Topic: with mobile Google search results sometimes with and without an image

Hello Steven,

I have over 1000 galleries with the wonderful Juicebox and unfortunately with the Google search the following problem, that is not caused by Google:

When using Google Mobile Search, I sometimes see an image, a small image in the results and often no image (in the attached picture above) in all galleries.

The PageSpeedInsight test can be rated very well (in the attachment below left).

In the Goolge Search Console there is often no picture during the live test and sometimes some are scattered (in the center).
If Google doesn't recognize an image there, nothing will appear in the search.

GTmetrix shows a long time until the first picture appears.

Is there another setting in the JuiceBox Builder PRO to fix the problem and load the images faster?

My provider has a complete SSD and Litespeed web server.


Thank you in advance!

kdf

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Re: with mobile Google search results sometimes with and without an image

With regard to the speed at which your gallery images load, there are several contributing factors.
(1) The speed of the web server hosting the site.
(2) The speed of your own internet connection.
(3) The file size of the gallery images.
(4) The value of the imagePreloading configuration option.

You have little or no control over #1 and #2 is not relevant to Google search results (but can certainly play a part when viewing a gallery yourself).

With regard to #3, make sure that your image file sizes are not too large.
If using JuiceboxBuilder-Pro to create your gallery with default image dimensions (1024px x 768px at 80% quality), then resulting gallery images should be somewhere within the range of between 100KB and 200KB each.
If your image file sizes are much larger than this, then try tweaking the image dimensions and/or quality to bring the file sizes down to a reasonable level for web gallery use.

With regard to #4, the imagePreloading configuration option "Determines how images are preloaded. Also controls if images are kept in memory after being viewed." (Please see the Main Image Options in the Config Options page for details.)

The default value for imagePreloading is PAGE (whereby all images on the current thumbnail page are preloaded) but you could change this to NEXT (so that, when the gallery is initially loaded, only the next image in the gallery is downloaded and cached by the browser) or ALL (so that all gallery images are initially downloaded) to see if this makes a difference.

imagePreloading is supported by Large Screen Mode only so I don't think it'll have any effect on Google's mobile search results (Juicebox uses Small Screen Mode on mobile devices unless screenMode is explicitly set to LARGE in JuiceboxBuilder-Pro's 'Customize -> General section) but you might like to try changing its value as this is the only configuration option which has anything to do with the loading of the images.

Unfortunately, I know of no other ways to influence Google search results as far as image loading is concerned.

Re: with mobile Google search results sometimes with and without an image

Hello Steven,
Thank you very much for the detailed explanation of the possibilities to achieve an improvement.
First, I will test the effect of compressing the images from 90% to 80%.
My setting at screenMode is AUTO, which is probably good.

WebP also promises faster loading times due to its small size, as favored by Google.
Does Juicebox intend this alternative option?

Thanks and best regards
KDF

Re: with mobile Google search results sometimes with and without an image

Hello Steven,

I once tested a gallery at 90% and at 80%.

https://www.baerbels-naturfoto.de/archiv/haubenlerche/

https://www.baerbels-naturfoto.de/archi … lerche_80/

The PageSpeed Insights is identical to the score and until the thumbs image appear.

Even in the Google Search Console, there was actually no significant difference between repeated measurements during the live test.
So it is probably not possible to significantly influence the problem in this way.

Probably the factor 1 ("The speed of the web server hosting the site") you mentioned and cannot be influenced is decisive, since the results of the measurements in the Google Search Console vary widely.

Thanks and best regards
KDF

Re: with mobile Google search results sometimes with and without an image

Probably the factor 1 ("The speed of the web server hosting the site") you mentioned and cannot be influenced is decisive, since the results of the measurements in the Google Search Console vary widely.

I agree.
There's really not much we can do as gallery authors (other than change the image filesize and the value of the imagePreloading configuration option) and if Google search results vary for any given gallery, then it's down to the web server hosting the gallery and Google's algorithms, neither of which we have any control over.

If it's any consolation, both your galleries (your 80% and 90%) galleries load quickly for me (real life scenario).

Thanks and best regards

You're welcome!

Re: with mobile Google search results sometimes with and without an image

Hello Steve,

thanks for the final message!

I just wanted to ask again about my question about WebP, as it has advantages over   .jpg.

Thank you very much and wish you a nice weekend
KDF

Re: with mobile Google search results sometimes with and without an image

Sorry, I missed your question about webp.

JuiceboxBuilder-Pro does not currently support webp as an image format.
Please see this FAQ:
Will Juicebox load things other than images?

However, you could use webp images in a Juicebox gallery but you'd need to build the gallery manually (adding an <image> entry to the gallery's 'config.xml' file for each webp image and then copying your image and thumbnail webp files to the gallery's 'images' and 'thumbs' folders respectively). As long as the browser being used to view the gallery supports webp images (please see here for details), the images will be displayed in the gallery.

If you like, you could post this idea (support for webp images) as a suggestion in the Feature Requests forum thread.
This keeps all the requests together and ensures that they will not be overlooked by the developers.
I do not know the likelihood of any ideas being implemented in future versions but this is certainly the best place for all ideas.
Thank you!

Re: with mobile Google search results sometimes with and without an image

Thank you for posting your suggestion in the Feature Requests forum thread!