Loading images below the fold? Impact on SEO

KatherineWatierOng

I got this from my developers. Does anyone know if this will be a SEO issue?

We hope to lazy-load images below the fold where possible, to increase render speed - are you aware of any potential issues with this approach from an SEO point of view?

LesleyPaone

I have looked for information on this in the past and come up empty handed. With page speed Google really pits you against best SEO practices. I think if you follow most of the page speed insights you can severely limit your SEO. How many images are you talking about, how does Google render the page in their fetch as Google?

BlueprintMarketing

lazy loading images is not as good as deferring an image. Because lazy loading images can cause issues can cause JavaScript issues that will not cause problems if you deferred the image instead of lazy loading.

Defer images you will have a easier time the method discussed here does not hurt search engine optimization in fact it will help it because increased load speeds or what people perceive as an increased load speed always helps the end-user.

Here is the best way

https://www.feedthebot.com/pagespeed/defer-images.html

This is where we defer the images without lazy loading

In the scenario of a one page template, there is no reason to do all the things that lazy loading does (observe, monitor and react to a scroll postion).

Why not just defer those images and have them load immediately after the page has loaded?

How to do it

To do this we need to markup our images and add a small and extremely simple javascript. I will show the method I actually use for this site and others. It uses a base 64 image, but do not let that scare you.

The html

The javascript

KatherineWatierOng

What a great response! Just what I was looking for. Thank you!

Chris661

Thomas,

Can this be implemented on a Wordpress site?

Apologize for hijacking!

BlueprintMarketing

happy I could help

BlueprintMarketing

Hi Chris sorry for the late reply absolutely you can do this by using a plug-in cloudfare or PHP code

Another plugin that does this solution but providing an administration area to configure it manually is Autoptimize, that allows to define a specific CSS code in a independent way of your theme CSS stylesheet

The solution of these problem is removing those render-blocking scripts. But if you remove them, some plugins may not work properly. So, the best solution for the smooth rendering is:

1. Remove them from your website source page.

2. Use a single script, hosted by Google as the alternative.

3. Push down the new script at end of the page ( before “” tag).

Here is how to do it.

Copy the code from the following link and paste at your theme’s function.php file.

function optimize_jquery() {
if (!is_admin()) {
wp_deregister_script('jquery');
wp_deregister_script('jquery-migrate.min');
wp_deregister_script('comment-reply.min');
$protocol='http:';
if($_SERVER['HTTPS']=='on') {
$protocol='https:';
}
wp_register_script('jquery', $protocol.'//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.9.0/jquery.min.js', false, '3.6', true);

wp_enqueue_script('jquery');
}
}
add_action('template_redirect', 'optimize_jquery');

Save the file and you are done! Now recheck the source of any page and you won’t see those two scripts at the head section. Alternatively, you can see the Google hosted JavaScriptscript source at the end of the page.

That’s all! Now the visible section of your page will be rendered smoothly.

Defer Loading JavaScript

Another suggestion from Google Page Speed tool is “Defer JavaScripts”. This problem happens when you use any inline JavaScripts like the scripts for Facebook like box or button, Google plus button, Twitter button etc. If you defer the JavaScript then the scripts are triggered after loading of the entire document.

How to defer JavaScript at WordPress

1. Create a JavaScript file and give the name as defer.js.

2. Place the JavaScripts codes that you want to defer into the defer.js file. For instance, if you want to defer Facebook like box script, paste the following at that file.

(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/all.js#xfbml=1&appId=326473900710878";
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));

3. Save the file and upload at your theme folder.

4. Now, copy the following code and paste at the head section of the source page. Here in WordPress, open header.php file of your theme and paste the code before the closing head tag.

Make sure to put the correct path of defer.js. For example, the source path should be like this:

/wp-content/themes/theme_name/defer.js

______________________________________________________________________________________________

I hope that helps,

Tom

Chris661

Thanks Tom!

As always, an amazing response.

Best

BlueprintMarketing

Happy to help!

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