Guide to actionable speed audits; getting your developer to work with you

Editor's Notes

• #4: I was having a bit of a difficult day at work.my brain was dying a little so I too a bit of a break went for some coffee and got on tweeter to see if anything interesting was happening. When I saw this tweet from Brighton SEO
• #5: I was browsing through tweeter on day and I came across a question posted by brightonSEO (pause).
• #6: And I knew exactly what she was talking about because this was my life
• #7: You see this is what I was taking a break from.
• #11: So that job title pretty much sums up my life. And I actually said to myself I need to write a blogpost about this.
• #12: So how did this become my life
• #13: Let me start by telling you a little bit about myself
• #14: I got into the industry just before the big penguin update and spent the first 2 years of my career doing mostly keyword research and backlink audits. Then I became an AM. And became a technical SEO to my list of jobs so obviously I made a lot of mistakes.
• #15: I am from a marketing background so I wasn’t technical at all.
• #16: I got into the industry just before the Google Penguin Update in April 2012 which was aimed at sitesbuying links or obtaining them through link networks
• #17: and spent the first 2 years of my career doing mostly keyword research and backlink audits trying to get sites to recover from penalties. Then I became an Account Manager
• #18: and technical SEO was added to my list of jobs so obviously I made a lot of mistakes.
• #19: I tried to learn how to code
• #22: There was never going to be enough time to become an expert in all of this.
• #23: So back to the speed audit. And what have a learned over the years on how to get my recommendations implemented. By the way this also applies to getting any audit actioned by your even though the examples are specific to speed because that is what I was drowning in when this presentation was inspired.
• #24: I
• #25: On average mobile accounts for most of my clients visits in 2019 and that figure continues to grow and I know is probably similar for most of your clients. I have only seen had one client since 2018 whose desktop traffic is higher than mobile and they sell used haulage trucks.
• #26: However only 35% of revenue is from mobile and one of the keys to improve that conversion rate is improving the speed on the site.
• #27: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-resources/data-measurement/mobile-page-speed-new-industry-benchmarks/
• #28: https://www.ericsson.com/en/press-releases/2016/2/streaming-delays-mentally-taxing-for-smartphone-users-ericsson-mobility-report
• #29: 28
• #32: Speed is now a ranking factor
• #33: Great for explaining impact of speed to people who don’t understand SEO
• #34: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-resources/experience-design/mobile-speed-scorecard-impact-calculator/ Good because it highlight revenue but ensure
• #35: Emphasizing what your competitor is doing is a very effective way of getting buying from the top. Ensure you use competitors of a similar size not just the best case scenario
• #36: Remember improving the site speed its not only beneficial for SEO its beneficial for all channels
• #39: Let's start with the first C - Learning to communicate
• #41: Are you wasting time talking to the wrong person?
• #42: Talk about experience in first client meeting speaking to marketing managers and digital producers
• #44: You need to understand which developers oversee specific parts of the website. Frontend, webadmin etc. Ask yourself am I speaking to the right person Front-end Developer (AKA Client-Side Developer) - user interfaces, including its aesthetics and layouts. Backend Developer (AKA Server-Side Developer) - This is a developer who specializes in the design, implementation, functional core logic, performance and scalability of a piece of software or system running on machines that are remote from the end-user. Digital Producer/Project Manager –in charge of scheduling Marketing Manager /Head of Digital
• #45: 1) Read up on what it takes to implement these changes — they’re not easy fixes — so that you can discuss it knowledgeably. 2) I once had a call with a marketing manager and as I was explaining recommendations, the MM was googling some of the terms. Would the MM be able to effectively communicate your recommendations to the dev team?
• #49: 1) Read up on what it takes to implement these changes — they’re not easy fixes — so that you can discuss it knowledgeably. 2) I once had a call with a marketing manager and as I was explaining recommendations, the MM was googling some of the terms. Would the MM be able to effectively communicate your recommendations to the dev team?
• #50: Lost of developers just think SEO is just on-page. They don’t expect you to be interested in the technical stuff. You need to set this misconception straight. Builthwith is a good place to start Problems with cloudfare WordPress has a specific URL structure. Url, categories,product. Pushed for non-standard implementation loads of 404 errors on the site
• #51: Lost of developers just think SEO is just on-page. They don’t expect you to be interested in the technical stuff. You need to set this misconception straight. Builthwith is a good place to start Problems with cloudfare WordPress has a specific URL structure. Url, categories,product. Pushed for non-standard implementation loads of 404 errors on the site
• #53: 1) Read up on what it takes to implement these changes — they’re not easy fixes — so that you can discuss it knowledgeably.
• #54: Stackover flow and other developer forums on facebook are good places to start
• #56: It’s a collaboration
• #58: Non of the tools ever report the same metric. Don’t be obsessed with tool score. Focus on the trend and its impact on metrics that matter like revenue.
• #59: Non of the tools ever report the same metric. Don’t be obsessed with tool score. Focus on the trend and its impact on metrics that matter like revenue.
• #60: Non of the tools ever report the same metric. Don’t be obsessed with tool score. Focus on the trend and its impact on metrics that matter like revenue.
• #62: Developers don’t care about your rankings. That is your KPI not theirs Present the right metrics like CTR, Increase in users, better user experience and most important. More money
• #64: Is your problem stimulating enough to be an obsession. Have you have you made the best revenue case for it?
• #66: Is your problem stimulating enough to be an obsession. Have you have you made the best revenue case for it?
• #67: Is your problem stimulating enough to be an obsession. Have you have you made the best revenue case for it?
• #72: Because there might be other things to consider
• #73: Because there might be other things to consider
• #74: Which you can get from google analytics
• #75: You can get your google analytics. Do your users have access to 3g network?
• #76: Because there might be other things to consider
• #79: Costs to do this work and then storage the additional images (considering that a 100kb jpeg is likely to almost certainly take over 200kb of space if stored in the 3 formats) will also be a big factor to Paultons.
• #81: Developers are busy people chances are they have a long list of things to do that is quite critical to revenue. Be specific in your recommendations. However be open to discussion. Asks how many open tickets are there What do I need to do to get my ticket to the top of the queue
• #82: I always use overall conversation rates because an improvement in site speed is not beneficial to SEO its bbeneficial to the entire site - Ensure you are measuring the right thing. Time to first interactive.
• #84: Most front-end developers might not necessarily understand SEO but they understand performance. They want it to work well. But they don’t need to be sent on a lesson. Just as you wouldn’t want to be sent a bunch of code to say this is our implementation. Keep it simple.
• #85: Most front-end developers might not necessarily understand SEO but they understand performance. They want it to work well. But they don’t need to be sent on a lesson. Just as you wouldn’t want to be sent a bunch of code to say this is our implementation. Keep it simple.
• #88: Along with images, CSS and JavaScript are two of the most common reasons for code bloat and slow loading pages. This can happen for several reasons including those listed below: (1) Scripts being called in the head section of a template that are required for some pages but are being called for every page on the site. (2) Scripts and styles that are only used when a certain part of the page is interacted with such as tabs, accordions, faceted navigation. (3) Poor coding.
• #89: One of the major problems with website is loading unused code this often happens when site is updated, support for old operating systems that haven’t been updated. This is the process I use when checking for unused code. Don’t just run the coverage test and say delete all this code - Hopefully, your developer will say no 64% is not being used on this page on initial load.
• #90: By clicking on an individual row in the bottom pane you can also see the specific blocks of code that aren’t being used in the top page.
• #91: By clicking on an individual row in the bottom pane you can also see the specific blocks of code that aren’t being used in the top page. By looking at a more granular level it may be possible to split code up into that which is parsed at the start of the page load process and unused scripts and styles that can be deferred until after the above the fold content has loaded.
• #94: I recently audited a site that had a social sharing widget called addthis.com which was slowing down the speed on a client site. The script was also path of the critical loading path . The page also has its own share buttons hardcoded into the template so someone had clearly forgotten about this widget.
• #99: jQuery is a powerful and simple JavaScript library that you can use to select elements in your Web page, add impressive special effects, and insert content. Jquery is a heavy library you should never load more than one jQuery library. Its has an API so make sure you are not calling different versions of the API on a single page
• #102: Always pick examples that are similar to your client in size or even business objectives. Basically your examples should be relevant, realistic and obtainable. read performance profiles with understanding. There are some changes that can be easily done some that are not.
• #104: Most Speed tools text with Nexus 5. Lighthouse, Webpage test.
• #107: How many people visit your site with those devices/browser? Especially if your site isn’t an international site? Are you going to sacrifice your rich application so that 7 more people can visit your site. The code you might need to add to make it fast on these devices might slow the entire site down in the long run For a new site build will the site get outdated because your are prioritising speed over new technology?
• #108: you will save time by deleting old browser support
• #109: CSS browser or vendor prefixes are nothing but a means through which the makers of web browsers (vendors as they’re known) add support for the latest CSS features, for an experimentation and testing period. These browser prefixes are basically used for addition of new features, which may or may not be a part of the formal specifications. Furthermore, they’re used for implementation of new features in a specification which hasn’t yet been finalized. Some of the CSS browser prefixes are as follows: - Safari: -webkit- - Chrome: -webkit- - Internet Explorer: -ms- - Opera: -o- - Firefox: -moz- - Android: -webkit- - iOS: -webkit-
• #110: How many people visit your site with those devices/browser? Especially if your site isn’t an international site? Are you going to sacrifice your rich application so that 7 more people can visit your site. The code you might need to add to make it fast on these devices might slow the entire site down in the long run For a new site build will the site get outdated because your are prioritizing speed over new technology?
• #111: How many people visit your site with those devices/browser? Especially if your site isn’t an international site? Are you going to sacrifice your rich application so that 7 more people can visit your site. The code you might need to add to make it fast on these devices might slow the entire site down in the long run For a new site build will the site get outdated because your are prioritizing speed over new technology?
• #116: Most times. This is the hardest thing to admit. Your client is paying you loads of money and you are under pressure to come up with a solution. It is better to say. I don’t know. Than to recommend something that will have a detrimental impact on the site. . I don’t know the answer
• #120: Working together with your developer. Asking them for the best way to send recommendations for feature change