Do having social sharing icons such as Twitter and Pinterest slow down site speed?
-
We are debating a redesign of a travel site and wondering whether having social sharing buttons including Pinterest and Facebook above each image would slow down site speed and therefore have a negative impact on our rankings. We are deciding between having the icons above each image or just in the side bar of all pages. Many thanks, Penny
-
I did not test all combinations, but I did determine that it's faster to select the subset that your visitors will use and not to load the myriad of fluff icons.
Best,
Christopher -
Christopher, did you test add this against using say Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest tools all separately? Many need to include 4 to 5 different social media tools, and loading each one of them separately in my experience has typically always been more of a burden on the cover than using even add this.
I think I myself actually moved into primarily using ShareThis, but that only had to do with liking their look and feel better for various projects.
-
Yes, the vendor you use (e.g. AddThis), the features you use (e.g. number of likes), and number of icons you use (e.g. FB, Twitter, G+) can affect the performance of your page. FWIW, I dropped AddThis because it was much too slow. YMMV. I recommend testing several vendors and feature settings. Also, you should retest the page performance periodically.
Best,
Christopher -
I have in fact seen a slow down in performance but it depends on how and where you're placing them. I don't think the slow down has ever been enough to have an impact on your rankings, but I've seen situations where it would annoy a visitor.
I've had better luck using the 3rd party services like AddThis or ShareThis. Sure they have limitations, but for me at least they seem to perform a bit better in terms of speed than if you're using Facebook or Twitter's tools directly (and separately).
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Can someone clear up social signals as a ranking factor?
I'm aware that Google have addressed this before and specifically said that social signals are not a ranking factor: http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/news/2325343/matt-cutts-facebook-twitter-social-signals-not-part-of-google-search-ranking-algorithms However I came across this (admittedly great) infographic from Neil Patel, an SEO I have a lot of respect for: http://www.quicksprout.com/2014/01/31/how-social-signals-impact-search-engine-rankings/ In the post he specifically states that "both Google and Bing use data from social sites in order to determine how high to rank your website." I have always understood that social signals help drive links by spreading your content to a bigger audience, thereby getting your content in front of people who are likely to link. I also appreciate that content that is shareable is also likely to be linkworthy. However. Neil doesn't talk about correlation here, he talks about social signals as a ranking factor. Is he being misleading, or has the game changed since Matt Cutts said they don't use social signals?
Social Media | | CustardOnlineMarketing0 -
Identifying members on Twitter
We are a member based company. Membership is by business not individual. So for instance if your widget business is a member anyone with a johndoe@widget.com email address can sign up and use all our content, portals, etc. I want to take emails and figure out if they are on Twitter. I know Twitter allows you to search your contact list but this wouldn't be that. It would be a list of emails I create. Are there any tools or suggestions to do this in a efficient way besides searching each individual name on Twitter? Thanks for the help.
Social Media | | inhouseninja0 -
What's the value of Twitter and Pinterest links?
Just wondering should part of my regular activities include sharing certain URL's to these social networks? Presumably it requires constantly mentioning random pages as part of an ongoing nature... Any pointers? thanks
Social Media | | bjs20101 -
How do I follow more people on Twitter?
Hi my Moz friends, I like following all of you, a lot! Because I like following you all so much, but not so many of you like following ME, I have been cut off by Twitter and I'm not allowed to follow any more people until I have more people following ME. Sad Face I am sure that more than a few of you have been in this scenario. What should I do? I could dump 10-20 followers but that 's not going to be enough to pacify the Twitter Gods! Thanks guys, Dana
Social Media | | danatanseo0 -
My Twitter Username was CHANGED by Twitter!
My twitter user name australia was changed by twitter to Australia1_ My original user name has been given to Toursim Australia. I never saw any correspondence about this from Twitter (I may have deleted it), nor from Tourism Australia. I have managed to send 2 related support requests to twitter; Once explaining I couldn't log in - and their reply was; "The email address you're writing from does not match the email on this account. For privacy reasons, we can't offer any more information about the email." Second time that my account was suspended - they replied; "If you're writing in about Australia1_ being suspended, this account is not currently suspended" I don't believe this can be a trademark issue because you cannot trademark a place name. I would love an explanation from twitter- Any tips?
Social Media | | RR5000 -
Connecting Twitter accounts?
Does anyone know if it is possible to connect 2 separate Twitter accounts? The marketing department in my company set up the official Twitter feed. However, one of the employees took it upon themselves to set up another one and built up a good following. Now a lot of people are getting confused to which one is the official one. It would be great it we could merge the two, but I've been looking all morning and can't seem to find a way. Any help?
Social Media | | AAttias0 -
Do Your Social Metrics Such As Tweets Transfer With a 301?
Got asked this today, and I don't know the answer, so throwing it out there to all your mozzers! If I 301 redirect a page that has built up a lot of tweets, likes, shares, even +1's, does that social data get transferred over to the new page in as far as social strength/ authority is concerned? Would Google still be able to see the previous version of this page had x amount of tweets etc, and take this into consideration when ranking the new page?
Social Media | | PerchDigital0 -
Getting started with Social media promotion
Hey Guys, I created a facebook fan page and I created a twitter account. I'm following about 175 people on twitter and 30 people returned the follow. Now what? How can I keep building? Any tools to help me? if you wanna analyze: http://twitter.com/culinitweets
Social Media | | Goetzman0