Does a YouTube embed slow down your landing page? Yes, more than almost anything else. Keep the video, load it on tap.

What the data shows for YouTube

The numbers come from third-party-web, an open dataset by Patrick Hulce built from HTTP Archive's Lighthouse runs across millions of pages on mobile settings. How that dataset is made, and the full list of scripts, is in third-party scripts and landing page speed.

We used third-party-web version 0.30.0, published in September 2026, with the HTTP Archive crawl from March 1, 2026. For YouTube it reports:

• Average script execution time: 6,297 ms per page.
• Usage: 1,300,771 pages in the crawl.

That puts YouTube near the top of the whole dataset. Other video players are heavy too: the same crawl shows Wistia at 5,003 ms and Vimeo at 4,099 ms. For comparison, Google Tag Manager is 1,066 ms and CallRail is 255 ms.

A fair note on the number

The dataset's own notes say that since its January 2021 data, work inside embedded frames, like the YouTube player, is counted on the main thread. On a real phone, some of that work may run apart from your page. Even so, the player still has to download and start up, and the number tells you the embed is a big job.

What script execution time means for a phone visitor

A phone browser does most of its work in one lane, called the main thread. That lane builds the page, runs scripts, and answers taps. Only one job runs there at a time.

Google's Lighthouse docs say that when the main thread is busy, the page can't respond to user input. Google's Interaction to Next Paint (INP), a Core Web Vital, measures how long a tap waits for an answer. Google rates INP good at 200 ms or less and poor above 500 ms. Every millisecond a script spends on the main thread is a millisecond a tap on your call button can wait.

A standard embed starts loading the player the moment the page opens, whether or not anyone presses play. Most visitors to a contractor ad page never do. They scroll, look for the price or the phone number, and call or leave.

How to load YouTube the smart way

Video works. A 30-second clip of your crew tearing off a roof or a before-and-after of a basement can do more than a paragraph of text. Keep it. Change how it loads.

1. Use a facade

Google's Lighthouse docs describe a facade as a static element that looks like the embedded third party but is not functional, and so is much less taxing on page load. For YouTube, it is a thumbnail with a play button. The real player loads only when someone taps it.

Google's docs list open-source YouTube facades, including lite-youtube-embed by Paul Irish. The third-party-web project tracks the same facades, and Lighthouse uses that data to flag embeds that could use one.

2. Put the video below the call to action

Your headline, phone number, and form should come first. A video near the top pushes the important parts down and makes them wait. Put it under the first call to action, as proof for people who want more.

3. One video, not a gallery

Each embed is its own player. Three embeds on one page is three jobs. Pick your best clip. Link to your YouTube channel for the rest.

If the video is mostly there for trust, ask whether a strong photo of your crew on a real job could do part of that work. A photo needs no player at all. Keep the video if people watch it.

Check the page before and after

Scan the page with the normal embed, swap in a facade, then scan again. The difference is often easy to see.

For trade-specific page advice, see roofing landing pages and Google Ads for contractors.

Related guides

Frequently asked questions