I am unsure if I should include page features such as a comments section and social buttons to some of my pages. I fear that due to the increase in http requests and overall page file size these features bring, it will be detrimental to my Google rankings.
My site is mostly hand coded. This helps me to keep the pages lean. I use PHP includes for the <head>,header and footer sections and hand code the content.
I have recently begun rewriting pages on my 10 year old site which have slipped in the Google SERPs over the last few yeas.
Adding social buttons & a comments section (using Disqus) makes a typical page about 500k (compressed). Without them a typical page (with one or two optimised images) is only 40 to 70k (compressed).
Social buttons and a comments section are both features which could enhance many of my pages.
However, I am now reluctant to add them due to the increase in page file size.
On the one hand, even with these features enabled, Google Page Speed Insights gives me a green light for both mobile and desktop performance (typically mid 90%).
However, if I keep the social button and comments features, my overall page file size is mostly much greater than my top ten competitors for a phrase I am targeting (we are information only websites - no ecommerce).
I have worked hard to create a responsive site with good page speed performance and it seems that Google has placed great importance on page speed to developers over the years.
I don't want to set back this work with above average file size pages, if file size (at this level - 500k compressed) has a weighting.
What to do?
