Google rates my XF site as poor - options?

[CrispinP]

Folks,


I've just done a test of my site - www.landcruiserclub.net on google's checker and it's come up with 54/100 as a score

https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/?url=https://www.landcruiserclub.net/community/forums/your_garage/&tab=mobile

It seems that most of the complaints are with stock XF functionality. Should these not be done to the best possible or is Google being pedantic? (Not knocking XF - it has a shed load of good stuff in it)

About 40% of my traffic is now mobile web since ditching Tapatalk and would like to make sure it's as good as it can be.

Should I dig more at it and try solve the problems or is it not really worth it at this point?


Thanks
C

edited

 

[ForestForTrees]

Most of your points were lost on speed, but what matters is actual user experience, not the specific rules that Google failed you on.

When you use your own site, does it feel slow? If it doesn't, then you are at least offering your users a good experience.

The following result would be concerning, but when I visited your actual site it didn't feel slow to me: "In our test, your server responded in 2.2 seconds. There are many factors that can slow down your server response time. Please read our recommendations to learn how you can monitor and measure where your server is spending the most time."

 

[CrispinP]

When you use your own site, does it feel slow? If it doesn't, then you are at least offering your users a good experience.

Thanks for the reply.

No, it does not feel slow to me not have any of the users complained. XF is snappier than it used to be with VB so that's a bonus.

I've kept an eye on the loads with a chrome plugin and the last scripts to load are adverts served by google / doubleclick! Ironic or what

The only "slow" part is the larger images but I'm working on that and CloudFlare so that'll be the last of the things to do. In reality, I imagine, things like the avatar don't make a difference until you're seeing many many hits a second.

I've enabled backend file caching and the loads on the server are always around 0.9 - 2.0 roughly (on a 4 core box).

Will read the recommendations docs - thanks.

 

[ForestForTrees]

Yeah, it's always the third party stuff that is the slowest. I don't know if advertisements would slow down page renders offhand, but it might be worth checking.

 

[CrispinP]

I did see that one of the warnings was that script bla bla should be changed to be async so as to not block the UI rendering. That script was being served by google....

I'm happy though - I don't think there is a problem I need to overly worry about.

 

[motowebmaster]

I used to drive an FJ Cruiser, traded it for a new Tundra but still stare at the older Land Cruisers

The initial load was very long for me. Thought the site was down for a moment, but after some time it appeared. I use Google Chrome.

With Xenforo, there is only so much pagespeed will allow. It's useful up to a point, but will still give you grief over JS placement and other items.

 

[CrispinP]

I used to drive an FJ Cruiser, traded it for a new Tundra but still stare at the older Land Cruisers

The Tundras are nice. We don't get them in Europe But the old BJ 40s are the best. I want one

The initial load was very long for me. Thought the site was down for a moment, but after some time it appeared. I use Google Chrome.

Odd, I wonder if it was CloudFlare getting the cache which cause a pause. I assume you're in the US somewhere? ah, I see you're in AR.

 

[Anthony Parsons]

You have way too much third party crap loading on that page...

If you want page speed, then get rid of the third party crap. If not... then leave it as is and stop testing that specific page, and instead test a thread page for speed, which is really the important pages Google list.

I would get rid of the flag counter thing you have in the footer, then test again, and turn off adsense when testing, as well as analytics. Disable them, then test. The flag thing I suspect is your major issue... honestly, get rid of it.

Your page speed is one thing, but user experience the main thing, ranking 99/100 for mobile, which is pretty good. Just the flag thing I suspect is your primary issue... get rid of that, and you should be over 80 on page speed which is all good. Anything orange is fine...

 

[CrispinP]

You have way too much third party crap loading on that page...

You need to stop beating around the bush and just get your point across

I would get rid of the flag counter thing you have in the footer, then test again, and turn off adsense when testing, as well as analytics. Disable them, then test. The flag thing I suspect is your major issue... honestly, get rid of it.

I did not actually think of the flag thing as a problem. Looking at it in isolation though - it's anywhere from 0.2 to 0.8 second load time. Also another 14KB added to the pot. Thanks for the tip - I'll remove it and see.

If you want page speed, then get rid of the third party crap. If not... then leave it as is and stop testing that specific page, and instead test a thread page for speed, which is really the important pages Google list.

I might spend some time over the weekend on a test site and remove various bits to see what's going on. The biggest culprit though is adsense which is a pain but nothing I can do about it.

I've not had many complaints that it is slow so I'm not overly worried - for now. Still, I would like to have it done right before it's an issue

 

[Anthony Parsons]

The biggest culprit though is adsense

Usually is... BUT... even Google say to deactivate it when testing for page speed. They allow for their own technologies, but if you want to see your true score, then test without adsense or analytics, and that is your score. Then enable Google crap and don't worry about it.

 

[CrispinP]

Will try that - thanks.

 

[upnet]

I ran your site with pingdom and it showed 3.58 - I'm happy when I see my index at that speed... I suppose you are worried that your search ranking is being hit hard by Google's interpretation for your speed. There is always room for improvement.
http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/

 

[CrispinP]

I ran your site with pingdom and it showed 3.58 - I'm happy when I see my index at that speed...

Nice site, thanks for the opinion.

I suppose you are worried that your search ranking is being hit hard by Google's interpretation for your speed.

That is what I was thinking. I'm not doing too badly with the SEO so....

 

[motowebmaster]

Ok, I was being nice

• You're loading the fontawesome css twice. I'm sure it wasn't intended, but you need to go through your template edits and/or addons.
• Some of your links are SSL, and some aren't. I'm sure there is something in place to compensate, because that shouldn't be happening, but it's is slowing the experience.
• Re-consider the use of the rocketloader feature. Do some tests without it and see how your site performs and code is re-written.
• The fonts are a bit "soft" on your site, likely will cause some devices to work harder. My mobile devices are modern, but my PC is an ancient machine running Win10.

As previously suggested, change your personal style setting to the default style Xenforo and disable the "visual" addons. If your site was successful up to this point then I'd say do what works and maintain it's look, just need to make some adjustments.

 

[CrispinP]

Thanks, I'll dig through those points over the weekend and report back.