Geotargeting Slowing Down Website?

Lately I have had growing concerns with geotargeting. I'm not a pro PHP coder, so I am using a geotargeting script called MySimpleAds to help me geotarget ads/banners/links on my site.

The Problem.

I have noticed that the geotargetted ads/links are taking longer to load than they would if they were not geotargeted. I expected there to be a very small delay, but it does seem quite noticeable.

I like to think that the script has been constructed well, so is this something that I should just expect? The script uses a MySQL database to identify which country a visitor is from.

The Bigger Problem.

Now I don't mind there being a slight (if somewhat noticeable) delay to deliver the ads, but there is a bigger problem.

Whilst the scripts are working to be delivered, the rest of page will not load. As you can imagine, this can cause problems if the geotargeted ad is in a sidebar and above the content code, which means it takes longer for visitors to get to see the main area of a page.

Possible Solution.

To be honest, I am not sure how to get around this. The main thing I would like to achieve is to have the ads load on their own accord without affecting the loading of the rest of the page. So even if the ad takes a while to be delivered, the rest of the page will load without being affected by the ad.

I have heard that I can call the script as an external page like Google adsense does, but I am not sure how this works or if it will.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

You could put the content in an iframe. The main page will load normally and the iframe will be fetched separately by the browser.

Okay thankyou.

Is this the best sort of option, or would it cause any problems as far as SEO goes?

iFrames or AJAX...

iFrames requires a transitional doctype. I prefer by far strict doctypes, but if you can live with transitional ones... And it's probably the fastest solution.

AJAX is not bad, but it relies on JavaScript. Since you are using some kind of ad serving app, it might be impossible to use that solution without modifying your app.

IMHO AJAX would be faster and less content obstrusive. But it's also the "harder" to use.

SEO wise, I don't know about iFrames and SEO (I doubt Google would index the iFrame content as part of your website if the iFrame content isn't on the same domain - ??). For the AJAX content, Google would not see that content since it's created by JavaScript, but the rest of the page would be fine.

Thankyou very much TheWolf1, very informative.

If I knew more about AJAX I would look into that option, but I will go with the iFrame option for now. Seems like the best way to go about this.

Thanks again.