Site speed not being reported accurately?
-
We're constantly on the lookout for site speed, and Google's Webmaster tools are saying that we're really really slow (on the order of 5-15 seconds per page). But the site NEVER feels that slow, and lots of other tools say we're in the 3-5 second range. Further, we've implemented literally 100% of Google's suggestions, and all we have are ad units that now render using Googles Async ad loader, further reducing time to interactivity.
Could Google be dinging us in search results for this? Here's an example page that they said loaded in 200+ seconds (!?!)
http://hark.com/clips/kwkdqqtzsg-terran-nuclear-launch-detected
Thanks!
-
I'll always suggest you improve site speed but make sure you look at the ROI you can get out of it. If you spend 40 dev hours to increase your site speed and you see no increase in rankings, thats not good in my eyes. I'd make sure that you work with you Network Systems guy to get an accurate reflection of how faster/slow your site really it before investing a bunch of dev time.
-
Only negatively evaluated in search results. We've seen a definite flattening of some terms, and we are trying to figure out why - speed seems to be the only thing that would/could have changed.
-
Negatively evaluated from Google or someone else? My guess is that they use that number along with other user feedback from the SERPs, such as if people bounce from your page quickly. I've worked with sites who have horrible metrics on GWT and they still ranked very high.
-
I guess my concern is not the number - I'm MORE concerned with our site being negatively evaluated because of it. Any thoughts here?
-
As Keri said, those results are based on people who use the Google Toolbar. If you are looking for a more accurate reading of site speed, I would install the new Google Analytics site speed tag which will start tracking your site speed in Google Analytics and isn't based just on people who use the toolbar.
I've found that the speed displayed in Webmaster Tools can vary widely and is something that is still very beta for Google. I personally look at it once in a while but never report it to anyone since I don't trust it.
Casey
-
It says "highly accurate", with thousands of data points. Is that how it works - off the Google Toolbar?
The problem is that we're a flash site, in order to play audio, and we have ads. There's just nothing we can do to get around that.
-
In that tool, there is a comment about accuracy, which is based on the data points. What does it say about accuracy? To the best of my knowledge, their site speed report is based on other users with the Google Toolbar installed. If you have only a few users with the toolbar visiting, and they're all on dialup, you could get skewed results.
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
-
Explore by site - Site overview's servers
Hello, When I want to "Explore by site" and make a "Site overview", I have only 4 choices for the region : USA United Kingdom Canada Australia But the location of my business is in Chile.
Reporting & Analytics | | Sodimaccl
Does this have any repercussion or negative impact in the analytics ? Thank you.0 -
Differences in site search revenue in GA
I just put in a piece of software to replace a really bad built in site search engine on my 3dcart website. Now I am trying to measure the change, but I am having some issues. When I check the ecom data in the conversions section of GA with the built in segment Performed Site Search, I get promising results. Approximately 5% revenue increase over LY. But if we jump to behavior, site search, usage, and then check the visits with site search, I get a decrease by 4%. And the actual revenue is off, by like double (150k compared to 80k) Anyone have any idea why I am getting these results? The site search function is set up. Tracking is enabled, query parameter is keyword and search url is /search.asp?keyword=
Reporting & Analytics | | ShockoeCommerce0 -
Google Analytics Automated Reporting
HI all, I tend to do a big reporting powerpoint deck using screenshots from google analytics and tables I create year end and mid year. It's like an 80 page report for the 10 webisite swe have and then I go ahead and make annotations as I see from the data. That being said this can take a lot of time, up to a 40 hours of time to pull it all together or more which is challenging when you have daily meetings. Anyhow, I've looked into automating and tried a couple things: 1. Tableau- but it keeps crashing and seems tedious 2. Dashlane and supergrabber- seem a bit tedious to set up too. Anyone have ideas on how to better shar ereporting in the organization in this type of format for a website (websites)? Organic, paid, traffic, etc. Laura
Reporting & Analytics | | lauramrobinson322 -
Is the meta description available on the On Page Optimization Report even if its currently being optimized?
Currently, description is only available if the element is not being optimized (i.e. character count is off/keyword isn't included in the description)
Reporting & Analytics | | Jerome670 -
Can you link several sites together in Google Webmaster Tools?
I have a client saying that there is a way to link 3 separate websites (A website for each department of a company) in Google Webmaster tools to tell Google it's basically one site but really its 3. Or to tell Google it's the same company and all the sites are one. I have never heard of this & I don't see the point in making 3 separate small sites & "linking" them as one in Webmaster tools. Is there in fact a way? Am I out to lunch on what they might be referring to? I am recommending they create one larger authority site with a page on each department & earn links for each department page & provide informative unique content for each page. Thoughts? Thanks for the help!
Reporting & Analytics | | DCochrane0 -
Google Analytics Report throws up Google as a referrer
Good morning from Wet & Windy 12 degrees C wetherby UK... Using Google analytics I've noticed in the traffic sources refferer subsection some traffic is categorized as originating from Google. Whats puzzling me is.... I know a huge amount of traddic stems from Google but as the below screenshot illustrates only 21 visitors come from Google: http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc53/zymurgy_bucket/google-refferal-sources-top-levelcopy.jpg And when i drill down some are coming from Google mobile 😞 http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc53/zymurgy_bucket/google-referral-sourcescopy.jpg Is traffic categorised as Google referrer down to Google hiding searches via ssl as explained here: http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc53/zymurgy_bucket/google-referral-sourcescopy.jpg Any insights welcome 🙂
Reporting & Analytics | | Nightwing0 -
How to Refesh site comapign?
How to Refesh site comapign? its displaying 3 days old data. now fixed some contents. unable to test it. kindly guide me for howto refresh the report?
Reporting & Analytics | | peanut20100 -
Organic bounce rate after site re-launch
3 months ago a client of mine re-launched theoir web site (after having a lot of work done on it). Since then, many of the SEO indications are good - more non-paid keywords sending search visits, more organic visits overall, more URLs receiving entrances via search, etc. The issue is that their bounce rate has been increasing pretty much EVERY week since. Has anyone seen a similar issue and what could a potential solution be for this? Thanks everyone!
Reporting & Analytics | | CathalOMaoilfhinn0