Google: Page speed will be a ranking factor for mobile searches in 2018

[The Buzz]

While page speed has been used for rankings for a long time on desktop searches, Google announced on its Webmaster Central Blog this week that, starting in July 2018, it will be a ranking factor for mobile searches.

Google went on to say that although "there is no tool that directly indicates whether a page is affected by this new ranking factor" there are other resources that can be used to evaluate a page’s performance, including a Chrome User Experience Report, Lighthouse and PageSpeed Insights.

From the blog post:

The “Speed Update,” as we’re calling it, will only affect pages that deliver the slowest experience to users and will only affect a small percentage of queries. It applies the same standard to all pages, regardless of the technology used to build the page. The intent of the search query is still a very strong signal, so a slow page may still rank highly if it has great, relevant content.

We encourage developers to think broadly about how performance affects a user’s experience of their page and to consider a variety of user experience metrics.

Read more here: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/20...le-search.html

[wonderpunter]

On gtmeterix i get a sub 1 sec loading speed, on pindom 500ms.. page insights hammers me.. doesnt tell me how long just says slow although realtime use it's lightening quick on moible.. checked out the dev tools and get mixed results of fast and slow.. anyhow just upgraded to a new litespeed dedicated server as needed more memory anyhow, will let you know the results if the upgrade was worth it

[Former Member 14]

A few years back, only a small percentage (approx 1.5%) of my total player base, were mobile users.

Mobile optimised was not even a prerequisite on the Google alog. However all that change within a couple of years. The catalyst being the widespread uptake of mobile devices, which has also fueled substantial OS performance capabilities.

For our industry, the browser based casinos, seems to draw a lot of mobile users too.

AMP (Active Mobile Pages) is now in the Google alog matrix, and has been for well over 12 months. If your site is not mobile optimised, or worse speed optimised, then your loosing not only potential players, but SERPS too. Not forgetting SSL

[PromoteCasino]

Same as you Wonderpunter get good results on gtmetrix but pagespeed insights were rubbish for mobile. Had a little play around last night and did manage to get an 82 result for mobile and 93 for desktop. I am struggling with the above the fold error, not being a developer I have no clue how to correct. Does anyone know if this is an easy fix or do I need to hire an expert?

I too think the site loads pretty quickly as well so hard to understand whey it would get low rankings. Does the big G use insights as their definitive result?

[wonderpunter]

Same as you Wonderpunter get good results on gtmetrix but pagespeed insights were rubbish for mobile. Had a little play around last night and did manage to get an 82 result for mobile and 93 for desktop. I am struggling with the above the fold error, not being a developer I have no clue how to correct. Does anyone know if this is an easy fix or do I need to hire an expert?

I too think the site loads pretty quickly as well so hard to understand whey it would get low rankings. Does the big G use insights as their definitive result?

82 your fine.. i get 42 on page insights yet loads in 0.5ms in realtime.. annoying considering how much is actually going on in my site.. i have cleaned and optmized as much as posible also running pro cloud flare with argos routing

[PromoteCasino]

82 your fine.. i get 42 on page insights yet loads in 0.5ms in realtime.. annoying considering how much is actually going on in my site.. i have cleaned and optmized as much as posible also running pro cloud flare with argos routing

That is just crazy, it is all bollox if it is loading in half a second real time then it should reflect that is the score but it is looking for the tiniest of optimisation issues which it knocks the score for. Before my playing around yesterday it was showing up as in the 50's-60's dependent on the server issues which popped in and out randomly. I have just the 3 issues now one is css related ironically it is a file created by autoptimize plugin. The other is two leverage browser but they are google related where I cannot add expiry dates and the above fold issue.

[luckyga]

Google Page Speed is notoriously unreliable, I wouldn't worry about the speed scores, it's best used as a general tool to see where improvements could be made.

[The Buzz]

From Target Marketing, regarding this topic:

3 Mobile Site Speed Improvement Tips

Instart Logic tells Target Marketing that there are three ways marketers can “stay on Google’s good side.” These are ways to quicken mobile site speed and aid search rankings. Instart logic suggests marketers improve:

1. Images: Implement image optimization strategies including automatic quality-based compression and delivery of optimized image formats to mobile devices

2. Design: Ensure sites are built to be responsive so that they adjust their structure and resources to the limitations of mobile devices

3. Coding: Optimize JavaScripts to reduce the amount of data transfer and processing power that they require on the mobile device

Brand representatives may also want to visit Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool.

Read more here: http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/ar...ker-hits-today

[Mario The Gambler]

Also the speed results in the tests depends a lot on the distance between the server that is testing and the location where our website is hosted (if we do not use a CDN). And of course it also depends on several other factors.

I suggest the following tool: http://www.webpagetest.org/

It is a tool that allows us to " Run a free website speed test from multiple locations around the globe using real browsers (IE and Chrome) and at real consumer connection speeds."


It also allows testing from Android Devices and Apple devices...

[Former Member 14]

Also the speed results in the tests depends a lot on the distance between the server that is testing and the location where our website is hosted (if we do not use a CDN). And of course it also depends on several other factors.

I suggest the following tool: http://www.webpagetest.org/

Good advice and recommendations. I use WPT a lot. I also use https://tools.pingdom.com/ (4 test servers...Melbourne AU, New York/San Jose USA and Stockholm Sweden - gives some decent data insights).

Should also mention, where you host your site (and on what - shared, VPS or server) plays a very important part in helping to reduce load times. or more so the all important FTTB (first time to byte). That's why using cheap-hosting is a bad idea. It's almost always oversold.

The other important factor... I see lots of people now using a CDN. BUT... if your using Wordpress, then a CDN is not a magic bullet.

Instead, you should spend time optimizing your theme etc., and also use a decent WP cache. (NB - too many plugins not only can create layout issues etc., but can also dramatically slow your site down. At max I use 11 plugins; from trusted developers; plugins from un-trusted sources can get you hacked; same goes for theme's too. Some of my sites use max, 5 plugins.)

I've been using WP Fastest Cache (premium) for the past few years. Its child's play to setup, and really does supercharge load times. The free version is good too. But your limited to a handful of options, which, doesn't not include clearing the cache, or using additional optimizations for both PC and mobile.

With regard to optimization of your WP theme, there are lots of Database calls, to lessen these, you can for instance, hard-code the lang identifier, along with other DB calls in both your header and footer. Reducing these DB calls, will improve speed

Also, removing version numbers from JS, CSS etc, along with differing the loading of non critical (must have) scripts and CSS etc. These can be differed to load in your footer, instead of your header. Loading non critical scripts/css will slow your site's load times.

In closing, been using Wordpress now since 2010. All my sites score 95+ on both mobile and PC scores. Maybe I should write up a guide to both Hardening WordPress and Speed Optimizing a WP sites etc. I'll run this past Anthony

[Vargoso]

Very good recommendation, thanks for this tool!

I suggest the following tool

Please keep in mind, user experience is even more important that Google #1. If a mobile version of a website only allows to see some short information and don't allow user to do anything important, his experience will be bad and that of course will replicate.