Hi @ugene,
Thanks for your question. Our main motivation behind using Ajax to load the content was not affecting page load speed. When retrieving the Instagram content in PHP on the server side it adds to the time needed for your page to be returned from your web server, as it has to wait until the server has done executing the code and retrieving the Instagram posts. Our plugin runs the Ajax script that loads in the Instagram content dynamically after the rest of the page content is loaded, which means that the page load isn’t affected at all. Search engines like Google like fast web pages, so this is definitely a plus in regards to SEO.
Also, tests have shown that Google is actually able to read and index dynamic content (such as that loaded in using Ajax) as it’s sophisticated enough now to render the DOM and use that. See the first point at the top of this article for example: http://searchengineland.com/tested-googlebot-crawls-javascript-heres-learned-220157
We are considering adding an option to choose between loading the posts in PHP or JavaScript though in the future so that you can make the decision yourself on which way to load the posts.
Let me know if you have any other questions at all, and I hope you’re having a good day!
John
Thread Starter
ugene
(@ugene)
Thank you for your reply. I was also thinking the same while reading some articles over the internet. Search engines are now smart enough to crawl dynamically loaded contents. Moreover we do have the anchor tag linking to the instagram feed in Instagram iteself. Bots will find that link and go for the contents.
You’ve boosted my opinion tons of thanks for that.
Though the option to choose between loading the posts in PHP or JavaScript though in the future will be a great option.
Thank you for your time. Great plugin.
Best Regards.
No problem Ugene, happy to help and just let me know if you have any other questions at all.
John
I’m running into the same issue – google site speed is saying my page is slow because of the instagram images themselves aren’t being compressed. The load-speed for Instagram Feed plugin is ranked 2nd slowest, right behind the WordPress Core. Third slowest is WooCommerce. Instagram feed is probably slow due to all the images not being optimized by Instagram.
Question – can Ajax be disabled in WordPress and have the plugin still run smoothly?
Unfortunately this is a limitation of working with an API to get images (like our plugin does from the Instagram API). We are limited to requesting images in only 3 sizes, the smallest of which is the “thumbnail” 150px by 150px size. The others are “normal” 320px by 320px and “full” 640px by 640px. So if your posts are between two of these sizes, they will not be very optimally sized.
There are a lot of “unofficial” image sizes that are available. These are currently in use in the “Pro” version. It will not be released to the “free” version for now but this may change in the future.
The actual loading of the feed does not affect the initial page load speed. The plugin loads the feed after the rest of the page has loaded. This is generally considered a good user experience but it does make the feed not do as well on the google page speed test.
Hopefully this helps you understand!
– Craig
