[Support request] Low LCP and CLS making Google ignore our site

[Kris]

re. ajax.googleapis, I have used Google Adwords via Easy Google AdSense Plugin. I don’t have it activated though.

[Fernando]

I see. If it’s deactivated, that plugin shouldn’t be the one adding that.

I checked your site from my end, however, I can’t seem to see that file being requested anymore. Can you re-check?

[Kris]

Yes, I can still see it in the DevTools. I did delete caches before I checked.

[Fernando]

I see. I didn’t notice but it loads a little bit later. Can you try #1 here and check if any of your plugins are loading this?: https://docs.generatepress.com/article/debugging-tips/

It would be good to take a backup of your site before doing so.

[Kris]

Hi Fernando,

It’s now gone from DevTools. How odd?
Anyways, we’re starting to look quite good there now! https://i.postimg.cc/t4TDpRm2/Chrome-Dev-Tools5.jpg

But, more problems elsewhere! I went on to Bing and this is what I get for the homepage:

“Discovered but not crawled. URL cannot appear on Bing. The inspected URL is known to Bing but has some issues which are preventing indexation. We recommend you to follow Bing Webmaster Guidelines to increase your chances of indexation.”

I would say I have followed “Bing Webmaster Guidelines”, so this is quite a confusing message.

Any ideas what this might be about, mate?

Cheers,
Kris

[Fernando]

I see. It might have been cached data.

With regards to Bing, the theme has no control over how a page is indexed by Bing. Moreover, there is no code in GP Premium that would affect this as well.

Reading through this article, https://www.bing.com/webmasters/help/why-is-my-site-not-in-the-index-2141dfab, one factor might be that your site is new. How new is your site? It would also be best to reach out to your SEO plugin’s support, All-in-one SEO. They may have an insight with regards to this.

[Kris]

The site is since 2008. I can see this message at https://www.bing.com/webmasters/urlinspection
“Discovered on 07 Aug 2017”. This is very bizzarre, mate.

Also, I can see ajax.googleapis.com at the latest Lighthouse report. https://i.postimg.cc/nr86g9Fs/Lighthouse3.jpg
It’s odd since I’m not using any Google stuff on the site. At least I don’t know if I am?

[Fernando]

I see. What did All-in-one SEO say?

Also with regards to the Google request, have you tried disabling plugins as instructed here?: https://docs.generatepress.com/article/debugging-tips/

Inherently, GP and GB shouldn’t be loading this if it’s not set anywhere.

[Kris]

I have not yet received an answer from All-in-one SEO.

I haven’t yet done the debugging as the latest article is all Green at Lighthouse.

I think the BING problem lies elsewhere? Could it be the Word Fence security plugin?

[Fernando]

Not sure but Security settings aren’t mentioned as a potential cause for such an issue for Bing in the previous article I sent. I can’t see anything online noting such an issue with Wordfence. On the contrary, if your site has a malware/virus, however, that could be a cause.

It might be best to wait for an input from All-in-one SEO since most of the time, it’s SEO plugins that have an effect in terms of a website’s indexing.

[Kris]

OK mate. I will update you when they get back to me.
I also contacted BING support. Let’s hope they answer.

Thanks,
Kris

[Fernando]

Good move! Yes, let’s wait for their answers as this issue would be more in line with their expertise.

[Kris]

Hi Fernando,

I found this on URL inspection at BING Webmaster Tools:

Html size is too long
– 1 instance found

What is the issue about?
Search engines may not fully acquire the content on a page if the page is contains a lot of code. Extraneous code can push the content down in the page source making it harder for a search engine crawler to get to. A soft limit of 125 KB is used for guidance to ensure all content & links are available in the page source to be cached by the crawler. This basically means if the page size is too big, a search engine may not be able to get all of the content or may end up not fully caching it.
How to fix?
Ensure that the page source does not contain large amounts of CSS or code at the top of the page. Consider moving code and styles into separate files.

Does that mean anything to you?

Cheers,
Kris

[Fernando]

It’s saying that the markup and CSS may be too long for Bing’s liking.

Is it specifying a specific Page? If it’s the Blog page, can you try to go to Settings > Reading, and then set the “Blog pages show at most” to a lower value so fewer posts are shown on the front page, thus a shorter HTML?

[Kris]

OK, I changed it from 9 to 5. Let’s see if that makes a difference. Thanks.

[Author]

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