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Does size matter?

by timokeefe
11 replies
  • SEO
    • |
We've had some interesting AB test results recently that suggest that the amount downloaded for a page is hugely important for our SEO. This is a little counter-intuitive to us, as tools like Google's Page Speed Insights don't seem to care much about the total size, as long as everything is asynchronously loaded and not render blocking. We've also found that this result seems to hold when the time until a user can interact with a page remains constant, which is also weird. Marcus posted an article yesterday that also showed that switching a Shopify store over to an efficient CDN resulted in large increases in revenue, so it seems like there might be further evidence out there.

Has anyone observed anything like this? Speed is of course an important ranking factor, but I wouldn't have thought size mattered too much.
#matter #size
  • Profile picture of the author CDNgine
    Originally Posted by timokeefe View Post

    We've had some interesting AB test results recently that suggest that the amount downloaded for a page is hugely important for our SEO. This is a little counter-intuitive to us, as tools like Google's Page Speed Insights don't seem to care much about the total size, as long as everything is asynchronously loaded and not render blocking. We've also found that this result seems to hold when the time until a user can interact with a page remains constant, which is also weird. Marcus posted an article yesterday that also showed that switching a Shopify store over to an efficient CDN resulted in large increases in revenue, so it seems like there might be further evidence out there.

    Has anyone observed anything like this? Speed is of course an important ranking factor, but I wouldn't have thought size mattered too much.
    It does factor on ranking, but more importantly, page load times do effect revenue more than most people realize.

    https://blog.kissmetrics.com/loading-time/

    A couple of key points from the study...

    - A 1 second delay in page response can result in a 7% reduction in conversions.
    - If an e-commerce site is making $100,000 per day, a 1 second page delay could potentially cost you $2.5 million in lost sales every year.
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  • Profile picture of the author expmrb
    Speed matters that's true but I don't think that size matters. As long as it loads swiftly in all devices including the mobile devices too size doesn't matters.
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  • Profile picture of the author savidge4
    Originally Posted by timokeefe View Post

    We've had some interesting AB test results recently that suggest that the amount downloaded for a page is hugely important for our SEO. This is a little counter-intuitive to us, as tools like Google's Page Speed Insights don't seem to care much about the total size, as long as everything is asynchronously loaded and not render blocking. We've also found that this result seems to hold when the time until a user can interact with a page remains constant, which is also weird. Marcus posted an article yesterday that also showed that switching a Shopify store over to an efficient CDN resulted in large increases in revenue, so it seems like there might be further evidence out there.

    Has anyone observed anything like this? Speed is of course an important ranking factor, but I wouldn't have thought size mattered too much.
    But isn't size in essence equated to speed? As pointed out above.. 1 second equates to 7% So the more loaded the page, the longer the load, the greater opportunity for loss. A CDN obviously is going to speed things up.

    I personally do some goofy stuff in say wordpress to expedite "interactive load" Google analytics as an example... why would you load that in the header? Think programmatically for a moment. GA is a call.. for that call to complete, and for the load to move to the next step it has to go out contact Google and return as complete no? whats more important load or GA stats? LOL

    I place GA in wordpress usually in the far right footer. as in last loaded section of the page. There are plenty of other minor programming modifications that can be made to load lower importance data below / after the primary content objectives.

    Another great tool is the use of a CSS plugin.. instead of line after line of custom css, you change that for a simple single call. reduction of code length, reduction of call requests.. it can only equate to faster loads.
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  • Profile picture of the author David Jones42
    if size is bigger then they automatically affect load time obviously. so a size of course matter
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  • Profile picture of the author WarriorWasim
    I don't think size doesn't matter if your website is loading properly. There are many websites with huge data and ranking high so I don't size will be an issue. Thanks :-)
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  • Profile picture of the author timokeefe
    But isn't size in essence equated to speed?
    if size is bigger then they automatically affect load time obviously. so a size of course matter
    Not if it's loading asynchronously and not blocking the render of key page elements.

    Google's own RAIL guide mentions the following:

    Load your site in under 1 second. If you don't, user attention wanders, and their perception of dealing with the task is broken.

    Focus on optimizing the critical rendering path to unblock rendering.

    You don't have to load everything in under 1 second to produce the perception of a complete load. Enable progressive rendering and do some work in the background. Defer non-essential loads to periods of idle time (see this Website Performance Optimization Udacity course for more information).
    - https://developers.google.com/web/fu...rformance/rail
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    • Profile picture of the author savidge4
      Originally Posted by timokeefe View Post

      Not if it's loading asynchronously and not blocking the render of key page elements.

      Google's own RAIL guide mentions the following:

      - https://developers.google.com/web/fu...rformance/rail
      I get what you are saying.. but in todays world with all of the CMS options... asynchronous is a bit of a pipe dream for most... Wordpress is far from it.. and Shopify albeit better, its still not there.. your own testing showed a CDN ( probably to render out the product images faster ) made vast improvements.

      For better or worse, with most.. well I am thinking all CMS options.. the critical rendering path is pre designed.. I would say poorly designed at that. Asynchronicity has to be the groundwork, for it to be present at the point of site development. A product image in woocommerce.. in Big Commerce, In Shopify on a product page.. In a Asyncronistic world would load pretty much first? but we all know better than that.. so we are left with finding and developing work arounds.

      I can honestly tell you I have never "Tested" a CDN vs no CDN on a commerce site.. but with sites that are commerce based that I actually care about... they are cloud hosted and run with a CDN. Any and every technical advantage I can get my little hands on... I'm in.
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  • Profile picture of the author Uchiha Itachi
    I agree with the size not greatly affect the speed of page loads, If it is loaded synchronously and not blocked displayed in content
    but does not mean it does not affect, you need to consider because it will affect the ranking on Google as well as the rate of customer purchases.
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  • Profile picture of the author Fahad Nazir
    Size does matter when it comes to loading time of page. If it effects your loading time it will also effect your visitors satisfaction. ultimately you will face lost in your business.
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  • Profile picture of the author jbbryant
    Yes it does, especially at this day and age were lot's of people have limited attention spans and prone to being impatient.
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  • Profile picture of the author writeaway
    It makes logical sense and according to BRIAN DEAN of Backlinko, it's been EMPIRICALLY PROVEN

    Do a search for 'ideal blog post length' or something similar

    The industry standard is 1500 words
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