Could making pages load faster inadvertently damage your rankings?

[3zero]

Like many people I try to make sites run as fast as possible. So with that in mind I decided to invest in a pro cache module for a wordpress site I am building.
At first I was really impressed, it did exactly what it said on the tin and those test results went to green. :)
But every time I published a page the site seemed to go backwards. Furthermore, when I checked the cache of the page a few weeks later, no styling was present. :(

This left me somewhat demoralised and scratching my head. Until I looked a bit deeper. You see what I had done is minify and combine both javascript files and css files (well it sounded like a great idea at the time). The trouble is with this particular module it created dynamic css and javascript files that changed every time I cleared the cache. Not only that it also varied per page depending on how many css/javascript files were combined.

So instead of my collection of static css/javascript files I was serving multiple versions of the files, that Google or other Search Engines would receive each time they crawled. Also the benefits of caching css/javascript was negated to the user as the browser was served different urls dependent on which page they were on and when they visited.

So I've switched it off, I am convinced SE's don't want to encounter different assett files every time they crawl your site. You probably thinking what an idiot in the first place but these packages are quite popular with 100,000's of downloads so I thought I would share this. Be interested in webmasters thoughts

Thanks

[keyplyr]

When you use software to create your web property, you are directly affected by how that is accomplished. Add numerous plugins, modules, etc and the instability of controlling that outcome increases.

Not everyone is a programmer. Those that cannot code rely on products that do it for them, but there is always a risk. Problem is, it's difficult to identify possibly bad outcomes. It seems you were quick to catch it... live & learn :)

Could making pages load faster inadvertently damage your rankings?

Fast page loads is a positive component of SEO. It's how you try to do it that could be damaging.

[adamheaton]

I had a similar concern regarding plugins that minify things like CSS and JS. For example, the Wordpress plugin "Autoptimize" when you use it to minify CSS creates a new CSS file where it has been minified, which I don't like as I'd rather it use the file that was originally in place. Although I appreciate these plugins are supposed to help those who can't do the job, I think if you are technically able you should spend the time rather than let a plugin do the work for you, which is what I make sure I do since I noticed this.

[keyplyr]

Hi adamheaton and welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com]

Absolutely. All of us were totally ignorant at one time. We learn by doing:
Investigate
Imitate
Innovate

[lucy24]

Answer: Yes, if the question is read as an abbreviation of

Could performing some action which was intended to mak[e] pages load faster, but which inadvertently had other consequences, damage your rankings?

[NickMNS]

@adamheaton

I think if you are technically able you should spend the time

I disagree, if one is technically capable, then one can understand how the plug-in works what it does and what it doesn't do. I which case, there is no need to write code to achieve something when someone has already done it for you. That is just a waste of time and brain power. The danger is when one uses plug-ins blindly without knowing or caring how it works. This in my opinion is what differentiates the pros from the amateurs.

What about other tricks used to speed up pages, other than wp-plugins.
I use AJAX to lazy load some content. On my site I have several SVG graphics that are generated dynamically with Javascript. They appear below the fold. So to speed up the page load, I only render the graphs after the user scrolls. So in this case fetch and render doesn't show the content. Am I trading off a marginal ranking boost (if at all) due to increased page speed with a loss of the benefit of the added content? Which is worth more? How can you measure this?

[tangor]

Measure any of it by log files, ie, visits. If you get them, the change is worth it. If you don't, not worth it. If fetch and render can't see it than there's no plus, but then again, there's no minus (other than not having it ranked in the first place).

[Writerly]

If you did it recklessly, it could definitely damage your rankings! However, if done properly, fast page loads could be rewarding for your overall SEO.

[Lexur]

I ever asked myself what could be the gain if I minify and combine both javascript files and css files IF I have (as any web page optimizer requires) activated GZIP compression.

If compression of text files can be as good as 90%, what is the gain in the minifiying process? An additional 1 or 2%?

[NickMNS]

@ Lexur the gain is marginal. But given that your css/js files are served with every request the marginal gain can be beneficial.