July 2018
Now, in July this year, so thats a only a few weeks away, Google is going to be changing its page ranking metrics very slightly, which will affect or potentially affect your WordPress Site
You may or may not know that Google has used page load speeds on WordPress Themes as part of its ranking metric for cllsoe to 8 years now
But in July, they are going to be ajusting the page load speed, to include mobile searches
How does this Affect Your Theme
Well, it may not directly affect your theme, depending on what type of theme you are using
But, what Google will be looking for now, is themes that have lightweight themse
A Lightweight theme, is one, that does not have too many plugins, now by that I mean, an excessive number, by excessive I mean plugins that might have been added, because they seemed like a good idea at the time, and have not been deactivated, or deleted
So why am I sharing this with you?
That answer is simple, you will recall, I wrote recently about finding 'my utopia theme' the one I absolutely loved and was it!
Well as a result of an issue I had on it, which has not been resolved through support or other means, I temporarily had to put on a similar type theme. Now this in turn led me to reading about what makes for best themes and the answer surprised me, because
Where I had been choopsing themes I liked
They were being chosen for the wrong reason, they weren't practical
So, after a lot of research, I have now settled on a theme, which meets all the criteria for Googles upcoming July Changes, or at least at time of writing it does and that theme is currently on my blog on my profile here
What has been noticeable since changing my theme is this...
It is easier to customise, comapred to others I liked
It is also very popular within the WordPress World, though it is not the #1 Choice on WordPress but given what is coming, I'm happy about that
Aside from all that, another thing that does affect laod speed is an excessive number of plugins I'm talking way over the 20 mark, which I used to have and do know people who have more than that
Did you know that if a plugin is not active on your site, it still affects loadspeed
If you don't need it, delete it
Applied Education is the difference
Recent Comments
51
Thanks for this information. I may have to look at things in my own websites and take action.
Derek
Thanks for this very interesting information. I wonder whether the site speed button in WA affects it too.. I have had to recently switch mine off because it was skewing with my log in. This may be a glitch that has now been sorted out and I can switch it on again? I was getting a little panicked when you said a lot of plugins, as I have over the recommended 7 but only by 2-3 so sounds like Im ok. Thanks !
Helen
Don't panic about the number of plugins. I know of site with well over 600!!... that load okay
The key with them is, making sure that they are relevant, strategic, quality obviously and compatible.
Don't forget, your blog is your office online, so like any office, you make the neccessary adjustments / build out as you go
Nice post Dave! Good advice about deleting themes rather than deactivating to increase load speeds!
Morning Dave. I take it you didn't get any joy with the theme on my site?
Good post - good info.
No Jon Sadly not, I tried extensively, but without Joy, hence this post, if they come back to me all well and good and I can reconsider, but that at this time, disappointingly no
Glad you liked the post and info
Very timely comments on the number of plugins and theme loading times.
I am interested to hear that choosing a theme can create such issues, and that a practical theme is better than, say, our favourite theme.
I try to run my number of plugins at or below 5, but it is hard to do at times.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
Thanks for commenting Steve, don't worry to much about the number of plugins, as long as they are relevant, strategic and necccessary
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Excellent info Dave, thanks for sharing. Love to stay and chat but I have plugins to delete!