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
-
Site property is verified for new version of search console, but same property is unverified in the old version
Hi all! This is a weird one that I've never encountered before. So basically, an admin granted me search console access as an "owner" to the site in search console, and everything worked fine. I inspected some URL's with the new tool and had access to everything. Then, when I realized I had to remove certain pages from the index it directed me to the old search console, as there's no tool for that yet in the new version. However, the old version doesn't even list the site under the "property" dropdown as either verified or unverified, and if I try to add it it makes me undergo the verification process, which fails (I also have analytics and GTM access, so verification shouldn't fail). Has anyone experienced something similar or have any ideas for a fix? Thanks so much for any help!
Reporting & Analytics | | TukTown1 -
How accurate is Google analytics at measuring traffic? (Free version)
Hi Guys. When we compare our actual sales to Google analytics conversions it can be way out. Sometimes as much as 50%. Is this the same for the data on traffic? And if so, does the data tend to be out by a similar amount over time? i.e) If we compare this year and last year it give us a good indicator of differences in traffic volume? (albeit not 100% accurate?) Thanks. Isaac.
Reporting & Analytics | | isaac6630 -
High Bounce Rate on traffic generating area of our site
Hi, Our eCommerce site currently includes a blog section known as Igloo which we have filled with unique and helpful content that is useful to a fair few people, not just customers of ours. It currently attracts a large number of visitors (more than the actual eCommerce side of the site in actual fact) organically who aren't currently customers of ours. Very few of these turn in to paying clients so it's not really a money spinner but it has worked quite well from a linkbait perspective / traffic generation perspective and undoubtedly a few of these people do end up making a purchase on the actual shopping end of our site. We're look at ways to encourage these people finding help on this free resource to take a look at our homepage and hopefully make an order but in the meantime I am worried that there may be a few downsides to us creating this content: Google may see us more as a help site than a shopping site. Since selling products is where we make our money this could ultimately be a bad thing. Our bounce rate is REALLY high (I'm talking around 94%) on the help site versus around 20% on the eCommerce site. I guess people land on the article they want, read it and then disappear. Would this bounce rate skew our entire site stats and ultimately result in decreased performance in the SERPS. I would appreciate your opinions and, in the event you do feel it may be hurting us overall perhaps some suggestions on how to mitigate the effects? Many thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | ChrisHolgate0 -
Webmaster Tools Suddenly Asking For Verification of Site Registered for 5 Years
Google Webmaster Tools has been successfully installed on my website, (www.nyc-officespace-leader.com) for more than five years. Suddenly, today I have received a request to Verify this Site". This makes no sense. The only possibility I can think of is that this is somehow tied to the following events in the last month: 1. Launch of new version of website on June 4th
Reporting & Analytics | | Kingalan1
2. Installation of Google of Tag Manager
3. Sudden Increase in number of pages indexed by Google. Unexplained indexing of an additional 175 pages. About 625 pages should be indexed, while 800 are now indexed. In the last month ranking and traffic have fallen sharply. Could it be tat these issues are all linked? But the strangest issue is the request to verify the site. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks,
Alan0 -
Why does a selection of sites I have written guest posts on not come up on my link analysis?
I have done a few guests posts on different sites and they are not coming up in my link analysis report.
Reporting & Analytics | | meteorelectrical
We created an info graphic on one particular site and this site isn't coming up on the link analysis report. Would there be a reason for this. I ran a check on the sites code and it doesnt contain "nofollow" as i originally thought this was the problem. Here is an example of our work on a site that isn't coming up on the analysis report. http://www.electriciansblog.co.uk/2013/10/energy-saving-using-led-lighting/ Thanks0 -
Reported data in Multi-channel funnels in GA wrong?
I'd love to start using the Multi-channel funnels feature in Google Analytics but I have zero confidence in the reported data as it seems to bear no relationship to the standard ecomm reports. To be specific, in August 2013, MCF is reporting the following for email campaigns: Assisted conversions = 20
Reporting & Analytics | | Bluesnapper
Assisted conversion value = £1,405.91
Last Click or Direct Conversions = 14
Last Click or Direct Conversion Value = £369.57 Now switching to the traffic sources report, GA reports for the email campaigns revenue was £1,226,41 over the same period across 21 transactions. My interpretation of this is that the email campaigns were the "last-click" and delivered £1,226,41 and 21 "conversions" (as I have no goals configured in this GA view, conversions = transactions I believe) That leaves the MCF last-click report short by £856.84 (£1,226,41 - £369.57) I can see no reason why this should be so unless I'm not interpreting the data correctly! Anybody have any suggestions/ideas as to what's going on? Any help appreciated.0 -
How do you handle a "too many inbound links" notice on your crawl diagnostics report?
How do you handle a "too many inbound links" notice on your crawl diagnostics report? The url's identified come from our blog....is it reading all the blog post URL's and giving me a notice? Is this ok to leave all the links? Or would anyone recommend no follow tags on all of our blog posts?
Reporting & Analytics | | cschwartzel0 -
Linking Multiple Niche Site In Same Google Analytics Account
Hi, I am providing SEO for Local business. Is it advisable to separate out the Google Analytics into different Google account or is it ok to remain it this way? Some of the client might be in the same niche, and might be competing with the same keywords as well. What I was worried is, Google might see these sites as same owner and only rank for 1 of the site. I was thinking to get the owners to register for their own Google Analytics and share the access to me.
Reporting & Analytics | | JonathanSoh0