Removing Google Analytics - Decreasing Load Time

[snickles121]

I just removed Google Analytics to help decrease load time. Were running, according to Google Webmaster Tools, slower then 65% of websites. I cant understand why, we only run html code with adsense. So I guess we will try this to see if it will help with the Panda update! Im not holding my breath, but we have tried everything else. We increased all page content and are really getting no where except for a short time jump in serps.

[ohno]

Hmm, not sure I trust the site speed reporting at all. We moved to a much bigger & better dedicated server & it still reports we are slower! Sometimes it says we are faster than 90% of sites & we haven't changed a thing!

[mark_roach]

we only run html code with adsense

Adsense has much more of an impact on page load time than analytics.

We moved to a much bigger & better dedicated server & it still reports we are slower

On most sites the backend processing time is only a tiny portion of the overall page load time. Images and javascript have far greater impact.

Download the Firebug addon for Firefox and use the Net tab to see which components of your page are slowing you down. It makes for interesting reading.

I added Adsense to one of my sites and went from 1.5s response (faster than 80% of sites) to 2.5s (faster than 55% of sites).

[ohno]

Thanks for the tips, I'll take a look! Why would times fluctuate so much in WMT's though as the site is static?

[mark_roach]

The fluctuation could be due the amount of data WMT has to work with. Does WMT say "These estimates are of high accuracy (more than 1000 data points)." ?

If not that could be the reason. I have another site which fluctuates between 1 and 6 second response times according to WMT because they have less than 100 data points to work with.

If you have some quick pages and some slow pages on a low usage site it is quite likely you will see significant variation.

[robzilla]

Note that the load times reported are not based on Googlebot's visits, but your visitors' (using the Google toolbar with PageRank enabled). That's why they fluctuate so much. Say your server is located in Europe, but most of your visitors are from the United States, then the average load time will be higher than if they'd also be in Europe. And the fewer visitors you have, the fewer data points Google will have to display an "accurate" average load time.

More info here: [google.com...]

[aakk9999]

Agree with robzila.

And think further - the connection speed of your visitors will also impact load time. So if you (for whatever reason) start to get more visitors with slower connections, the WMT page speed will show as slower.

[tedster]

Along these lines - Google Analytics just introduced a Site Speed report:

The new version of Google Analytics is currently available in beta to all Analytics users... This week we're sharing a new feature, the Site Speed report. With the Site Speed report you can measure the page load time across your site.

Uses for the Site Speed Report
Content: Which landing pages are slowest?
Traffic sources: Which campaigns correspond to faster page loads overall?
Visitor: How does page load time vary across geographies?
Technology: Does your site load faster or slower for different browsers?


[analytics.blogspot.com...]

[Bewenched]

What I find MOST interesting is that in looking at analytics and viewing the bounce rate over time. Our "bounce" rate has gone up steadily every since the first Panda was let loose. Which tells me is that Google is serving pages that are not what the potential customer was looking for.