Since Google PageSpeed Insights has become one of Google’s ranking factors, many webmasters, site owners, and developers have been focusing on optimizing their websites and striving to achieve a perfect 100/100 score.
So, we will help you understand what Google PageSpeed Insights is all about without any fluff, providing a comprehensive guide straight to the point. Stay with this article until the end and learn about this magical tool.
Google PageSpeed Insights is a free and powerful website performance analytics tool provided by Google. It helps gain deep insights into a website’s overall health and provides detailed analytics reports for desktop and mobile views.
It’s simple to use—all you need to do is enter your website URL and click the “Analyze” button. Voila! After a few minutes, a complete analyzed report will be generated.
To make it easier to understand, Google uses various metrics and a scoring method for this purpose.
The overall website performance is analyzed under a 100-point score based on various performance optimization best practices. The higher the score better the website’s performance, speed, and efficiency.
The best part about the Google PageSpeed Insight tool is that it not only provides you with analytics reports but also Google recommends areas of improvement that boost the performance of your website.
You might be wondering how Google judge website performance, well Google has another proprietary tool named Lighthouse for that.
It is an open-source, automated tool that analyzes web performance and its quality. Based on that provides a detailed report and suggests improvements if required, typically based on these two data.
1.Lab Data: This data is collected by Lighthouse in ideal and controlled environments. The tests are performed under optimal conditions, and if any issues or bugs are found, it will notify you with suggestions for improvement. However, it does not provide insights into real-life user experience issues.
2.Field Data: This data captures real-life user experiences collected by Google Chrome. It mainly focuses on users’ behavior and interaction with the site. It helps to understand how real users feel about your website but with limited metrics.
What should be the Best Google PageSpeed Insight score?
As per Google’s recommendation a score above 90 is considered good, a score between 50-89 is considered as needing improvement, and below 50 is poor.
Google PageSpeed Insights Score
These scores simply indicate that if your website’s PageSpeed Insights score is below 90, your visitors might not have a good experience with your web pages. This can lead to a negative impact on your SEO efforts as well.
However, it doesn’t mean that you should focus on getting a perfect 100/100 score. In reality, it doesn’t even make sense. The only things that matter to visitors are the quality of content you deliver and the quick solutions you provide.
Debunking the myth of Google PageSpeed Insight 100/100 score
As we mentioned at the beginning, Google considers PageSpeed Insight as one of its ranking signals. Since then, developers, webmasters, and website owners’ primary goal has been to achieve a perfect 100/100 score.
Unfortunately, while achieving the perfect score, they forget to notice another more important aspect of the analytics report: the suggestions.
No doubt, you should always try to improve the website speed and performance to the optimum level but to your surprise achieving a perfect 100/100 score is not that important.
Yes, you heard it right: a 100/100 score doesn’t guarantee better rankings in the search results. It would be very foolish to completely rely on scores based on Google Page Speed Insights.
This is because website speed varies from location to location. To verify this statement, you can use another free tool called Pingdom.
Unlike PageSpeed Insights, Pingdom allows you to run tests from different locations. Additionally, you can try using GTmetrix, another popular testing tool that incorporates the power of Google PageSpeed Insight, YSlow, and Webpagetest.
Now, here comes the interesting part: when you run tests on all these platforms, there are high chances that the scores will slightly mismatch, which shows how random these scores can be, making them unreliable for absolute reliance.
In short, the real factor is your visitors, which have nothing to do with your PageSpeed score. The only thing that matters to them is how quickly they can see the content or information that they are seeking on your website.
This can be achieved by focusing on your website speed and working on the recommendations provided by PageSpeed Insight results, rather than striving to achieve a perfect 100/100 overall score.
What Impact does Google PageSpeed Insight have on Google Ranking?
Search engines always strive to deliver the most relevant information to their users and do not compromise on content or user experience. These are key factors that they consider in their ranking algorithms, which you should also not overlook.
Given that PageSpeed Insights is run by one of the biggest search engines, Google, it would be unwise for anyone to ignore it, as it can affect their SERPs. Google is particularly strict about this, especially for its search results.
After all, slow loading times irritate users and cause them to leave your site immediately, whereas visitors are more likely to stay on your website if it loads quickly and delivers the information they seek promptly.
This overall enhances the user experience, which search engines never compromise on. The faster the page loading time, the better the user experience, and the higher the chances of better SERP rankings.
In conclusion, improving your PageSpeed Insights score can positively impact your SEO efforts and improve your search engine rankings.
Note: Only improving your PageSpeed Insights score does not guarantee better search engine rankings; multiple other factors should also be considered.
How you can use the Google PageSpeed Insight Tool?
Google PageSpeed Insights is pretty simple to use. All you have to do is enter the website URL and click on the “Analyze” button.
It will take a while for the tool to analyze the website or webpage, depending on the complexity of the website and the internet connection, and produce a complete report for both mobile and desktop versions.
When the report is generated, you will find the Core Web Vitals assessment of your website, indicating whether it has passed or failed, somewhat like this:
Apart from the Core Web Vitals section, PageSpeed Insight also shows performance scores under the “Diagnose performance issues” section.
Diagnose Performance Issues
It has 4 categories Performance, Accessibility, best practices, and SEO and each of them had an individual score under 100.
Performance: This score combines several factors to show how fast and optimized your page is. Factors include how quickly content loads, how long the page takes to fully display, and how stable the content is while loading.
Accessibility: This score checks how easy it is for all users, including those with disabilities, to use your page. It looks at things like navigation, Alt Text, and color contrast.
Best Practices: This score measures how well your page follows recommended web development practices. This includes using modern technologies, secure connections, and optimized code.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization): This score shows how well your webpage is optimized for search engines that include, metadata, structured data, and mobile friendliness.
After that, when you scroll down a little, you will find a “Diagnostics” section, which has a complete list of suggestions provided by Google that it found suitable for your website’s improvement.
The Diagnostics section of PageSpeed Insights
The listings might include suggestions to improve server response time, optimize code and images, and address performance issues that your website might have failed to pass.
It doesn’t just end there. You can click on each item in the listing to get a detailed report about the issue and possible solutions.
After implementing the fixes and improvements, you can run the analysis test again to check if the score has improved.
How you can Optimize Google PageSpeed Insights Score? (15 Best Recommendations)
Although Google PageSpeed Insights provides you with enough recommendations based on the Speed Insights Report, there are still some areas you need to explore and fix yourself.
Some suggestions provided by PageSpeed Insights might be easy for you to implement, but others may require technical expertise.
Let’s check out some recommendations in detail and how you should approach them:
Render-blocking resources are one of the primary reasons for slow webpage loading times. Because the visitor’s browsers were pushed to download resources like CSS, JavaScript, and fonts before loading the webpage.
Eliminate render-blocking resources
To speed up your page:
Look for “Eliminate render-blocking resources” in the “Diagnostics” section of your PageSpeed Insights report.
Click the arrow next to the suggestion to see which resources are causing the problem and how much time you could save.
Figure out which of these resources aren’t essential and either remove them, inline them, or defer them.
You might need a developer’s help for this step if you’re not familiar with coding.
Google often suggests getting rid of render-blocking JavaScript and CSS because they slow down page loading.
Too many of these files at the top of the page can hurt your site’s speed.
How to fix it:
For small sites, you can combine (or “inline”) small JavaScript or CSS files directly into your HTML using a plugin like Autoptimize.
For larger sites, use the “defer” attribute to load JavaScript files after the HTML is done loading. This makes sure scripts run in the right order.
Your PageSpeed report will list the resources causing the most issues right below the recommendation.
2. Optimize Images
Large media files, especially images can severely impact your webpage loading times. Properly optimizing them is the key to achieving the best website performance.
Properly size images
Google PageSpeed Insights shows which images are too big and how much space you can save.
To optimize images:
Compress images with tools like TinyPNG or ShortPixel.
Use the right format (JPEG, PNG, GIF, or WebP) for each image.
Use “srcset” attribute to serve the right image size for different devices.
Lazy-load images with plugins like LazyLoad or Smush.
For WordPress users:
Install the TinyPNG plugin: Login, add the plugin, install it, and activate it.
Use Bulk Optimization in the Media Library to compress images.
Why it helps:
Properly sized images load faster and improve performance.
CSS resizing takes longer, so uploading images at the right size is better.
Responsive images:
Create different image sizes for various devices using the “srcset” attribute.
Browsers will choose the best size for the screen.
This helps the browser choose the best image size based on the screen size.
3. Reduce Server time response (TTFB)
Server time Response is measured in Time to First Byte (TTFB) and it indicates how long it takes for your site’s server to send the first byte of data to the browser.
Reduce Server time response (TTFB)
The lower the value of TTFB, the better the site performance, and is even recommended by Google PageSpeed Insights.
Optimize server code to make page generation faster.
Reduce the number of plugins installed on your site.
Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN).
Implement browser caching.
Select a reliable Domain Name System (DNS) provider.
Index database tables properly and consider upgrading to a faster database if needed.
Improve server performance with more RAM and faster processors.
Why it matters:
A slow TTFB delays page content delivery and negatively impacts page load speed.
Google recommends that TTFB should be less than 600 milliseconds.
Note: You may need help from a developer or your web host to implement these changes.
4. Avoid Chaining Critical Requests
Chaining critical requests involves downloading multiple files that include Java and CSS before a page can load, which can slow down page rendering.
Avoid chaining critical requests
Google PageSpeed Insights shows these request chains to help you improve loading times.
To minimize chaining requests:
Eliminate render-blocking resources like JavaScript and CSS.
Defer offscreen images so they load after the page is visible.
Minify JavaScript and CSS to reduce their sizes.
Optimize the order of asset loading:
Move important content to the top of your HTML file.
Prioritize critical resources to load first.
Use “async” and “defer” attributes:
“Async” lets the browser load files in the background while displaying the page.
“Defer” delays loading files until after the page is visible.
Testing is important as these attributes might cause issues with some scripts.
Example for a pet food store:
Text won’t show until images load, and images need CSS to load first, creating a chain.
Set priorities so critical content loads first, and less important content loads afterward.
If you need help, ask a developer to add “async” and “defer” script tags to your site.
This helps make sure your page loads faster by reducing delays caused by chained requests.
5. Minify CSS and JavaScript
No doubt, CSS is responsible for your website’s appearance, but often these files are larger than they need to be. Similarly, JavaScript is responsible for the functionality of the website, but it also needs to be optimized. If the code for both these files is not well optimized, it can significantly impact website performance.
Minifying their code by removing unnecessary characters like spaces and comments can help boost website speed.
Tools for minifying code:
Toptal CSS Minifier
Toptal JavaScript Minifier
Minify
JavaScript frameworks/libraries like jQuery and React can also help by being lightweight and fast.
WordPress users can use minify plugins like:
Hummingbird
LiteSpeed Cache
W3 Total Cache
Autoptimize
WP Rocket
Benefits of minifying code:
Reduces file sizes
Speeds up site loading
6. Preload Key Requests
Preload key requests help speed up your site by prioritizing important files to load first. This technique reduces the number of requests the browser needs to make to the server.
Preload key requests
Common key requests include:
Fonts
JavaScript files
CSS files
Images
How to implement:
Add <link rel="preload" href="example.com"> tags to your header.php file.
Use plugins like Perfmatters, WP Rocket, or Pre* Party Resource Hints.
For WordPress, you can also use plugins like Preload Images.
If you need help, ask a developer to identify critical requests and add the preload tag to the code.
7. Defer Offscreen Images
Deferring offscreen images means loading only images that are immediately visible on the screen. This process is very commonly known as lazy loading.
Defer Offscreen Images
This technique lets the browser download only those images that are visible to visitors on the screen, rather than downloading all of them at once.
Benefits of lazy loading:
Improves page performance.
Reduces load times, especially on mobile devices with slower internet.
How to implement: You can utilize any of these WordPress Plugins:
a3 Lazy Load
Lazy Load by WP Rocket
Autoptimize (includes lazy loading features)
Lazy Loader
Why use lazy loading:
Prioritizes visible images.
Makes the page load faster by deferring offscreen images until needed.
Even Google recommends lazy loading for better performance and faster loading times.
8. Avoid Multiple Page redirects
Redirects automatically forward traffic from one URL to another. It is a very common practice when there is a need to delete or move a page on the website.
When you try to access a redirected page, the server tells your browser the page has moved.
Your browser then tries to retrieve the new URL, which adds extra steps and hence time to load the new page.
Understanding Redirect Chains:
Redirect chains occur when there are multiple redirects from the original URL to the final URL.
Example: URL A redirects to URL B, and URL B redirects to URL C.
These chains slow down your site further because there has been an increase in the steps each step takes time to process.
Impact of Redirect Chains:
Google Search Console can follow up to 10 redirects without reporting an issue.
However, redirect chains can still unnecessarily slow down your site’s loading speed.
Best Practices to Improve Page Speed:
Direct Redirects: Always redirect directly from the original URL to the newest URL to minimize delays.
Check for Redirect Chains:
Use SEO tools such as SEMrush to identify and fix redirect chains.
Fixing Redirect Chains:
Log into your content management system (CMS).
Delete unnecessary redirects.
Set up a new redirect that sends traffic directly from the original page to the current one.
Using WordPress Redirection Plugins:
Several plugins can help manage redirects, such as Easy Redirect Manager, Redirection, and Simple Page Redirect. You can learn more about them in our post ” How To Setup WordPress Redirect Plugins “.
Avoiding Multiple Redirects:
Only use redirects when necessary.
Excessive redirects can slow down your site, so it’s important to keep them to a minimum.
9. Limit Document Object Model Size
The Document Object Model (DOM) is a tree-like structure that represents the HTML of a webpage. Each element in the HTML becomes a node in this tree. Due to this, the browsers were able to convert HTML into objects.
Avoid an excessive DOM size
Impact of Large DOM Size:
A large DOM can slow down your page load times and harm user experience.
Common Causes of Large DOMs:
Heavy WordPress themes can add many elements to the DOM.
Complex CSS styling can also contribute to a large DOM.
Recommendations to Reduce DOM Size:
Simplify HTML: Remove unnecessary elements and attributes.
Clean Code: Avoid unused JavaScript and CSS files.
Server-Side Rendering (SSR): Render pages on the server before sending them to the client.
Avoid Visual Page Builders: These often create large, complex HTML.
Avoid Copy-Pasting Text in WYSIWYG Builders: This can add unnecessary elements.
Choose Clean Themes and Plugins: Look for those with efficient, clean code.
Tools for Analyzing and Improving DOM Size:
Use tools like Google Chrome DevTools to analyze your DOM size.
You might need help from a developer to make the necessary changes.
10. Limit overusing Third-party Code
When you use Scripts, pixels, and plugins from other companies, like analytics tools and advertisements, it can slow down your website and hurt your PageSpeed Insights score.
Reduce the impact of third-party code
However, it doesn’t mean you should simply avoid or do not use them use only those which are essential and try to avoid dependency on such codes.
Importance of Third-Party Code:
Some are useful, like Google Analytics for performance tracking or Facebook Pixel for ad campaigns.
Others might be unnecessary, especially if you no longer use them.
Recommendations:
Regularly audit third-party code on your site.
Remove unnecessary code to improve performance.
Pay attention to third-party code flagged by PageSpeed Insights.
Note and remove any unfamiliar or unneeded company scripts.
How to Remove Unnecessary Code:
Delete the code from your CMS.
Uninstall unused plugins if using WordPress.
Remove tags from your tag management tool.
Examples of Necessary Third-Party Scripts:
Social media sharing buttons and feeds.
YouTube video embeds.
iFrames for ads.
Libraries for JavaScript, fonts, and other elements.
Minimizing the Impact of Necessary Third-Party Code:
Defer the loading of JavaScript.
Use link tags with pre-connect attributes.
Self-host third-party scripts.
11. Try to Keep the Requests Count Low and Transfer Size Small
If your browsers need to make more requests to the server to load the page, the server will have to perform more work to fulfill the requests and send the resources, which will ultimately slow down the process and impact website performance.
Keep Request counts low and transfer sizes small
Therefore, even Google recommends minimizing requests and reducing resource sizes to help achieve faster website loading times.
Understanding the Recommendation:
Similar to “Avoid chaining critical requests,” this isn’t a pass/fail audit.
You’ll see a list of the number of requests and their sizes.
Setting Your Standards:
There are no defined rules to set the number of requests or resource sizes.
Google suggests you should create a performance budget as per your specific goals.
What to Include in a Performance Budget:
Total number of web fonts used.
No of Images and their maximum Sizes
The number of external resources called.
The size of scripts and frameworks.
Benefits of a Performance Budget:
It helps you set and stick to performance goals.
It will guide you to make decisions on eliminating or optimizing resources when over budget.
12. Remove Unused CSS
Any code in your stylesheet needs to be loaded for your webpage to display, whether it’s used or not. Sometimes, stylesheets contain CSS that is unnecessary or has never been used, which only slows down your website.
Remove unused CSS
Google also suggests that removing unused CSS can help make your site faster. To do this, you can either include necessary styles directly in the HTML or delay loading them until needed. Tools like Chrome DevTools can help you find and remove unused CSS.
13. Reduce JavaScript Execution Time
JavaScript can use a lot of the main thread’s resources, which can slow down your site. PageSpeed Insights will let you know if JavaScript is a major factor in this slowdown.
Reduce JavaScript Execution Time
How to improve this:
Cut Down on JavaScript Execution: Follow the tips for reducing main-thread work, which should help you fix the performance issues highlighted by PageSpeed Insights.
14. Use video formats for Animated content
You might be wondering why you go for Video formats rather than GIFs. No doubt, GIFs can make your posts more engaging, but they can slow down your site. Even, PageSpeed Insights suggests using videos instead.
Use video formats for animated content
So, to follow the suggestion by PageSpeed InsightsChoose a Video Format Decide between:
MP4: Works with most browsers but has slightly larger files.
WebM: More optimized but may not work with all browsers.
Convert GIF to Video
To convert GIFs into Video, install a free tool named FFmpeg that helps in to convert file formals. After that open your command line and enter the following command:
ffmpeg -i input.gif output.mp4
Here, Replace input.gif with your GIF’s name and output.mp4 with your preferred video name.
15. Ensure Text Remains Visible During Webfont Load
Just like images or graphics on your website, web fonts can also be large and take time to load. In the worst cases, browsers may not show the actual text until the font has completely loaded.
Ensure Text Remains Visible During Webfont Load
This can significantly impact the user experience, due to which even Google recommends that:
Fix the Issue To keep text visible during font loading, use the Font Display API. You need to add a line to your stylesheet (style.css).
Add the Code Open your stylesheet and find the @font-face rule. Add this line:
font-display: swap;
This ensures your text will display with a fallback font until the web font is fully loaded.
Similarly, there may be many more recommendations from Google PageSpeed Insights. We have provided some of the most common and important ones that you should care about.
Google PageSpeed Insights should be one of your top priorities on the SEO list. However, this doesn’t mean you should strive for a perfect 100 score (which is practically not feasible).
Focusing too much on achieving a perfect score can eat up your time and effort, distracting you from other important tasks that might be more significant for your website ranking.
In this post, we have tried to explain every aspect of Google PageSpeed Insights, including its importance from an SEO point of view and its scoring weightage.
Additionally, we have shared some of the best methods to improve your website speed and performance, which will also help improve your PSI score.
If you still have any queries or doubts, or if you would like to make some suggestions, please let us know in the comment section below.
Rahul Kumar is a web enthusiast, and content strategist specializing in WordPress & web hosting. With years of experience and a commitment to staying up-to-date with industry trends, he creates effective online strategies that drive traffic, boosts engagement, and increase conversions. Rahul’s attention to detail and ability to craft compelling content makes him a valuable asset to any brand looking to improve its online presence.
