While my traffic from Google has been steady the past few months, I’m a little worried 'cause Google Webmaster Tools says my sites are slower than 95% of other sites.
But it’s not like I’m doing things completely wrong. My ‘slow’ pages are scoring 82 out of 100 with Google Page Speed tool. But I’ve got one mainstream site which is considered blazingly fast (faster than 89% of sites) and it scores an 87/100, so no matter the site, I’m doing most things pretty well.
I think a big part of my speed problem is because I use sponsor embed codes to show videos in my blog posts. I’d like to move away from that and just use hosted flvs so the player and preview pic are loaded off my server since they get hit during page load, and then the flv is loaded off the sponsor site when the user clicks to view (when it can’t hurt page speed).
So this is sort of a public call for sponsors who currently supply embed codes to also provide URLs for hosted flv in their update e-mails (My Gay Cash, ZBuckz, Drake Rock, Gunz Blazing, Randy Blue, etc.)
Another question is are any of you doing well with speed, according to Google? If so, what do you think the secret of you success is? And how good have you managed to get? [Is speed just generally a problem for porn sites given the content we’re serving?]
Re: Now that Google is using load times as a factor…
You know, I’ve been worried about this issue for a while myself. I really don’t think the Google Webmaster Tools “Site Performance” is working very well to be honest though. I mean, in the paragraph explaining each site’s performance it says “These estimates are of low accuracy (fewer than 100 data points).”
Let’s use an example. Site Performance says http://daddystuds.com loads slower than 96% of sites. Everyone I’ve ever talked to says it opens up in a few seconds for them. Even a friend in the Netherlands. How fast does it load for you?
I don’t know where Google is doing their testing from, but it must be on the moon or something, because the stats are way off from what I can see.
Hosting videos yourself is certainly a good way to go. I switched to hosting them exclusively almost a year ago and it’s paid off. Now that I use a dedicated server, even better.
Yeah, I don’t think we can rely on Google’s Site Performance quite yet. If they’re using that for SERPs, then it’s pretty unfair if you ask me. Google Page Speed tool is much more accurate I believe, but it really slows down a browser. At least it does on my end. I wish there was something better out there.
Re: Now that Google is using load times as a factor…
[QUOTE=RDude;67031]You know, I’ve been worried about this issue for a while myself. I really don’t think the Google Webmaster Tools “Site Performance” is working very well to be honest though. I mean, in the paragraph explaining each site’s performance it says “These estimates are of low accuracy (fewer than 100 data points).”
Let’s use an example. Site Performance says http://daddystuds.com loads slower than 96% of sites. Everyone I’ve ever talked to says it opens up in a few seconds for them. Even a friend in the Netherlands. How fast does it load for you?
I don’t know where Google is doing their testing from, but it must be on the moon or something, because the stats are way off from what I can see.
Hosting videos yourself is certainly a good way to go. I switched to hosting them exclusively almost a year ago and it’s paid off. Now that I use a dedicated server, even better.
Yeah, I don’t think we can rely on Google’s Site Performance quite yet. If they’re using that for SERPs, then it’s pretty unfair if you ask me. Google Page Speed tool is much more accurate I believe, but it really slows down a browser. At least it does on my end. I wish there was something better out there.[/QUOTE]
Well, they’re using it, whether it’s ready for prime time or not…
I’m pretty sure they’re looking at total load time (including things that load in the background), not the apparent load time. Which is weird 'cause apparent load time is the user experience and they’re all about user experience and UX is the stated reason for considering speed.
Re: Now that Google is using load times as a factor…
Forgot to mention - some of my sites (e.g. rawtop.com) say “These estimates are of high accuracy (more than 1000 data points)” and others (like wilywilly.com) say “These estimates are of medium accuracy (between 100 and 1000 data points)” - so that message has to do with the amount of traffic on your site than anything else. Google does have good data on the sites that are getting lots of organic traffic.
Re: Now that Google is using load times as a factor…
The speed thing is pissing me off. My sites are as fast as they can possibly be, yet Google consider them slow. Why? Because I use a redirect script that maintain all the external links. Most larger sites do the same thing, be it with PHP or CGI. Just look at any TGP site. And it’s not my scripts that are slow but most of the affiliate links take a long time to resolve. So the script is seen to take a long time to respond when it’s actually the DNS of the destination slowing it down.
This is not how Google says it’s supposed to work, but unfortunately that’s how it seems to be. Everything else on my sites are fine, all other scripts have load times less than 1-2secs. But the external jump scripts have a load time of 9+secs due to DNS of the destination.
So fed up with Google, they used to be pushing the net forward and come up with a lot of great ideas. But in recent years Google is just a hindrance. Even Microsoft’s Bing seems to do it better!
I do hope someone manages to kill off the monster Google has become.
Re: Now that Google is using load times as a factor…
By the way mine says:
On average, pages in your site take 4.5 seconds to load (updated on Apr 22, 2010). This is slower than 70% of sites. These estimates are of high accuracy (more than 1000 data points).
And what speed suggestions does Google give me???
The domains of the following URLs only serve one resource each. If possible, avoid the extra DNS lookups by serving these resources from existing domains: http://www.google-analytics.com/ga.js
Google suggest that I should remove Google Analytics… No other suggestions, that’s the only thing that slows down my sites lol
Then compare that to a slow site like QueerPixels.com which has massive amounts of big flash videos… Google things that’s a really fast site … probably because it doesn’t understand flash.
Re: Now that Google is using load times as a factor…
Another interestng article from Matt Cutts, and I wonder who writes his stuff? I mean let’s face facts here. This speed criteria is merely ONE out of OVER 200 signals to determine your SERPS.
And then too, in the recent thread about Large Sites losing some indexing, consider how the article also talks about how this will benefit smaller sites, versus big sites.
So I think the average smaller web site can really benefit from this change, because a smaller website can often implement the best practices that speed up a site more easily than a larger organization that might move slower or be hindered by bureaucracy (source Matt Cutts)
So perhaps all this is about a general overall switch from the ‘battleship’ approach (that RT discussed) to more of an ‘armada’ type?
Problem with all this, SEO, is that it isn’t just one single factor, but the combination of many criteria that is determining your rankings, and at different levels.
My method is simple, maybe too simple, but I build it for the customer, not for Google. Besides, my google doll has enough pins in it, as it is, and one day, it’ll work its magic. whistle
Re: Now that Google is using load times as a factor…
I pay no attention to what Webmaster Tools says … I don’t know what the deal is, but even my fastest sites that load in under a second show as slow in WM Tools.
One site that I love is www.webwait.com … it shows how fast your site loads for the average user.
Re: Now that Google is using load times as a factor…
So I’ve got proof now at how Google (mis)calculates speed.
My new site: www.spunkfeeds.com have managed to score very high on speed, it’s 77% faster than all sites online!
It seems Google calculates but can’t see past scripts, so by removing my link management system that hides URLs (common practice on link lists) I’ve solved the speed issues. My speed problems were all down to slow external sites that I link too. Google tests my script and see it’s slow to respond, but it doesn’t understand why. The slow response is because it’s waiting for another sites server to respond.
This means pretty much anyone who uses any type of script to manage outgoing links are fucked, their sites will always be shown as very slow. :grrr: