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Lazy load Google Maps

In this Google PageSpeed experiment, we’re testing W3 Total Cache’s Lazy Load Google Maps feature with the Google Maps Easy plugin in order to understand its impact on website performance.

+10 Points

In this test, using the Lazy Load Google Maps feature added +10 points on mobile devices to the Google PageSpeed Performance score! Read the documentation to learn how to use the Lazy Load Google Maps tool.

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Audit: Google Mobile PageSpeed Score
Before: 66
After: 76

Our goal is to explore this feature and understand exactly how it helps enhance page load times. To do this, we have set up two websites: a control website and an experimental website.

Control Website

Our control website is a simple installation using the Twenty Twenty-Four WordPress theme and Google Maps Easy to pull in a full-width Google Map, which should give us a slight increase in our page load speeds.

The purpose of adding the Google Map is to allow us to test the “Lazy Load Google Maps” tool when we set up our experimental website.

Control Website: https://wordpress-speed-test.com/051524_site1/

Experimental Website

We duplicated our control website into a new sub-folder to create an experimental website that mirrors the original one, allowing us to test the two sites side by side.

On the experimental website we installed W3 Total Cache Pro with the Lazy Load Google Maps tool enabled, specifically for the Google Maps Easy plugin.

lazy load google maps

Experimental Website: https://wordpress-speed-test.com/051524_site2/

With this method, we hope to compare the performance of both websites directly, giving us valuable insights into the real benefits of using the Lazy Load Google Maps feature. Review the results of our testing below.

-72% Decrease

In this test, using the Lazy Load Google Maps displayed a 72% decrease on the Total Blocking Time Performance score on mobile devices! Read the documentation to learn how to use the Delay Scripts tool.

Upgrade to W3 Total Cache Pro and improve your PageSpeed Scores today!

Audit: Total Blocking Time - Mobile
Before: 287.5 ms
After: 80 ms

Desktop Mobile

Performance

Performance score

Standard site W3TC OptimizedDifference
95.5 98 +2.5 +2.62%

Points per Metrics

First Contentful Paint

Standard site W3TC OptimizedDifference
10 points 10 points 0 points 0%
No change.

Largest Contentful Paint

Standard site W3TC OptimizedDifference
22.75 points 23.75 points +1 points +4.4%

Total Blocking Time

Standard site W3TC OptimizedDifference
29.5 points 30 points +0.5 points +1.69%

Cumulative Layout Shift

Standard site W3TC OptimizedDifference
25 points 25 points 0 points 0%
No change.

Speed Index

Standard site W3TC OptimizedDifference
8.5 points 9.5 points +1 points +11.76%

Metrics

First Contentful Paint

Standard site W3TC OptimizedDifference
0.6 s 0.63 s +0.03 s +4.17%

Largest Contentful Paint

Standard site W3TC OptimizedDifference
1.13 s 0.98 s -0.15 s -13.33%

Total Blocking Time

Standard site W3TC OptimizedDifference
60 ms 12.5 ms -47.5 ms -79.17%

Cumulative Layout Shift

Standard site W3TC OptimizedDifference
0 0 0
No change.

Speed Index

Standard site W3TC OptimizedDifference
1.43 s 1.03 s -0.4 s -28.07%

Diagnostics

Largest Contentful Paint element

Standard site W3TC OptimizedDifference
1117.5 ms 992.5 ms -125 ms -11.19%

Potential savings from render-blocking resources

Standard site W3TC OptimizedDifference
245 ms 210 ms -35 ms -14.29%

Potential savings by serving images in next-gen format

Standard site W3TC Optimized
Passed audit Passed audit

Time third-party code blocked the main thread for

Standard site W3TC OptimizedDifference
65 ms 0 ms -65 ms -100%

Potential savings from unused CSS

Standard site W3TC Optimized
Passed audit Passed audit

Potential savings from unused JavaScript

Standard site W3TC OptimizedDifference
88 KiB 65 KiB -23 KiB -26.14%

Potential savings if Minifying CSS

Standard site W3TC Optimized
Passed audit Passed audit

# of static assets without an effecient cache policy

Standard site W3TC OptimizedDifference
15 1 -14 -93.33%

JavaScript execution time

Standard site W3TC OptimizedDifference
0.45 s 0.07 s -0.38 s -85.19%

Main-thread work

Standard site W3TC OptimizedDifference
1.03 0.3 -0.73 -70.73%

# of long main-thread tasks

Standard site W3TC OptimizedDifference
2 1 -1 -50%

Initial server response time

Standard site W3TC OptimizedDifference
357.5 ms 327.5 ms -30 ms -8.39%

# of large layout shifts

Standard site W3TC OptimizedDifference
1 1 0 0%
No change.

# of user timings

Standard site W3TC Optimized
Passed audit Passed audit

# of animations found

Standard site W3TC Optimized
Passed audit Passed audit

Network payload

Standard site W3TC OptimizedDifference
1184.75 KiB 733 KiB -451.75 KiB -38.13%

DOM size

Standard site W3TC OptimizedDifference
364 127 -237 -65.11%

# of chains found

Standard site W3TC OptimizedDifference
14 13 -1 -7.14%

Defer offscreen images

Standard site W3TC Optimized
0 Passed audit

Minify JavaScript

Standard site W3TC OptimizedDifference
2 KiB 2 KiB 0 KiB 0%
No change.

Properly size images

Standard site W3TC Optimized
Passed audit Passed audit

Efficiently encode images

Standard site W3TC Optimized
Passed audit Passed audit

Enable text compression

Standard site W3TC Optimized
Passed audit Passed audit

Preconnect to required origins

Standard site W3TC Optimized
Passed audit Passed audit

Preload key requests

Standard site W3TC OptimizedDifference
0 0 0
No change.

Preload Largest Contentful Paint image

Standard site W3TC Optimized
Passed audit Passed audit

Avoid multiple page redirects

Standard site W3TC Optimized
Passed audit Passed audit

Use video formats for animated content

Standard site W3TC Optimized
Passed audit Passed audit

Remove duplicate modules in JavaScript bundles

Standard site W3TC Optimized
Passed audit Passed audit

Avoid serving legacy JavaScript to modern browsers

Standard site W3TC Optimized
Passed audit Passed audit

Largest Contentful Paint image was not lazily loaded

Standard site W3TC Optimized
Passed audit Passed audit

Avoids document.write()

Standard site W3TC Optimized
Passed audit Passed audit

Image elements have explicit width and height

Standard site W3TC Optimized
Passed audit Passed audit

Has a <meta name="viewport"> tag with width or initial-scale

Standard site W3TC Optimized
Passed audit Passed audit

Uses passive listeners to improve scrolling performance

Standard site W3TC Optimized
0 Passed audit

All text remains visible during webfont loads

Standard site W3TC Optimized
0 Passed audit

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