Is there a speed difference between using absolute versus relative links and if so, does it matter to Google. I am pretty sure there is no speed difference and I am confident that either way, it won’t matter for Google SEO reasons.

This was a new SEO question that I’ve never seen before, the question was “Do relative links & sources load faster than absolute links?” So are absolute links slower or faster than using relative links and if so, does it matter for Google SEO?

We know that Google sees really no SEO difference between relative and absolute links. And yes, that is logical.

Here is how John replied to the matter of link speed between the two:

You can test it, the page loading speed tools are free & easy, even built into browsers. I can’t think of any reason why one kind of link would be faster than another though.

— 🐐 John 🐐 (@JohnMu) February 24, 2022

John explained that you can test it but he added “I can’t think of any reason why one kind of link would be faster than another though.” True…

So I found this question interesting – how do you make your links faster? I guess the only slow links I can think of are links that load later, maybe through lazy loading and maybe Google won’t see those links right away – sometimes? Although, there are ways to make sure Google sees the content and links within lazy loaded content…

There is so much concern about page speed and page experience for SEO, it gives me mixed feelings.

Forum discussion at Twitter.