Shopify score does not match pagespeed insight score? See this thread

Technical Q&A
1

I noticed a few threads where people reported the same issue, and I thought it’d be a good idea to make a thread to explain issue.

So basically, the issue is that people have been getting their site optmized, their score is 90ish on PageSpeed Insights(PSI), they’re happy.

However, now they see that their PSI score on shopify is noticable worse then on PageSpeed Insights, what gives?! now they are upset, probably at Shopify for not working correctly as usual!

The reason, in most cases is becuase instead of optmizing how content loads, and helping store owners remove content from their site to speed up a site, the people who optmized the sites like this used a hack to not load any content when PageSpeed Insights loads the page.

The script checks what type of user is loading the page, if the user looks like PageSpeed Insights, then they load a blank page basically, if the user is a real user, they load a normal page.

How do I confirm if my site is using the hack?

Go the your site

Open the element inspect with ctrl + shift + c or cmd + shift + c if your on a mac.

Click inside the element inspector, then press crtl + f or cmd + f

Type in document.open() into the search input

If you see a block of code that looks like this:

Screenshot_123.jpg
Screenshot_123.jpg1579×505 240 KB

Then your site is using the hack to hide content for PSI.

Shopify must of recently changed some settings of how their Speed score works, so the hack doesn’t hide the page content for Shopify, that’s why the scores are diferent.

Is this hack good or bad for SEO?

I don’t know. Technically, this hack improves your pagespeed insight score, however, your not really changing your user expierence, so it won’t do anything to improve your bounce rate, its also likley that Google gets wise to these sort of hacks and starts punishing sites for using them, SEO wise.

3 Likes
2

Cloaking (as it is called) for Google Pagespeed Insight does not influence search results. PSI is just a tool. Although the mythology is similar to what Google use its not done from the same tool. So Google Search won’t actually see this as cloaking and I have not seen any penalties from it. But also you get no benefits.

The only ones you really cloak with this is the merchants that paid for speed optimization without actually getting any. I would call it fraud and recommend any merchant that experience this to request a refund.

3 Likes
3

Fundamentals about the two scores not matching:

Shopify Score IS NOT representative of pagespeed insights score by itself

Scores in your online store speed report might be different than scores you calculate using PageSpeed Insights, or Chrome DevTools. This is because the environment where the Lighthouse report is run impacts the report results, and because scores on all platforms only represent a point-in-time measurement of your store’s speed.> > via https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/online-store/store-speed/speed-report#:~:text=Scores%20in%20your%20online%20store%20speed%20report%20might%20be%20different%20than%20scores%20you%20calculate%20using%20PageSpeed%20Insights%2C%20or%20Chrome%20DevTools

Further Store ranking is not the same as page performance Shopifys’ Score is averaged against other similar stores.

Your ranking represents how your online store’s speed score compares to Shopify stores similar to yours> via https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/online-store/store-speed/speed-report#:~:text=Your%20ranking%20represents%20how%20your%20online%20store%E2%80%99s%20speed%20score%20compares%20to%20Shopify%20stores%20similar%20to%20yours

4

Per @demib 's point , The main effect of this anti-pattern is it leads to misassumptions of why pages are not ranking as well as they should for something that tools show as a “high” performant page.

So the ranks are lower than expected because the real poor performance of the page is affecting search engine crawlers and rankings.

It’s like someone broke the speedometer in your car and you keep getting tickets for obstructing traffic but you KNOW your going “fast” because the tools have been made to lie to you.

1 Like
5

personally I have only cloaking PSI on a few occasions for personal pride. When having a website optimized for a perfect 100/100 score it’s just super annoying to drop one point because you are adding the Google Analytics script. So yes, in a few occasions I just stripped that script for PSI - just for my own pleasure hehe

BUT at least I know what I did and that it only gives me fake brag value hehe

6

Got the same from a pseudo “speed developer”. It is just a scam and cheat. It also hurts the store itself.

All who find such a cheat should report the developers (mostly are on Fiverr) and ask refund.

This is clearly a scamming tool to collect money without do any real work.

Disgusting!

7

Hi ALL,

first of all Shopify stopped to use Lighthouse to calculate the speed score, this is why the sudden drop of speed score in Shopify in comparison with Lighthouse or Xmetric.

Now the why: some developers do ZERO work on performing your store, they only add a hacking code that detect speed checkers. When it detect speed checkers, it serve an empty page, with no content. That’s why your Lighthouse or Xmetric speed score it is so high. Now that Shopify stop linking its speed report with such speed checkers, the scam it become clear to all.

The code contain such lines document.write / document.open and are inserted in the theme.liquid (use ctrl+g to locate them). If you find such lines, you been scammed.

I suggest everyone who got this scam to reply to my post here and add the name or data of the developer to help others to do not fall in the same scam.

My scammer was hired on Fiverr:

nuovaidea_0-1630641048185.jpeg
nuovaidea_0-1630641048185.jpeg295×400 12.3 KB

It is taking 2 weeks of work and lot of money to fix this issue. Cause it also damage how the store works.

Please everyone, spread the voice as much as possible because Shopify still did not made any official statement on this, and many store owners have no idea at all about this.

Let’s make sure those scammers get banned and get no more money from store owners.

1 Like
8

I fell for the same scam. Hired the scammer on shopify expert marketplace, not fiverr. Here’s the code I found:

document.open();
     if(window['\x6E\x61\x76\x69\x67\x61\x74\x6F\x72']['\x75\x73\x65\x72\x41\x67\x65\x6E\x74'].indexOf('\x43\x68\x72\x6F\x6D\x65\x2D\x4C\x69\x67\x68\x74\x68\x6F\x75\x73\x65') == -1 && window['\x6E\x61\x76\x69\x67\x61\x74\x6F\x72']['\x75\x73\x65\x72\x41\x67\x65\x6E\x74'].indexOf('X11') == -1 && window['\x6E\x61\x76\x69\x67\x61\x74\x6F\x72']['\x75\x73\x65\x72\x41\x67\x65\x6E\x74'].indexOf('GTmetrix') == -1) {document.write({{pDescription | json}});}  else{
     document.write("

.

");}document.close();

Any legit experts here that can help me make my site faster? I’m willing to pay.

9

i am also scammed on fiver

10

File a complaint with fiverr then, if they refused a refund and you used a credit do a chargeback.

11

Shopify speed is a myth created simple to generate more money by the platform with apps and “experts”.

Simply run your store on https://gtmetrix.com/ and forget the Shopify BS speed report.

1 Like
12

Don’t spam everywhere that everyone do the fake speed optimization. My question is why don’t you teach people how to optimize the speed of the website and why don’t you do this if you are expert to achieve 90+ score on Google Pagespeed Insights? It is not possible to achieve the highest score on Google Pagespeed Insights without using scripts on the big apps and Shopify partners already know about that. Please note that clients always want to see the highest possible results on Google Pagespeed Insights. We can only achieve maximum 60 score on Mobile and 80 score on Desktop with real speed optimization but clients forced us for the 90+ score( Green score on Google Pagespeed Insights) so we use the scripts on the remaining Shopify apps to trick the bot. We don’t want to do that but the clients forced us to do this. If we don’t achieve the highest results they will asked for the refund. This is the only solution to achieve the highest results without removing the apps and reducing the quality of the images. If anyone has the better suggestions please let me know. Thank You.

13

I don’t think using the hack is inherently wrong.
My personal approach is to educate the client as to the complexities of pagespeed opimization and what is a realistic score, and if the client isn’t willing to accept a realistic outcome, then I don’t take that client on or I part ways with them.

Using this sort of hack is wrong when a developer doesn’t tell the client they are using a trick like cloaking, and what that implies as far as actual user expierence vs PSI score. I think if the client is aware of what’s going on, then there’s no issue, but as you can see when this topic is discussed, many clients are not told anything about the approach used and feel cheated.

1 Like
14

Thank you for clarifying that. I personally feel that intentionally using bots is a very wrong step. But sometimes to save our profile and to satisfy our client we have to take this step. We don’t have any choice left when the clients forced us to achieve maximum results on Google Pagespeed Insights. We told our clients several times that this is the maximum speed we can achieve but they compare the results of other stores and it leaves us speechless. My final conclusion is that 70% is the real speed optimization and the remaining 30% is what the client wants to see on Google Pagespeed Insights.

15

Hi, I am a victim of this terrible cheating by one of ‘Shopify Experts’ they name is

KODE & GRAPHICS - they have 500+ jobs with only possible reviews.

Inspects on my page shows PSI block. I am taking that further and waiting for my money back from them. I would like to expose them as much as possible as they are using shop owners and taking money for actually lowering page speed. Please be aware of this company. They are located in India.

16

I am confused by this. I am using the latest version of Dawn theme and has never customised the code in any way or installed any apps to make the store faster, its a pure stock theme. However im seeing drastic differences in scores I get from Pagespeed and Shopify for the same pages. for example for my homepage, page speed is reporting 74 for mobile, Shopify is reporting 34!

I have searched for this block of code and it’s not there.