Google has updated the Googlebot help document on crawling to clarify that the 15MB fetch size limit applies to each fetch of the individual subresources referenced in the HTML as well, such as JavaScript and CSS files.

Google initially added information about this 15MB limit several months ago, which caused a lot of concern in the SEO industry, so make sure to read that story.

The help document now reads:

It previously read:

Gary added on LinkedIn, “PSA from my inbox: The 15MB resource fetch threshold applies on the JavaScript resources, too, so if your JavaScript files are larger than that, your site might have a bad time in Google Search. See googlebot.com for information about the fetch features and limitations. Yes, there are JavaScript resources out there that are larger than 15MB. No, it’s not a good idea to have JavaScript files that are that large.”

Here are some comments on early feedback from the SEO community on this:

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.