
- The same dataset showed zero correlation between page loading speed and first page rankings, with an average load time of 1.65 seconds.
- The study measured page HTML size and load speed only, not the number of HTTP requests or a mobile versus desktop split.
- Backlinko's own authors describe the results as correlational, stating it is impossible to determine the underlying reason behind any pattern.
- No correlation to rankings is not proof that page weight is irrelevant, since a bloated page can still hurt conversions and crawl efficiency on its own terms.

The idea that a bloated page drags down its own rankings is one of the oldest pieces of technical
SEO folklore. It has an intuitive story behind it: heavier pages load slower, slower pages
frustrate users, and Google is said to reward what users like. The largest publicly available
correlation study to test that story directly found nothing.

## What the study measured

Backlinko, working with Ahrefs as a data partner, pulled ranking and on-page data for 11.8
million Google search results and ran correlation analysis across a long list of on-page and
off-page factors. Two of those factors sit directly on the question this piece is asking: page
HTML size, and page loading speed. The published article states the result for size under the
heading "Page HTML Size Has No Relationship With Rankings," and reports "we found no correlation
between page size and rankings." For loading speed, the finding is the same in kind: "Overall, we
found zero correlation between site speed and Google rankings," with first-page results averaging
1.65 seconds to load.

## What it does not measure

Two gaps matter for anyone tempted to read this as settling the mobile page-weight question. The
study reports HTML byte size, not the full transferred weight of a page once images, scripts,
fonts, and third-party tags are counted, so it is a narrower measurement than "total page weight."
It also does not report a count of HTTP requests per page anywhere in the public write-up, so
there is no sourced basis here for a claim about request count and rankings, even though request
count is a common companion metric to byte size in page-speed audits. Anyone citing this study for
either of those two specific claims would be extending it past what it actually measured.

## Why a null correlation is still worth reporting

A finding of "no correlation" is not the same as "no effect never happens," and the study's own
authors are explicit about that limit: "As this is a correlation study, it's impossible to
determine the underlying reason" behind any pattern in the data. An aggregate correlation across
11.8 million results, spanning every niche and query type Ahrefs' index covers, can wash out an
effect that is real but confined to a narrower slice, such as e-commerce category pages competing
on load speed against each other specifically. The honest reading is that at this scale, page
size and page speed are not acting as a broad, direct ranking lever, not that no page has ever
been held back by its own weight.

## What this means for prioritizing the work

Do not sell a page-weight reduction project on the promise of a ranking jump; the largest public
correlation study on the question found none. Do sell it on what it actually protects: Core Web
Vitals pass rates, conversion rate, crawl efficiency on large sites, and the experience of users
on constrained mobile connections, none of which need a ranking correlation to be worth fixing on
their own.

## Sources

1. [We Analyzed 11.8 Million Google Search Results. Here's What We Learned About SEO](https://backlinko.com/search-engine-ranking) - Backlinko (primary)