I expect this should hit bad WordPress developers hardest, since the throw-another-plugin-on-the-fire philosophy has led to pages that load 15 javascript libraries for features not even present on that page.
It loads the page and the text first so you can start reading. The images and scripts are delayed and cached. Comments are last. Pictures and thumbnails have various resolutions to improve load time.
Many (most?) of them are not even good on Desktop. Agree to the other comments that the basic Wordpress is very good optimized but who uses only basic Wordpress?
> Although speed has been used in ranking for some time, that signal was focused on desktop searches. Today we’re announcing that starting in July 2018, page speed will be a ranking factor for mobile searches.
> 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.
The desktop ranking signal had almost no effect; slow pages reliably turned up in search results. Maybe some pages that took 15s to paint were slightly diminished in results, if that.
If the mobile ranking signal is as weak as the desktop ranking signal, (and they seem to be indicating it's going to be a very small effect,) I would expect this change to have no measurable effect at all on the median performance of pages loaded from Google search results.
Without NN won't ranking pages by "page speed" simply enhance the benefits of purchasing "fast lanes" near end points (on previously dumb pipes ;-) to those willing to do so?
It sounds like you're describing a Content Delivery Network (CDN). Many sites use CDNs in order to serve content from as close to the user as possible, often from within the ISP's network. This is unrelated to Net Neutrality, and has been common practice for years.
Using a CDN is one way to speed up your site, but there are lots of other important steps like reducing dependencies and compressing your resources.
(Source: I used to work on mod_pagespeed at Google, now I work on other things there.)
Probably not, since Google is presumably measuring speed via their own connection (possibly with simulated mobile network speeds), not via random user endpoints.
While this is great news but is there a way to opt-out of it? I don't really mind heavy sites (sometimes) since I'm always on wifi most of the time and care more about search relevance than speed.
Kind of like how amazon shows you the search results by "Relevance", "Price", "Popularity", etc. Maybe google can do it too and let us sort by "Relevance", "Speed", "By Geography", etc.
The fact that I get different results based on what device I'm using really bothers me. Why does Google have to try to be so omniscient? Why not just ask me, "Prioritize fast-loading pages? (y/n)".
Concerns over Google-the-company aside, Google-the-search-platfrom really sucks IMO because it assumes it knows what I want, rather than just asking me. That mentality was Steve Jobs' worst legacy and I hate how it's wound up everywhere.
There's an almost unlimited number of questions that you could be asked, and the reality is that nobody wants to answer any of them.
At some point, they need to make some decisions for you, otherwise you are tasked with coming up with your own search algorithm yourself! The question becomes which decisions should they make for you, and which should they let you make.
Currently the answer looks like they are making most of them for you, while allowing you to make decisions on whether you want "web, videos, images, books, news, etc.." and what date range you are searching for.
I think that's a good choice for them, because at the end of the day if you want more control or choice in your searches, you can always use another search engine.
This isn't also unique to Google or their products. I've struggled with this in my own programs and products, even open source ones. An endless list of configuration options means that nobody will ever set them all correctly, and it increases the amount of testing you need to do almost exponentially. Choosing good defaults, or in many cases making the decision outright for your users is the best possible case, because there just isn't any other way which scales out to the entire piece of software in most cases.
Have to disagree. Use Google search a lot and find it uncanny in getting me what I need in most situations in the first couple of links.
Now I am old and been using search engines for a long time and remember Veronica and Jughead coming online and do think I have learned through the years how to word a search to optimize getting the results.
reaperducer|8 years ago
firasd|8 years ago
1) https://www.webpagetest.org for analyzing loading times
2) a3 lazy load for lazy-loading images: https://wordpress.org/plugins/a3-lazy-load/
3) autoptimize for combining multiple CSS files: https://wordpress.org/plugins/autoptimize/
More description of what we did at my write-up here: https://hackernoon.com/dont-brake-for-fonts-3-web-performanc...
user5994461|8 years ago
It loads the page and the text first so you can start reading. The images and scripts are delayed and cached. Comments are last. Pictures and thumbnails have various resolutions to improve load time.
therealmarv|8 years ago
baxtr|8 years ago
rviscomi|8 years ago
[deleted]
edent|8 years ago
cramforce|8 years ago
wffurr|8 years ago
Klathmon|8 years ago
This change is more focused on mobile.
[0] https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2010/04/using-site-speed-i...
jacksmith21006|8 years ago
dfabulich|8 years ago
> 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.
The desktop ranking signal had almost no effect; slow pages reliably turned up in search results. Maybe some pages that took 15s to paint were slightly diminished in results, if that.
If the mobile ranking signal is as weak as the desktop ranking signal, (and they seem to be indicating it's going to be a very small effect,) I would expect this change to have no measurable effect at all on the median performance of pages loaded from Google search results.
trimtab|8 years ago
cbr|8 years ago
Using a CDN is one way to speed up your site, but there are lots of other important steps like reducing dependencies and compressing your resources.
(Source: I used to work on mod_pagespeed at Google, now I work on other things there.)
Ajedi32|8 years ago
jwilk|8 years ago
superasn|8 years ago
Kind of like how amazon shows you the search results by "Relevance", "Price", "Popularity", etc. Maybe google can do it too and let us sort by "Relevance", "Speed", "By Geography", etc.
clarkenheim|8 years ago
nerdponx|8 years ago
Concerns over Google-the-company aside, Google-the-search-platfrom really sucks IMO because it assumes it knows what I want, rather than just asking me. That mentality was Steve Jobs' worst legacy and I hate how it's wound up everywhere.
Klathmon|8 years ago
* Prioritize fast-loading pages?
* Prioritize mobile pages?
* Prioritize by pagesize?
* Prioritize your language? Prioritize local results first? Prioritize news sites? Prioritize blogging sites? Prioritize comment platforms? Prioritize "safe-for-work" websites? etc...
There's an almost unlimited number of questions that you could be asked, and the reality is that nobody wants to answer any of them.
At some point, they need to make some decisions for you, otherwise you are tasked with coming up with your own search algorithm yourself! The question becomes which decisions should they make for you, and which should they let you make.
Currently the answer looks like they are making most of them for you, while allowing you to make decisions on whether you want "web, videos, images, books, news, etc.." and what date range you are searching for.
I think that's a good choice for them, because at the end of the day if you want more control or choice in your searches, you can always use another search engine.
This isn't also unique to Google or their products. I've struggled with this in my own programs and products, even open source ones. An endless list of configuration options means that nobody will ever set them all correctly, and it increases the amount of testing you need to do almost exponentially. Choosing good defaults, or in many cases making the decision outright for your users is the best possible case, because there just isn't any other way which scales out to the entire piece of software in most cases.
jacksmith21006|8 years ago
Now I am old and been using search engines for a long time and remember Veronica and Jughead coming online and do think I have learned through the years how to word a search to optimize getting the results.