Signed Exchange: Case Studies on Performance

Signed Exchange: Case Studies on Performance

RebelMouse is a cloud-based enterprise CMS for high-value sites that take digital seriously. As a platform, we are always looking for ways to increase performance. This is because performance is a vital part of our clients’ growth and business model, due to the fact that it has a direct impact on user traffic, pageviews, and revenue.

In our pilot test, we found that Google Search’s support of prefetching signed exchanges (SXG) via Cloudflare delivers better site performance for users on Android devices. Currently, SXG only works for Android users, but it’s a feature that’s specified and encouraged by standards bodies such as IETF and W3C, and Google hopes that other browsers will soon adopt support of it as well.


Case Studies

The following case studies demonstrate the improvement in traffic and site performance after taking advantage of SXG.

For the three sites in our pilot, we compared Android-device traffic in the 30-day period before and after SXG was implemented. The results were fantastic for all three participants, and resulted in a reduction of average page download time by over 97% for each site!

PAPER Magazine

PAPER is a storied and beloved cultural site featuring stars like Lady Gaga, Kim Kardashian, Miley Cyrus, and thousands of other celebrities. The site performs very well when it comes to search traffic, and has an audience that returns to the site frequently. While their content is known for “Breaking the Internet,” PAPER’s site has always been stable and performant, which has helped them build an incredibly loyal audience over the years.

For PAPER, the impact of using SXG was immediate.

Page Speed Metrics From Google Analytics

  • Decrease in Avg. Redirection Time: -75%
  • Decrease in Avg. Server Response Time: -22%
  • Decrease in Avg. Page Download Time: -99%

Impact on Core Web Vitals

  • Decrease in LCP: -10.1%
  • Decrease in TTFB: -8.4%
  • Decrease in FID: -36.9%

User Behavior Impact

  • Increase in Sessions per User: +27.7%
  • Increase in Avg. Session Duration: +127.1%

Narcity

Narcity is a local news site based out of Canada that covers 18 cities across Canada and the U.S. Traffic from Google is a key component of their audience.

Page Speed Metrics From Google Analytics

  • Decrease in Avg. Page Load Time: -1.9%
  • Decrease in Avg. Redirection Time: -25%
  • Decrease in Avg. Domain Lookup Time: -33.3%
  • Decrease in Avg. Page Download Time: -97.6%

Impact on Core Web Vitals

  • Decrease in CLS: -11.7%
  • Decrease in LCP: -41.1%
  • Decrease in FID: -11.7%

MTL Blog

MTL Blog is another local news site that’s run by Narcity, and it specifically focuses on the Montreal, Québec area.

Page Speed Metrics From Google Analytics

  • Decrease in Avg. Page Load Time: -21.3%
  • Decrease in Avg. Redirection Time: -50%
  • Decrease in Avg. Domain Lookup Time: -33.3%
  • Decrease in Avg. Server Connection Time: -40%
  • Decrease in Avg. Server Response Time: -25%
  • Decrease in Avg. Page Download Time: -98.3%

Impact on Core Web Vitals

  • Decrease in LCP: -3%
  • Decrease in TTFB: -13%
  • Decrease in FID: -16.1%

Lessons Learned: Watch Device Detection

In our first implementation of SXG, we noticed that while some numbers like server response time improved, the average page download time increased. After further review, we realized that we were not serving the mobile version of the sites to the Googlebot that was doing the prefetching.

RebelMouse normally serves highly optimized pages based on device and network speed that automatically adapts to serve smaller image sizes and HTML code, but we unintentionally skipped that in our first implementation of SXG.

If you see your average page download time increase in your implementation, it’s highly likely that you need to configure your server response to give the mobile version of your site to Googlebot. (We use RegExp based on the value(s) specified in this Google crawler documentation.)

Technical Configuration

We implemented SXG using Cloudflare’s SXG feature. We had to change our TTL for post pages to have a 23-hour cache control using this setup:

cache-control: public, max-age=82800

Since editorial teams need to be able to update content that is timely and doesn’t get delayed by a long cache, we implemented ETags to accommodate for this.

At RebelMouse, we obsess over processes like SXG to ensure that our clients deliver a superior site experience to their users. If you want to transform your publishing experience and keep up with the speed of the web, request a proposal today and let’s start working together.

What Is RebelMouse?
Request a Proposal

Where 
Websites Are Built

The Fastest Sites in the World Run on RebelMouse

Let’s Chat

new!

RebelMouse Performance Monitoring

Real-Time Core Web Vitals

Get Started
DISCOVER MORE

Our Core Features

Our platform is a complete digital publishing toolbox that's built for modern-day content creators, and includes game-changing features such as our:

animate
Layout and Design toolLayout and Design tool on mobile
animate

Why RebelMouse?

Unprecedented Scale

RebelMouse sites reach more than 120M people a month, with an always-modern solution that combines cutting-edge technology with decades of media savvy. And due to our massive scale, 1 in 3 Americans have visited a website powered by RebelMouse.

120M+ Users
550M+ Pageviews
17+ Avg. Minutes per User
6+ Avg. Pages per User

Today's Top Websites Use RebelMouse

Thanks to the tremendous scale of our network, we are able to analyze a wealth of traffic data that informs our strategies and allows us to be a true strategic partner instead of just a vendor.

upworthyindy100Vault12No Film SchoolRawStoryResponsible StatecraftPrideMNI Market NewsPremierGuitarPenskeINN Educate Brand ConnectThe FulcrumGZEROOkayafricaBrit+CoPaper MagazinePowerToFlyNarcityCommonDreamsAllBusiness

What Clients Say

We’re here to help you weigh and understand every tech and strategic decision that affects your digital presence. Spend less time managing everything yourself, and more time focused on creating the quality content your users deserve.

Case Studies

A Team Built Like No Other

RebelMouse employs a unique, diverse, and decentralized team that consists of 70+ digital traffic experts across more than 25 different countries. We have no central office, and we cover every time zone to ensure that we’re able to deliver amazing results and enterprise-grade support around the clock.

Our team is well-versed in all things product, content, traffic, and revenue, and we strategically deploy ourselves to help with each element across all of our clients. We thrive on solving the complex.

Let's Chat