GoDaddy is one of the most popular hosting providers for small businesses, but it appears the hosting service may also be making changes to sites on its platform which could significantly slow or break sites entirely.
The service is injecting a piece of JavaScript code as part of its Real User Metrics (RUM) technology, which allows the service to track and measure the performance of websites. However, none of this information is provided to the sites on GoDaddy’s service in the form of analytics but is instead used solely by the company to improve systems and server configurations.
With this in mind, it is hard to see any benefit to continue allowing GoDaddy to install code for RUM on your site.
All US GoDaddy customers agree to opt-in to using RUM as part of the terms of service and the company does little to inform you of how it uses the technology. In a help document, the company also concedes it may have a negative impact on websites:
“Most customers won’t experience issues when opted-in to RUM, but the javascript used may cause issues including slower site performance, or a broken/inoperable website.
If you’re using Google’s AMP, you have pages ending with multiple ending tags, or your site performance is slower, you may want to opt-out of RUM.”
Considering how important site speed is to both search engines and actual consumers, it is highly likely RUM could be costing you traffic AND conversions.
Thankfully it is easy to opt-out of the RUM service if GoDaddy is your hosting provider. Just follow these steps:
- Access your cPanel hosting account by going logging in to your cPanel and clicking on your hosting account.
- Click the three-dot menu button, and then click “Help us.”
- Click “Opt out.”
Once this is done, the code will be immediately removed from your site.