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People are looking for easy solutions to fix their website speeds
Disclaimer: There aren’t any!!
Ezoic is a digital publisher technology platform that optimizes user experience and website monetization. To maximize income and improve customer pleasure and engagement, it employs machine learning algorithms to evaluate user interactions with a website and dynamically optimize components like ad placements, layouts, and content. To increase website performance and profitability, Ezoic provides publishers with a range of tools and services, such as audience segmentation, automated ad testing, and layout testing.
Here is the story of a website owner and his experience with Ezoic:
What I was afraid of happened: I just installed the Ezoic plugin and my score on Page Speed insights dropped from 92 to 32.
Here’s the full story:
I have a small site monetized with AdSense for only 1 month, and as I expected, the earnings are quite low (around 15 USD / month). Reading on forums I discover that the only alternative for a small site like mine (2500 clicks / month) is Ezoic. Always reading on forums I understand that Ezoic generally involves:
– better earnings
For this reason, before implementing it, I tried to optimize my site as best as possible. Having tested with page speed insights I had a mobile score of 34 (I had Litespeed cache pre-installed as a plugin for the cache). To improve the situation I installed Perfmatters, and the score has improved a lot until it reaches about 90. I was very happy with this result as this good speed occurred despite having AdSense turned on, so I thought Ezoic couldn’t make the situation much worse. Signing up on Ezoic I chose the option to integrate it via plugin (and not via cloudflare). I did this because it seems to me that someone on the forum recommended it. The Ezoic plugin recognized LiteSpeed cache as incompatible and so I installed WP Super Cache (the only free alternative compatible with Ezoic apparently). The performance of my site with WP super cache instead of Litespeed cache did not change, always around 90. Once the Ezoic plugin was activated, however, the performance immediately dropped to around 30 (basically as before the installation of Perfmatters). The Ezoic ads are not yet active and the so-called “integration” by Ezoic has not yet taken place. In practice, google adsense ads are still on my site as normal.”
End of story.
I have worked with the Ezoic network before and I understand the frustration of website owners battling with the speed issues Ezoic always generates. I am a professional speed optimizer and I typically deliver 90+ speeds to my clients. Well, Ezoic doesn’t leave many opportunities to optimize as it destroys the speed on so many levels like the AdThrive network does, driven by the same hype logic (fast speed – lots of revenue). The other ad networks don’t break the speed as Ezoic does. After testing many speed solutions, some of low-intensity, some very powerful ones that work flawlessly and like clockwork on many other sites, not on Ezoic, and facing the multi-level disruption from Ezoic, I concluded that there’s nothing to do with that network, canceled the project, and blacklisted Ezoic from my speed projects. I have now a strictly no-Ezoic policy, meaning if you are affiliated with Ezoic, I won’t work on your website. I don’t want to spend my time trying to fix a failing ad network and risking not getting paid. Is Ezoic slow? Definitely.
I don’t care what Ezoic says in their sponsored content all over the web and what ingenuous tools/features they devise in their PR labs: like LEAP that don’t work the way they advertise it (“Leap provides everything from optimization features to diagnostics so that websites can pass Core Web Vitals“). No way, it’s just hype, feel free to test it at your expense and lmk.