In a Webmaster Central Blog entry (Using site speed in web search ranking) dated Fri, Apr 9 2010, they finally made it official.

So give your pages a little overhaul and get them up to speed!

Following is a selection of tools and options you can use to increase your page’s speed:

Speed Testing:

Download and install Google’s Page Speed tool for Firefox and run it to get an idea of what can be optimized.

After:

Install the Web Developer Add-On for Firefox and check the document size (Web Developer > Information > View Document Size):

After:

Or try Zoompf’s performance tester: http://zoompf.com. It returns a long list of issues including solutions.

Compression:
Chances are all speed testing tools will tell you to enable (gzip) compression if you haven’t already done so.
To check if your site currently has compression enabled, check out GIDNetwork’s web page compression / deflate / gzip test tool: http://www.gidnetwork.com/tools/gzip-test.php

To enable compression, you can either add a couple of directives to your .htaccess file, or add one single line of PHP to your page:

.htaccess:

<Files *.htm>
SetOutputFilter DEFLATE
</Files>

This directive compresses all *.htm files.
To add compression for other file types, simply add more file types to your .htaccess file:

<Files *.css>
SetOutputFilter DEFLATE
</Files>

If you don’t have access to your .htaccess file or if your server doesn’t support mod_deflate, add this line of PHP code to your page(s):

<?
if (substr_count($_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING'], 'gzip'))
    ob_start("ob_gzhandler");
    else ob_start();
?>

What it does is to check for the presence of "Accept-encoding: gzip" in the request header and returns a gzipped version of the requested file, otherwise it returns the regular (uncompressed) version.
(Note: We don’t have .NET or .ASP or IIS solutions. Please don’t ask.)

Deferred JavaScript Loading/Asynchronous Tracking:
If you are using Google Analytics, there is yet another little trick. Have you noticed the new "Asynchronous Tracking" in your Analytics settings? Google announced it in December 2009 (Google Analytics Launches Asynchronous Tracking), and you can find it under Analytics Settings > Profile Settings > Tracking Code

Replace your existing Google Analytics code with the new code and it won’t delay rendering of the page, meaning you can put it in a higher spot in your page’s code.

Tools (Firefox addons – require Firebug):
YSlow: http://developer.yahoo.com/yslow/
PageSpeed: http://code.google.com/speed/page-speed/
Web Developer Add-on: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/60

Online tools:
Slowshow: http://www.showslow.com/
GIDNetwork: http://www.gidnetwork.com/tools/gzip-test.php
Zoompf: http://zoompf.com/
Webpagetest: http://www.webpagetest.org/test

That’s why we created this little tool to help you visualize and demonstrate how your site looks to crawlers, robots and other spider-based search engines. All they are interested in is text. If your content is embedded in an image or a flash animation, chances are most search engines are ignoring it.

Try the Search Engine Simulator with your URL!

Yes, we know, a while ago Google announced their robot is now able to crawl flash (http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/06/improved-flash-indexing.html).

Before all you flash developers get overly excited, let’s clarity something:
Google cannot index the content of you little flash movie. There is no way to do that. What they say is this:
…”We’ve improved our ability to index textual content in SWF files of all kinds.”…

It means they (partially) index parts that contain text, if there are any. The little sphere that’s hovering from left to right in front of the psychedelic-colored background will not get indexed. Sorry.

We also agree that you can do really nice things with JavaScript, but if the only way to access other pages is via a JavaScript-based drop-down or fly-out menu, chances are Google will only index this one page. Sorry again. Provide an alternate navigation – for your visitors as well as the search engines.

We created the tool with all the information available on how Google indexes pages.
It reads (sorted by importance):
- the page title
- the META tags
- the actual content (text)
- links and the link description (text and images)
- images (and the existence of the “alt” tag)
- header (H1 – H6) tags

You can email the results to yourself (or someone else), the report will be attached to the email and saved on our server (so you can send someone the link to the report).

Try the Search Engine Simulator with your URL!

Once again they have re-invented internet search, and although the feature is too new to see trends (yet), my prediction is that it will become a raging success once people get the hang of it.

But it also means this:
While in the past search results were subject to the user’s scrutiny in a private setting, with no one else (but Google) knowing which search results a user deemed *worthy* visiting, re-visiting, or choosing as their solution provider, these choices now all of a sudden (can) become very public.

Like anything else on the web one can comment on, from movies to cars, from new tech gadgets to retail stores, users can now directly comment not only on the quality of the search results in relation to their searches, but can practically leave ANY comment they want about a particular result (maybe regarding customer service, shipping times, anything-else-you-can-imagine) right then and there.

Meaning: one unhappy client or website visitor can right then and there insert a potentially derogatory comment about your business/service/website and thus prevent other users from even considering your site (the power of the written word on the internet).

I am not a fan of flame wars, neither am I known to leave negative comments about people/businesses/etc on the web (unless they really, really deserve it and even then I give them the benefit of the doubt – everybody can have a bad day); but I do read reviews and have based some of my decisions on the combined opinion of others.
I am yet to find some kind of *defense mechanism* to rebut negative comments (ebay’s rating system comes to mind), but other than being able to give it a *thumbs down* and/or report it as inappropriate and have a Google team review it you’re stuck with it until they have done so.

Although (as of now) the *promote* button will promote a selected search result only for me (the user) personally, I am certain that Google will take these selections into account when calculating search result pages in the future, similar to the way they are already applying their proprietary quality score to landing pages. The more people *promote* a certain link, the higher it will eventually rank.

The most comprehensive compilation of the new feature can be found here: Google SearchWiki 101: An Illustrated Guide

We better make sure we keep ‘em users really, really happy.

Nevertheless these emails keep coming, and users get trapped every day.

So here are the newest ones claiming to be from Google Adwords:


Received: Fri 11/7/2008 1:31 AM
From: Google AdWords [adwords@google.com]
Subject: Google AdWords Alert
Header: Return-Path: <dex@bobpalin.com>
Delivered-To: [myemail]@ninanet.com
Received: (qmail 41613 invoked from network); 7 Nov 2008 09:30:40 -0000
X-Mail-Scanner: Scanned by qSheff 1.0-r3 (http://www.enderunix.org/qsheff/)
Received: from unknown (HELO ?79.133.155.27?) (79.133.155.27)
by *my mail server* - 79.133.155.27 with SMTP; 7 Nov 2008 09:30:39 -0000
Received: from [79.133.155.27] by mx1.mailhop.org; Fri, 7 Nov 2008 12:30:38 +0300
From: "Google AdWords" <adwords@google.com>
To: <[myemail]@ninanet.com>
Subject: Google AdWords Alert
Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2008 12:30:38 +0300
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0006_01C940D4.A3AC6B00"
X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook, Build 11.0.6353
Thread-Index: Aca6Q86UB1OM0E8H8FEPGP29TW0WOA==
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1437
Message-ID: <01c940d4$a3ac6b00$1b9b854f@dex>


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Our system was unable to process a payment for your outstanding Google AdWords account balance using your primary credit card. For the time being, your account is still open, and your ads are still running. However, we require you to update the payment information in your AdWords account very soon in order to ensure continued ad serving.

Please update your credit card information in order to trigger our billing system to try processing your payment again. If you plan to use the same credit card(s), please use the ‘Retry Card’ button on the Billing Preferences page of your account. Otherwise, please follow the steps below to update the information in your AdWords account.

1. Log in to your AdWords account at: http://adwords.google.com
2. Click the ‘My Account’ tab.
3. Click ‘Billing Preferences’ link.
4. Click Edit next to the appropriate ‘Payment Details’ section.
5. Enter your new or updated payment information.
6. Click ‘Save Changes’ when you have finished.

In the future, you may wish to use a back up credit card in order to help ensure continuous delivery of your ads. You can add a back up credit card by visiting your Billing Preferences page or visit the AdWords Help Centre for more.

Tip: You can review the status of your billing on the Billing Summary page, under the ‘My Account’ tab. If a payment has been declined, click ‘Payment Declined’ beside the line item to review information for that particular payment. Once your payment has been processed successfully, you can view and print an invoice from your Billing Summary page.

—————————————————————— This message was sent from a notification-only email address that does not accept incoming email. Please do not reply to this message. If you have any questions, please visit the Google AdWords Help Centre at https://adwords.google.com/support/?hl=en_GB to find answers to frequently asked questions and a ‘contact us’ link near the bottom of the page. —————————————————————-

Thank you for advertising with Google AdWords. We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising available.

Sincerely,

The Google AdWords Team
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

This one was sent to all my email accounts as well as to all email accounts for a client.

First, if your payment for your Adwords account gets declined, your ads are NOT running if your account is in the US, Google suspends them immediately.
If your account is in England, they might still be running, since they do not suspend them (see the real emails for Google at the end of this post).

Second, who is dex@bobpalin.com?
And why would Google be using a mail server in Russia (79.133.155.27)?
For those who are still not convinced, the link in the original (of course not plain text) email does not take you to your Adwords Login page, but here:
http://adwords.google.com.session-28452946214953142525.38926930096145367630.sys56.ru.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dynamic Keyword Insertion sure has its pitfalls:

Ooops.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From: Google AdWords [mailto:reactivation@google.com]
Sent: 26 June 2008 11:29
To: [Client Name]
Subject: Your ads have been suspended.

————————————–
Dear Advertiser,

We were unable to process your payment.
Your ads will be suspended soon unless we can process your payment.
To prevent your ads from being suspended, please update your payment
information.

Please sign in
to your account at http://adwords.google.com/select/login
and update your payment information.

We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising available.
Thank you for advertising with Google AdWords.
——————————–
The Google AdWords Team
——————————–
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

OK, now we just recently HAD a problem with one of this client’s credit cards (it had expired).
And one of his accounts WAS due today.

Yet, the email didn’t LOOK right. Remind you, I had received an email only days earlier from Google because there really had been a problem.
The original from Google however did include:
Amount
AdWords Account Number

None of these were in this email.
As the account manager, we should have gotten an alert as well.
But it is still early, and I haven’t even had coffee yet.

I am still trying to analyze the email, as another one comes in, from the client’s Marketing Manager:

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From: AdWords-NoReplay [mailto:adwords-noreply@google.com]
Sent: 26 June 2008 15:28
To: [Client Name]
Subject: Please Update Your Billing Information.

————————————————–
Dear Advertiser,

We were unable to process your payment.
Your ads will be suspended soon unless we can process your payment.
To prevent your ads from being suspended, please update your payment information.

Please sign in
to your account at http://adwords.google.com/select/login,
and update your payment information.

We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising available.
Thank you for advertising with Google AdWords.
————————————-
The Google AdWords Team
————————————–
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Now I’m awake.
Check out the Return Address: AdWords-NoReplay

I hovered over the link in the email, and there it was:

http://www.adwords.google.com.lkpos.cn/select/Login

We get phishing emails every day, most of the time from organizations we are in no way affiliated with.
But this was the first time we had received phishing attempts for one of our AdWord accounts.
But something tells me it won’t be the last one.