Beware of Flaws In Google Mobile Speed Test

The root of the problem in the automotive space is the lack of using web standards to compress the content being served on our sites. There's so much code bloat in many of these sites that compression becomes essential (have data and evidence of this across almost each web provider). Regardless, if you're using Pingdom or Google Speed Test, they'll never be 100% spot on and should be used as directional indicators at best. However, the defensive nature of some vendors and the empirical statements they confidently make about their platform is hurting customer experience everywhere. We do a disservice to the greater dealer body by flashing shiny pennies around and not focusing on what truly affects our business. Scan the majority of dealer sites and you'll see holes in the minification process. Just my two cents.

Brian, Another great story. We have always valued your passion for protecting dealers and the “watchdog” mentality you share. You covered some fundamental challenges dealers are facing with 3rd-party plug-ins, CMS tools that allow the dealers to create these problems, the impact of slow sites, and more. I can’t lump a vendor that might be trying to trick the system into the same bucket. If that is in fact what they are doing, that is simply unacceptable and those vendors represent the reason dealers need people like you out there protecting them. We look at Google’s site to rank speed similarly, it is there to educate and protect dealers and other businesses. I don’t think it is fair to say that Google’s mobile speed test is flawed just because a vendor found a way to fake the results, albeit not well as you easily pointed out. Also, dealers and website vendors can improve the results by making smart changes to their sites. In fact, I think that is exactly why Google built the site. The site even shows an image of the site it tested on the first page to help avoid any confusion and deter faking. Google recently started pushing a concept called “think with Google” (this speed test is part of that program). It gives dealers a set of unbiased, transparent tools to see how they are serving the consumer in Google’s eyes. Google’s priority here is clearly the consumer. These tools create awareness, awareness creates competition, and competition creates better products which ultimately create a better experience for the consumer. Both Google and dealerships obviously benefits from the consumer having a better experience, but where is the harm in that? Rather than pushing that “thinking with Google” is flawed, we are going to push the industry to be better and support Google’s efforts to do so. The speed test also provides a list of recommendations of what website vendors and dealers can do to improve their performance. Before this unbiased site from Google was launched in June 2016, the dealers only had the word of a salesperson and no way to validate their claims. It left the door wide open for the “sharks” to circle. This effort from Google helps, not hurts, dealers and OEM’s. The bottom line is many dealer sites and landing pages are rated as Poor by Google on this site. That’s just a reality and it hurts their chances of being successful with digital advertising. Blaming this on a dealers lack of the correct use of the tools provided to them isn’t the answer. It isn’t difficult for the website provider to check the size of an upload prior to posting or simply scale it down for the dealer when it is loaded. The web providers allow these third party "widgets” and they drag down the speed of dealerships sites. Holding a dealership accountable for this isn’t logical either, it’s not their job, it’s the role of their web provider or digital agency to protect their best interests. In many cases, these slow “widgets” are major profit centers for the web providers and they might be placing their own financial interests ahead of their dealerships. Google has created a transparent tool that I would argue allows for less "shark like" activity, not more. Let’s face it, most of a dealer’s digital ad budget ends up with Google. Our industry should applaud their efforts in developing tools that promote transparency in an area they deem critical for digital advertising. Let’s start innovating and working with companies like Google, Bing and Facebook to push the digital agencies and web providers who can’t get the basics right for the dealers.

These "speed tests" have been the bane of my existence for a few months now, Brian. Thanks to you and Joe Chura for an honest and objective viewpoint which will put many of our collective customers' minds at ease.

This is another great tool Google provides to help us deliver a better experience to online users across all devices. A vendor who tries to game the system by providing Google an alternative experience is only hurting its customers and that customers brand. This false "success" won't last long and the customers will soon see through the deception.