Google PageSpeed Insights
Are you one of those who work hard to speed optimizer your website to achieve a score of 100/100? Then you're not alone. Many website owners are working to achieve the highest possible PageSpeed. Google PageSpeed Insights is without a doubt one of the most useful and widely used tools for webmasters, developers and website owners alike.
Google pageSpeed Insights is a program that gives you an insight into the loading speed of your website. It does this by measuring the speed and then presenting you with a score between 0 and 100 to indicate how fast the speed is.
Nevertheless, it is a mistake that many try to achieve a score of 100/100. This is not how Google PageSpeed should be used. Despite the importance of Google PageSpeed Insights, you should not spend all your time trying to achieve a 100/100 score, as in most cases it will mean shifting focus from other tasks that could have yielded more significant benefits.
Google PageSpeed Insights should not be considered the only truth, but a good indication of how your website is performing. In this article, you'll get a better understanding of Google PageSpeed Insights so that you understand how the program's score works and what exactly it measures.
How Google Pagespeed Insights works
Google PageSpeed Insights (PSI) measures the performance of a page on both mobile and desktop devices and then provides suggestions for improvement. Google PageSpeed Insights is powered by Lighthouse since the end of 2018. This means that the results in your PSI reports are based on the Lighthouse API.
When you scan a page, PageSpeed provides two types of data: Lab and field data. Lab data is collected in a controlled environment, i.e. with a set of predefined devices and network settings. It is effective for correcting errors that affect performance and its tests are easily repeatable. Field data is based on real-world Chrome user experiences over the last 30 days: it includes First Contentful Paint (FCP) and First Input Delay (FID).
How do I achieve optimal speed?
Based on how fast your page on your website is, Google PageSpeed Insights gives you a score from 0 - 100 based on how fast your page loads. A score below 50 means that the loading time is too slow, a score between 50 - 89 is okay but also means there is room for improvement and a score of 90 or above means that the loading time is good.
However, you should be aware that your performance score can change from each time you test the speed of your site. There can be several reasons for this, but we recommend that you don't stress too much about your score. If your score is 85, you're already well on your way.
However, it's important to keep in mind that the slower your website's load time, the more likely it is that users will leave your website. Google conducted a study where they looked at how long users stayed on a website before leaving due to slow loading time. The study showed that if the website had a load time of 7 seconds or more, the user bounced.
With this conclusion, you can start testing how long your website takes to load. But as previously pointed out. Don't stress about the score as it is only indicative.
How do I get a score of 100/100?
If you have a score of 100 out of 100, you have nothing to do, as this is the most optimal score. We have pointed out that a score of 100 out of 100 is not a necessity, but if you absolutely want to try to reach this goal, we recommend that you follow these three steps.
- Check the loading speed. Before you take any action, check if the loading speed of your website is slow. If so, do a speed test in Google PageSpeed Insights to check your speed score, which can give you an insight into how much work you need to put into improving loading time. However, as explained earlier, the speed score is only indicative.
- Compress your images. Large images are often one of the reasons why websites are slow to load. We recommend that image files are under 200KB as anything over that can have an effect on loading speed.
- Optimize speed on mobile. Over 60% of Google searches are made on mobile. That's why it's important that you also check the loading speed on mobile devices. Google PageSpeed Insight gives you the opportunity to test mobile loading speed.
How is the Google PageSpeed Insight Score calculated?
When you ask Google PageSpeed Insights to analyze a page, it returns various sections and indicators about page performance. PageSpeed results are, as previously mentioned, powered by the Lighthouse API, and the score is no exception. The speed rating you see at the top of your PageSpeed report is based on lab data analyzed by Lighthouse.
Thus, it is important to note that the result is the result of Lighthouse's simulation of a page load on a specific device.
Google clarifies that only the elements in the "Metrics" section of the Lighthouse Performance category contribute to the score.
The recommendations shown under "Diagnostic and Opportunities" are not part of the score. The score is measured with 6 metrics:
- First Contentful Paint(FCP)
- Time to Interactive
- Speed Index
- Largest Contentful Paint
- Total Blocking Time (TBT)
- Cumulative Layout Shift
Frequently asked questions about Google PageSpeed Insight
Google PageSpeed Insights is a program that measures the loading speed of your website. By measuring speed, you'll understand if you need to optimize your website speed. Google PageSpeed Insights has a big effect on SEO. Loading speed has a direct impact on how your website ranks on Google search results. As long as you have a score of 85 or above, you're good to go, and you can also explore what optimizations you can make to reach that score of 100. However, we recommend not stressing too much about the PageSpeed Insights score itself, as it is only indicative. It is possible to get a score of 100 out of 100 if you examine which elements on your website can give you a better speed. This could be images whose files are large or text boxes that are unnecessary on the page.
