It was not only once that some of our Clients contacted us with “hey, I’m paying X euros per month for pricy server and my site loads slowly, can you check what’s going on?” and tasks like those usually come to me. Almost every time I see that the server did its job worth the money it is paid, but the screen is still white waiting for the external (analytics, containers, other measuring tools) scripts to be loaded on the visitor’s side. In the era of fast computers and Internet that’s pretty annoying, right?
First, let me introduce you with the basic bits of what actually happens: most of the content (text, page styling, images, etc.) is served from site’s native server, but there is also much invisible content, for which, non-nerds are not even aware of. Someone, whose job is to improve the shop’s sales says: “hey, let’s attach some monitoring tools to analyze visitors behavior”. That is usually done by putting scripts in Google Tag Manager (or containers provided by other services) which are called by the page and executed while loading the page. Those scripts are external, which means the raw content is loaded, but now your browser is waiting for the other servers (not where the shop is) to respond with their content. Imagine your browser needs to wait for 1 (native server) + 10 (or 20 or 30 or 40 – without exaggeration) servers to complete the page load. Do you feel the congestion now? And not everyone has the latest Ryzens with dozens of GB of RAM and the fastest Internet there is to load the page in a millisecond. Even with conditions just mentioned – it won’t. Those containers are something like Trojan Horse (do not confuse with a PC virus) in Antic Greece – you don’t know what’s inside. But if you look inside you will find tons of analytics, metrics, click counters, mouse movement tracking tools, a/b testing tools, ads… When you put alltogether, the page looks like this:
…and imagine it’s speed.
Here is list of scripts loaded within each page from one live webshop: ad.360yield.com, ads.stickyadstv.com, ads.yahoo.com, ads.yieldmo.com, apis.google.com, az416426.vo.msecnd.net, bam.eu01.nr-data.net, beacon.krxd.net, cdn.smct.co, cdn.stickyadstv.com, cm.g.doubleclick.net, connect.ekomi.de, connect.facebook.net, criteo-partners.tremorhub.com, criteo-sync.teads.tv, cw.addthis.com, dis.criteo.com, dis.eu.criteo.com, dwin1.com, eb2.3lift.com, facebook.com, fonts.googleapis.com, fonts.gstatic.com, google-analytics.com, google.ca, google.com, googleads.g.doubleclick.net, googleadservices.com, googletagmanager.com, gstatic.com, gum.criteo.com, i.liadm.com, jadserve.postrelease.com, js-agent.newrelic.com, manychat.com, match.adsrvr.org, match.sharethrough.com, maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com, pixel.advertising.com, pixel.rubiconproject.com, pixel.tapad.com, play.google.com, r.casalemedia.com, robincontentdesktop.blob.core.windows.net, rtbcc.fyber.com, sc.tradetracker.net, script.hotjar.com, secure.adnxs.com, selfservice.robinhq.com, simage2.pubmatic.com, smct.co, sp.analytics.yahoo.com, sslwidget.criteo.com, static.criteo.net, static.hotjar.com, staticxx.facebook.com, sy.eu.angsrvr.com, sync.ligadx.com, sync.outbrain.com, tags.bluekai.com, trc.taboola.com, us-u.openx.net, v2.zopim.com, vars.hotjar.com, visitor.omnitagjs.com, widget.eu.criteo.com, widget.manychat.com, x.bidswitch.net. Browsers, unlike people reading blog posts, are not skipping, so imagine how slower would you come to this paragraph if you didn’t skip 68 list items from the previous one. That’s exactly what happens with your browser (if you don’t have any AdBlock, for example). Browser doesn’t decide itself if should skip the boring paragraph, but reads everything that is served. Did you know that page loading time also affects your organic search rank? Just saying…
“OK, enough with nerd facts, what should I do with the scripts?”
First, ask yourself is it really that worth the effort putting all those scripts?
If you have fancy analytics tools running (heatmaps, etc.): are you actually on a structured basis reviewing the information to improve your webshop? Then it could be worth keeping them, but if you are not doing that and scripts are just “running” without any reason or actions being taken you should consider removing them.
Happier and faster New Year! Author: Nebojša Stojilković Web developer @ Younify
RELATED POSTS
October 13, 2015 by admin
How to create Google Analytics sales funnel for Magento webshops
We are specialists in two things: building good-looking Magento webshops and ensuring good conversion rates (sales) for our clients. When trying to identify how ...
Your privacy: This site is processed and used by the so-called Cookies. Cookies are small text files that are stored on a computer (or other device) of a web site user and allow the monitoring and analysis of user behavior on the web site. Cookies do not usually lead to the disclosure of the identity of a particular user, but they can provide a personalized experience. You may choose not to allow certain types of cookies. In the headers on the side, you can read more about each category of cookies and adjust-enable them. Blocking some types of cookies may affect your user experience on this site.
Necessary Cookies
Necessary cookies: Cookies that help make the site usable, enabling basic features like navigating pages and accessing secure parts of the site. The website cannot function properly without these cookies. They are necessary for the functioning of the Website and the removal of such cookies results in the inability to use the Website or certain parts of it.
Statistical cookies
Statistical cookies: Statistical cookies help website owners understand how visitors interact with websites by collecting and reporting information anonymously. The Web site of the Operator uses Google Analytics, which is also based on the use of cookies technology, which is stored on the visitor device, all for qualitative analysis of the use of the website itself.
Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!
Marketing Cookies
Marketing cookies: Cookies used to track visitors to websites. The purpose is to show content that is relevant and engaging to the individual user and therefore more valuable to publishers. For marketing purposes, we use Google AdWords services, also based on the use of cookies technology, which are stored on a visitor device, all for a qualitative analysis of the use of the website itself.
Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!