Do having social sharing icons such as Twitter and Pinterest slow down site speed?
-
We are debating a redesign of a travel site and wondering whether having social sharing buttons including Pinterest and Facebook above each image would slow down site speed and therefore have a negative impact on our rankings. We are deciding between having the icons above each image or just in the side bar of all pages. Many thanks, Penny
-
I did not test all combinations, but I did determine that it's faster to select the subset that your visitors will use and not to load the myriad of fluff icons.
Best,
Christopher -
Christopher, did you test add this against using say Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest tools all separately? Many need to include 4 to 5 different social media tools, and loading each one of them separately in my experience has typically always been more of a burden on the cover than using even add this.
I think I myself actually moved into primarily using ShareThis, but that only had to do with liking their look and feel better for various projects.
-
Yes, the vendor you use (e.g. AddThis), the features you use (e.g. number of likes), and number of icons you use (e.g. FB, Twitter, G+) can affect the performance of your page. FWIW, I dropped AddThis because it was much too slow. YMMV. I recommend testing several vendors and feature settings. Also, you should retest the page performance periodically.
Best,
Christopher -
I have in fact seen a slow down in performance but it depends on how and where you're placing them. I don't think the slow down has ever been enough to have an impact on your rankings, but I've seen situations where it would annoy a visitor.
I've had better luck using the 3rd party services like AddThis or ShareThis. Sure they have limitations, but for me at least they seem to perform a bit better in terms of speed than if you're using Facebook or Twitter's tools directly (and separately).
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Article previews on social media not showing
Hi there, hoping for some help. I have a hunch but I can't be sure. Whenever I go to publish a link on social media, I no longer see previews with the featured image or relevant meta. We have changed servers lately so I think maybe somethign has gone wrong with OpenGraph? Happens on Facebook and LinkedIn.
Social Media | | Whittie0 -
Google & Social
Hi Folks It's been made very clear to us that Google is paying attention to social signals. My questions are: How would I check that Google is aware of my Facebook activity and similarly of my Twitter and Pinterest work? If Google is not aware of these what are some steps I can take to inform them that a particular account is related to a my business site? Finally any must read articles on this topic would be appreciated. Thank you for your time to help me out
Social Media | | PHD1 -
UK Social Media Training
Anyone recommend a good mid level social media training company in the UK. Ideally would want on site training for about six people. We are based in Salisbury in Wiltshire. Thanks in advance.
Social Media | | highwayfive0 -
Recommended/Convenient Social Share Plug-In for Agencies w/Multiple Accounts!
Hi! What is a recommended social media share plug-in (SEO-friendly) to implement across multiple websites (desktop & mobile) for an agency? Also, does the suggested social share plug-in provide a dashboard to review multiple accounts via one location?
Social Media | | RezStream80 -
Google plus, Twitter and Facebook link - does it help?
Hello, I was wondering, does it help if I publish a link to a new page on my website on my Facebook-, Google + and Twitter-Account - even if noone reposts it? Thanks Polyniki
Social Media | | polyniki0 -
Anyone have a great example of a confirmation page with a social element?
We're thinking of adding social elements to our confirmation page, which as of right now doesn't ask for any specific action. Might as well take advantage. i.e. "Tweet this" or "Share this" with a shortened link to the landing page. Does anyone have any great examples of Twitter/Facebook being incorporated into a confirmation page? Visually pleasing, striking, great copy? It can be a confirmation for any type of action, whether you've just bought something, subscribed to something, joined a site, anything really.
Social Media | | PurchSEO0 -
Can you recommend a social media guide?
We have a summer intern we need to give a handbook/guide on social media strategies, best practices, etc. Any recommendations? It can be free or paid, as long as it is accurate and up-to-date!
Social Media | | AdamThompson1 -
Permanent URLs for Twitter?
Hi everyone - The site I am working on is going to start giving users the option to tweet that they completed an action. It reads, for example, "I just took the first step to ( ) with (site): (shortened link) via (Twitter name)" Here's my question: Should I worry about the fact that the shortened URL (we're possibly going to use Twitter's shortener T.Co, but I'm not dedicated to it) changes each time? Should we instead have a permanent short URL for the homepage (where we are going to direct people who click the link in the tweet)? Thanks!
Social Media | | JohnECF0