In this short article I’m continuing with my series on everything you need to know about the humble Facebook pixel and how it can benefit your digital marketing (as part of my wider series on Digital Marketing FAQs, where I take YOUR questions about digital marketing and answer them as simply and concisely as possible).
In today’s article we are looking at the following interesting question - ‘does a Facebook pixel slow down a website?’
One of the reasons you might be reticent to install a Facebook pixel is that you know the importance of having a fast loading website (check out my video below if you’re uncertain why this is so important) and you might be concerned that a Facebook pixel will slow down your website
So, does a Facebook pixel actually slow down a website?
There are two things to consider here:
- The actual Facebook pixel code is very “lightweight” so should not be much of a problem in itself.
- How you install the pixel does matter - let’s look at that in more detail.
As per point one above, the Pixel code itself is not really the issue. Any load speed problems from using a Facebook pixel tend to come from the manner in which that pixel code is installed on your website.
Let’s use a common example of a Wordpress site, as many business websites are run on Wordpress these days.
You can manually edit the “code” of your website to insert the Facebook pixel. However, if you’re not confident with Facebook, then this is likely going to be something that you’ll look to avoid due to risk of breaking the site.
A common solution would be to go into the Wordpress plugin directory and find a plugin that lets you add tracking pixels, codes etc to the header or footer of your site without needing to do any code editing yourself.
This is where a Facebook pixel can wind up causing your website to slow down - because that plugin you wind up using might not be well optimised, and might itself take substantial time to load and then trigger the pixel.
In this case, it’s not the pixel itself that has caused the slower loading speed but the “manner of application” (if you catch my drift).
The solution is to follow ‘best practice’ when installing your Facebook pixel.
My recommendation is to install Google Tag Manager and then install your Facebook pixel through Google Tag Manager.
I’m working on a simple guide to show you how to do just that.
But to recap and answer the question “does a Facebook pixel slow down your website?” - the answer is that the pixel itself shouldn’t but you do need to be careful in terms of how you install it.
Get free digital marketing advice and tutorials by subscribing to my YouTube channel. New videos being released every week, covering everything you need to know to grow your business with effective digital marketing. View my channel and subscribe here.
Also feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn, as I post lots of digital marketing content exclusively on there. Check out my profile and send me a connection request.