title: What is Google Analytics "Avg. Page Load Time"
body: <p>What exactly is the metric "Avg. Page Load Time" in Google Analytics?</p>
  
  <p>I would expect it to mean the same thing as "Avg. Document Content Loaded Time (sec)":</p>
  
  <p>"Average time (in seconds) that the browser takes to parse the document and execute deferred and parser-inserted scripts (DOMContentLoaded), including the network time from the user's location to your server."</p>
  
  <p>"Avg. Page Load Time" is described as:</p>
  
  <p>Google Analytics Help says that it is "Avg. Page Load Time is the average amount of time (in seconds) it takes for pages from the sample set to load, from initiation of the pageview (e.g. click on a page link) to load completion in the browser. If you see zero (0) as a value or a small increase in November 2011, read the About Site Speed article."</p>
  
  <p>... but what exactly is "load completion"?</p>
  
  <p>The reason I'm trying to sort this out is a > 4x difference in "Document Content Loaded Time" and "Page Load Time" ... but when I render it in my browser I'm not seeing anything that takes nearly that long.</p>