Facebook "Like" button external javascript warnings in Google Pagespeed

[castor_t]

I posted sometime ago saying that Google Pagespeed is showing some warnings in my Google Webmasters to combine external javascripts.

I use Facebook likebutton and Twitter tweet button in my pages.
I noticed that there are several facebook javascript calls in a page.

For example, for a page, Google Pagespeed is showing these warnings.

Eg: "There are 2 JavaScript files served from b.static.ak.fbcdn.net. They should be combined into as few files as possible:"
Eg: "There are 12 JavaScript files served from static.ak.fbcdn.net. They should be combined into as few files as possible:"

Is there any way, I could avoid this, still using the Like button?

[tedster]

I would say no, there isn't. This is a generic warning message for all external js calls.

You cannot change the way Facebook or Twitter serves files to you. If you want to use their functionality on your pages, then with the current implementation they offer you've got this warning in the Pagespeed tool.

[panicbutton]

Hmmm, I wonder if - given how much the Big G dislikes FB - the Big G might begin treating pages with FB "Like" buttons in a little less friendly manner. Similarly to how they do to pages with affiliate links on them!

[maximillianos]

We stopped using the like button due to how slow it was loading. Sometimes it would bold up the entire page while waiting for one little button.

[dataguy]

I just added the Like button across my site a few weeks ago, so I don't have much experience with this. The implementation I used uses an online frame.

From what I've seen in the past, framed pages can't slow down page load time because the external page load time isn't counted against the main page load time. Is this correct? This is the only way I would install an external script on any of my pages.

[freejung]

Hmmm, I wonder if - given how much the Big G dislikes FB - the Big G might begin treating pages with FB "Like" buttons in a little less friendly manner.

I seriously doubt that for several reasons. For one thing, too many important sites use the like button. For another, I think Google is either hoping to or already finding ways to use FB likes as a ranking factor. Also, getting FB likes gets you more exposure which can potentially get you more links, so the potential benefit probably outweighs any risk of Google penalization.

[freejung]

Also, on an ironic note, Pagespeed gives me the following errors:

There are 4 JavaScript files served from pagead2.googlesyndication.com. They should be combined into as few files as possible.

There are 2 JavaScript files served from www.google.com. They should be combined into as few files as possible.

The following cacheable resources have a short freshness lifetime. Specify an expiration at least one week in the future for the following resources

where the vast majority of the resources listed are on Google domains, and

The following publicly cacheable, compressible resources should have a "Vary: Accept-Encoding" header:

where all of the resources listed are on Google domains.

If they can't be bothered to fix these errors in their own properties, I wouldn't be particularly concerned about it.

[tedster]

All computerized feedback needs to be used by an intelligent analyst - because there is no real intelligence in an automated tool, whether it's a page speed tool or your server logs.

Not every "error" listed by Google Pagespeed needs to be "fixed" - but for best results, they do need to be understood.

[freejung]

Absolutely tedster -- the freshness lifetime error is a perfect example of that. For some reason Pagespeed uses the fairly arbitrary recommendation that you set it at least one week in the future, whereas actually your freshness lifetime should be informed by your frequency of content updates and your average duration between repeat visits.