A seamless user experience on the website is one of the essential yet anticipated expectations. The more smooth the user experience, the higher the chances of conversions and leads. The loading speed of the website is one of the essential factors in improvising the user experience. The page speed of the website can have a direct impact on the quality score and Ad campaigns. But how can you ensure that your website possesses a superior speed or not? That’s where Google PageSpeed Insights Google PageSpeed Insights comes in as a handy tool.
People abandon the website instantly if it cannot load in 2-3 seconds or less. It is enough to prove the worth of fast-loading and optimized websites. However, website optimization is not a piece of cake, and many developers do not even understand the means to analyze that. Google PageSpeed Insights is a prominent tool for checking the website optimization score. Many website designers and developers often rely on it to get a 100/100 score on the test.
Further, the Google Pagespeed Insights tool is not just for the website score. While you might remain obsessing about the same, the essential factors are ignored, I.e. Google PageSpeed Insights recommendations. This helps in identifying the problematic areas on the website before starting with its optimization. As you’re aware of the bad aspects of the website, it will pave the path to reducing the load time and improving the visitor’s performance.
In this in-depth blog post, we will cover detailed information on how to use Google Pagespeed Insights for maximum benefits. We’ll also emphasize how Google uses your score or incorporate the recommendations.
So, without further ado, let’s get started with Google Pagespeed Insights.
Google PageSpeed Insights Tool: What Is It?
The Google PageSpeed Insights tool analyzes the website working (front-end performance) and provides suggestions for top-notch optimization. It gives a score between 0 to 100 points for a website. A score of 85 or above signals a well-performing page, while a low score provides a warning related to the optimization. Along with the score, the insights and recommendations from the tool are also helpful in boosting the website’s performance.
An overall analysis is mandatory to know about your website completely. The Google PageSpeed Insights tool is handy to ensure the best performance and results. Every new and existing website owner tends to rely on this tool while building or maintaining the website.
With new improvements and updates in the Google PageSpeed Insights tool, you can find more in-depth details than in the old webmaster tool. Gone are the days when you had to go through the wrong/unreliable results about the website’s performance. Keep an apt check on the website performance and better serve your website users’ experience and conversions.
How Does Google PageSpeed Insights Work?
Google PageSpeed Insights is the most preferable and valuable tool to assess your website performance at the user’s end. The tool comes with an intuitive interface with simple functionalities to get started.
Enter the website URL you want to check in the tool. Google will examine the entire website and assign a score between 0 to 100. The score will be based entirely on the website’s credibility and practices. As mentioned earlier, it will also share valuable insights to optimize the entire website without hassle. Use the powerful Google analysis tool to look at other relevant factors like performance, progressive web apps, website accessibility, etc.
Regarding Google Pagespeed Insights, the score is not the only decisive factor in everything with the website workflow. You can start implementing the suggestions to improve the score anytime. The Google Measure Tool also provides a rating for your URL based on the Lighthouse (Google’s open-source tool for overall website optimization). Its performance audit will be similar to that of the Google Page Speed Insights tool offering the best practices assessment, accessibility, and analysis related to search engine optimization (SEO).
Impact Of Google PageSpeed Insights On SERP Rankings
Your website loading speed is vital for a higher ranking position on the Search Engine Result Pages (SERP). Google considers those websites that load faster and quicker. So, overall page speed can take the website to the top page of Google Search Results for maximum growth and potential. Most targeted users won’t go beyond the results on the first page. Hence, it becomes crucial to focus on the loading speed and ensure the top ranking for business.
The result from the Google PageSpeed Insights tool can impact the website’s ranking in the search engine result pages (SERP). However, the score is just an observational factor regarding website ranking. Simply put, a score of 100/100 for a website doesn’t guarantee a top spot in the SERPs. Thus, it is mandatory to keep a check on the background practices and suggestions to ensure top-notch and reliable performance.
The tool’s sole purpose isn’t just to grab the perfect score and identify the areas for improvement. Once you figure it out, it becomes easy to work and optimize the entire website. The end goal should be to decrease the web page loading as low as possible. If you look at any top-ranking website/business, a great loading speed and low bounce rates will be one thing in common. So, you can undoubtedly rely on Google PageSpeed Insights for success with website optimization and more conversions.
Comprehensive Tips For Getting Your PageSpeed Score Of 100/100
After checking out plenty of details on the Google PageSpeed Insights tool and its role in website audit and improvement, let’s move ahead. Now, we will be addressing some of the proven and reliable techniques to use the PageSpeed Insights tool for improving the website loading speed and performance in front of end-users.
Keep reading till the end to know how the tool performs audits and shares recommendations to achieve the final PageSpeed score of 100/100. Out of too many approaches to using PageSpeed Insights, here are some of the effective ones to take care of the critical business aspect.
1. Remove All Website Speed Issues
Website speed is one of the essential factors in boosting site performance. The updated Google PageSpeed Insights tool takes care of this crucial aspect of the business. Check all sorts of themes/plugins & integration to address various site speed issues.
You should also invest in a reliable web hosting service to ensure top-notch website speed and performance. Stromonic is a leading web hosting company that provides stellar hosting services to keep the website and applications running without interruptions. Choose the imperative option for a web host and implement the optimization in the right direction.
To know more, check out Stromonic Website Hosting services.
2. Implement Text Compression
It is another valuable recommendation of the Google PageSpeed Insights tool that serves website optimization and performance standards. While text compression is a default feature on several servers, it isn’t the same case on the others. You need to ensure that the part is active for your business website. Check out various plugins to take care of the front-end website text optimization. You have another way to contact your hosting provider for the same.
Google PageSpeed Insights Tool enables text compression recommendations using GZIP compression. If it’s not available for your website server, here are a few steps to do it manually –
- First, you must install the plugin using a GZIP compression feature. You can also use some other reliable plugin.
- Second, if you’re not using a plugin, there is a way to compress manually. Make the edit in the .htaccess file to achieve text compression. However, you need to take the backup before changes/edits, as it is a risky move.
3. Content Visibility Is Essential
Once the visitor lands on your website, the content should be visible without issues. The fast loading of the content is essential on the visitor’s end as part of the user experience. Gone are the days when visitors kept scrolling and faced a terrible user experience. Hence, you must ensure that practical HTML is available on the web page for presentation.
One way to do so is to reduce the amount of data the resources use. Ask your website developer to create the fold content above other elements. The right choice of theme can serve the purpose of content visibility for your users. As per Google PageSpeed Insights recommendation, the text should be visible during the web front loading.
4. Minimize Main-Thread Work
The main thread is one of the vital elements of a browser at the user’s end. It is also responsible for transforming the code into website pages. Moreover, these thread works are also handy for better visitor interaction. It helps in the parsing and execution of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to handle the user’s interaction on the other end.
If you wish to improve the Google PageSpeed Insights, make sure to minimize the main-thread work. When it works in the background site code and takes too long, the results can be a poor user experience and slow loading speed. Simply put, the overload on the main thread can cause UX degradation in the long run. Google PageSpeed can flag the pages that are responsible for the bad user experience. Ideally, it would highlight every page that takes longer than four seconds to run the main thread work.
Once you’re clear with the affected pages, the next action will be to reduce the main-thread work in a hassle-free manner. Here are some of the effective and proven approaches to minimize the main thread work –
- Try minifying the code used on the web page.
- Remove the unused code on the website.
- Implement caching on the web pages.
However, there can be certain other aspects to consider for reducing main thread work and improving the Google PageSpeed Insights. You can also consider opting for code splitting for breaking the JavaScript into multiple bundles. In such a case, only the required bundles are processed through the execution phase. The browser won’t have to face the load of processing everything in one go. Hence, with the right balance of main-thread work is going to make the web pages experience highly interactive.
5. Use Recommended Image Sizes
Various media files and images need to be in the recommended size for a better Google PageSpeed Insights score. Since it can be a real drag on the website performance so you need to size in the proper scale. The efficient image sizes can improve the loading speed of the web page upscaling the overall page performance. One way to achieve this is through using responsive images on the website. Simply put, you need to create multi-size and dimension images for various devices.
Another way to achieve the right image size on the website is by using the “srcset” attribute. It will be used with the to <img> tags to demonstrate the alternative image files of multiple sizes. Web browsers can keep reading the list and find out the best image sizes for the current screen. For instance, if you’re using a multi-size header image, the use of the “srcset” attribute can specify the multiple files and tells the right one to the browser for the best on-screen experience.
6. Use Images In Next-Gen Formats
Gone are the days when we had a limited number of image formats to use on the web page. Advanced web development involves the usage of various file formats that tend to load faster. Unlike PNG or JPEG format images, WebP is one of the faster-loading image formats to increase the loading speed. Further, this aspect will contribute to improving the Google PageSpeed Insights score. The tool will also highlight the details if the images aren’t adhering to them.
Any WordPress website has countless images on the WordPress website that might need replacement with the advanced format. It may be tough for you to deal with these numerous image changes on the website. However, there are certain plugins like Imagify and Smush to make your task of other formats to WebP conversion simpler.
7. Minify JavaScript & Unused Codes
When users visit a web page, all sorts of codes in the stylesheet start loading. The page will only be visible to the users only if the entire content starts loading. Keeping more CSS codes on the website is going to make the UX poor and degraded. Hence, you should start minification of the CSS codes to boost the overall web page performance. Check for the render-blocking CSS on the website and remove them without second thoughts.
Likewise, you can reduce the CSS file sizes, the same goes well with the JavaScript files. Minification is one of the essential factors to lower the JavaScript recommended files. If you’re using a WordPress platform website, you can always use certain plugins to lower the CSS files. It can effectively improve Google PageSpeed Insights with facile task handling and control.
Google also recommends the approach of removing unused CSS and JavaScript. You can also choose to inline or defer styles for better web page performance. There are certain tools like Chrome DevTools to find and optimize unused CSS codes.
8. Efficient Encoding Of Images
Images play a vital role in the WordPress website performance and optimization is what enhances the overall benefit. Compression is one of the essential optimization techniques that reduce the file size for faster loading. Google even recommends the image encoding approach for improving the Google PageSpeed Insights score.
Encoding images signifies the objective of achieving the smallest file sizes without compromising the overall quality of the image. Various plugins like Smush and Imagify can compress the images to the ideal size and cater to image optimization needs.
Try to add the lazy loading feature and defer onscreen images while loading the web page. The usage of video formats/animated content like GIF and conversion to WebP format are two of the potential ways to encode images.
9. Defer Offscreen Images
Lazy loading is a common step in the improvement of the Google PageSpeed Insights score. It involves deferring offscreen images while loading the page for better performance and visibility. In simple words, the browser will load every image before displaying above-the-fold content. It will ensure faster image loading and easier visibility.
Google recommends the less loading feature on the web page for efficient web page performance. You can also use plenty of WordPress plugins like Lazy Load by WP Rocket and 3 Lazy Load designed to do this job. The image and performance optimization WordPress plugins can facilitate the less loading feature on the web pages.
10. Simplify Document Object Model (DOM)
Document Object Model (DOM) is behind the browser converting HTML into objects. The model involves the tree structure with individual nodes/objects and plays a vital role in the web page loading. In short, the bigger your web page DOM, the longer will be the loading time. That’s why it is a recommendation to simplify the DOM to ensure faster loading and better Google PageSpeed Insights score. In case, the DOM is not meeting the set standards, you should try easing the CSS style and reducing the number of nodes.
A WordPress website theme can be a major reason behind a low Google PageSpeed Insights score. Oftentimes, the cluttered and heavy themes come with volumes of elements to make site loading slower. You should consider this fact and switch to lightweight and simpler WordPress themes accordingly.
11. User Timing Marks and Measures
This approach to improving the Google PageSpeed Insights score will only work if you’re using User Timing API on the website. It generates the timestamps for monitoring JavaScript’s performance. You can use this to get a piece of quick information on the marks and measures in the PageSpeed Insights tool. Overall, the timing API can simply highlight the areas that need the high scale of optimization on an urgent basis.
12. Maintain Lesser Network Payloads
It is another recommendation to serve mobile visitors efficiently through the WordPress website. Having more network payloads on the website will consume more internet data connection leading to more expenses. Thus, it is essential to minimize network requests to improve the Google PageSpeed Insights score. Ideally, the total byte size should be 1600 KB or less to achieve the expected objections. Some of the suggested ways to curb the network payloads will be deferring CSS, minifying codes, image compression, WebP image format, implementing caching, and more.
13. Remove Negative Impacts Of Third-Party Codes
There can be multiple negative impacts of third-party codes on WordPress websites. These can be a major factor behind the low Google PageSpeed Insights score. You should avoid their use to ensure better website performance in the Insights tool audit. Although, there can be certain scenarios where incorporating third-party code script is a must. However, your basic move should be to avoid it as much as possible. Some examples of third-party codes on WordPress websites are –
- Integration of Google Analytics (GA) tool.
- Embedding YouTube videos
- Addition of social media sharing buttons.
- iFrames for varied content.
- Font, elements, and JavaScript libraries.
Moreover, the requirements bind to use the third-party script, ensuring to reduce of the effect on the website performance. Here are some of the suggested techniques for efficient third-party code functions-
- Postpone the JavaScript loading.
- Preconnect attributes with link tags.
- Self-host third-party code scripts.
14. Implement An Efficient Cache Policy
Static elements and assets on the website are also essential for website loading time and performance. You will need an efficient and reliable cache policy for serving static assets on the WordPress website. Google PageSpeed Insights tool will audit the website and share the recommendations for implementing the ideal caching practice. It asks to leverage the browser caching warning – “Serve Static Assets With an Efficient Cache Policy”.
It is one of the essential suggestions from the PageSpeed Insights tool to achieve the maximum score. Caching the website means that the browser saves copies of the web pages to load them faster on the website. The web browser plays a major role in the website caching and preparing the web page files for future visits. While the caching feature on the website can be a bit technical, WordPress makes it hassle-free with the use of caching plugins. WP Rocket and W3 Total Cache are two worthy plugins to implement caching on the website.
Another way to ensure efficient caching on the website is by choosing powerful website hosting. Stromonic WordPress Hosting also enables caching on their servers and that can avoid all caching worries for your website. Stay free with in-built server-level caching on the WordPress website and get double benefits with additional plugins. However, you should consider the cache policy’s efficiency too for maximum benefits and faster performance.
15. Preconnect to Required Origins
As mentioned earlier, the usage of third-party script codes can affect the WordPress website’s performance. Regardless of how much you try to avoid it, the website will have certain mandatory third-party codes like Google Analytics. The browser can consume a lot of time in connecting with these resources and hamper the loading speed.
Use connect attributes to notify browsers about the third-party scripts on specific web pages. With early requests, browsers can save some time and boost the Google PageSpeed Insights score. You can use the link tag to the header file and start observing the improvement in the loading time results. If you’re not comfortable with editing WordPress website files, there are certain plugins to do it for you. Perfmatters and WP Rocket are two worthy options to achieve similar results.
16. Preload Key Requests
This recommendation will allow you to minimize the number of browser requests from the website server. Instead of depending on third-party resources, Preload key requests load the multiple assets on your server. One way to do this is to add link tags demonstrating the resources available in the Google PageSpeed Insights tool.
17. Avoid Multiple Page Redirects
Page redirects are efficient tools to point/redirect one URL to another for the end-users. These are handy when you delete or change certain page URLs on WordPress websites. While these are helpful for the websites, the page redirects can cause certain loading time delays and affect Google PageSpeed Insights score. Google doesn’t recommend having too many redirects on the website pages. The ideal way to handle this concern is to limit the use of the redirects only when there is no other option.
18. Maintain Text Visibility During Loading
We all know that images, fonts, and large files on the website take time to load on browsers. But, the same case can be with text visibility on the browsers as well. In certain cases, the web browsers might hide the texts till the font is loading in the background. Use Font Display API in the CSS stylesheet and add the src attribute under @font-face. It is one of the proven tips to improve the Google PageSpeed Insights score.
19. Enable Text Compression
Google PageSpeed Insights tool recommends text compression with the help of GZIP compression. While it might be activated automatically on the servers in most cases, there is nothing wrong in reassuring the same. In case, it is deactivated on the server, here are some of the potential ways to enable text compression –
- Use a plugin like WP Rocket that offers the GZIP compression feature.
- Edit the .htaccess file manually with the website backup.
- Add additional code on the server to enable the GZIP compression feature.
Ensure to verify after enabling the GZIP compression on the server after implementation. It is also recommended to check server type along with other key details.
20. Reduce Server Response Time
It is a must to keep your servers clean and ready to serve your website better. Try to reduce the server response time as much as possible and amplify the overall user experience. Whenever any user loads the website, the browser should be able to establish faster connections and get responses from the server. More time from the server response will bind the user to wait on the web front. Hence, it is a smart practice to optimize your servers and be ready to serve the users better.
The server response time is also known as Time to First Byte (TTFB) and acts as the measurement parameter. It signifies the server’s response time after the browser makes the required requests to load the content on the website. Although, it might not be the same on the entire website, but should be under the standard limit for better website performance and results. As per the Google PageSpeed Insights tool, here are some of the recommended steps for low TTFB –
- Select the high-performance and faster web hosting service for your website.
- Use lightweight WordPress themes and plugins.
- Use as few third-party plugins on the website as possible.
- Make the best use of the Content Delivery Network (CDN).
- Integrate the browser caching.
- Choose a reliable Domain Name Service (DNS) Provider.
Moreover, you can ensure better PageSpeed Insights tool score and website performance with powerful and reliable hosting servers. Stromonic Web Hosting is one of the best hosting provider companies with secure, scalable, and high-performance servers.
21. Avoid/Remove Chaining Critical Requests
The critical requests are responsible for the loading time of the website. Chaining of the critical requests will lead to the Critical Rendering Path (CRP) and that’s how the browser loads the web pages. Various elements like JavaScript and CSS should load on the website beforehand to ensure faster website performance and easy visibility.
Google PageSpeed Insights will recommend the chaining requests on the web page analysis. You can check the diagram or flowchart of pending requests for making the page visible. Further, monitor the size of every resource and minimize the number of dependent resources to curb the problem. Some of the suggested tips to avoid or remove the chain requests in the background of web page loading –
- Eliminate render-blocking resources
- Minify the CSS and JavaScript codes
- Defer offscreen images or implement lazy loading
- Optimize the website
Moreover, you can also try to optimize the loading order of the resources. It will reduce the Critical Rendering Path (CRP) and move above-the-fold content to the top of the loading HTML file. Since there is no fixed number of critical requests, you need to work on it and optimize with the above suggestions. Google PageSpeed Insights tool won’t show the magic number but will signify the “pass” or “fail” parameter to take further actions. The information on the tool and the above suggestions will improve the loading speed.
22. Maintain Small Transfer Sizes
Likewise critical requests between the server and browser, you should also consider the transfer sizes to achieve Google PageSpeed Insights score. More request browsers make the server response time longer, and more consumption of resources. Further, the large transfer sizes between the browser and server will make the website loading slower. Google even recommends a reduction of the requests and decrement in the resource size.
As for the chaining critical requests, the PageSpeed Insights tool won’t show you any standard transfer sizes for the website loading. You can check the list of requests along with the sizes. You need to assess them individually and keep on removing them to lower the website loading speed. However, here are some proven tips to take care of the chain requests and transfer sizes –
- Check the maximum image sizes
- The number of numerous web fonts used on the website.
- Number of external resources call
- Frameworks and scripts sizes
One way to do so is to create a performance budget to set standards for chaining critical requests and transfer sizes. As you exceed the budget expectations, you can take the right actions to eliminate the requests and reduce the transfer sizes. Focus on optimizing resources to take the next step in achieving a 100/100 score on the Google PageSpeed Insights tool.
23. Video Formats for Animated Content
Video/GIFs or other animated contents are highly impactful for websites. Gone are the days when every website used to be static for the users. The usage of animations and videos is a growing trend in the world of web development and that also has an impact on the Google PageSpeed Insights score. These can be effective elements boosting the scale of interaction, engagement, and conversation with the visitors. Moreover, video animations can be used in a variety of ways on entire WordPress websites. Whether it is the feature reviews or catchy animations, the creative video elements can be valuable and fun for the users.
However, it is unfortunate that this good feature has some bad impacts on the loading speed. Videos and GIFs are anyways heavy in comparison to the images and need more loading time. Hence PageSpeed Insights recommends the conversion of GIFs to optimized videos with effective and variable usages. MP4 is one of the most suitable formats that remain compatible with most browsers. On the contrary, the WebM video format remains more optimized, but with limited browser compatibility.
Once the choice is done between MP4 and WebM, do not forget to convert the file formats with optimization benefits. There are certain open-source tools like FFmpeg to easily convert video formats into suitable file formats. Further, all you need to do is to run certain commands to convert the optimized file formats. Not just changing the video file formats, it is also essential to embed the new file into the WordPress website.
Conclusion
Google PageSpeed Insights is a must-have tool to ensure website performance and end-user experience. Assessing your website’s score on the PageSpeed Insights score and reaching 100/100 is a definitive milestone. However, one should try to go as maximum as possible instead of obsessing over achieving the perfect target. You should focus on other productive tasks as well to gain significant benefits from the website experience.
Creating, launching, and maintaining a WordPress website involves countless times and effort. After spending such a huge time and resources, you wouldn’t want it to deliver a bad user experience in front of the targeted visitors. Take all sorts of images, text, icons, and other elements with complete seriousness. Google PageSpeed Insights tool is a reliable means to monitor and assess everything in a single place. It allows you to set high standards and focus on achieving a 100/100 score with Google recommendations.
The loading speed of a website will play a vital role in the end-user experience and conversions. In the fast-paced world, no one wants to spend their crucial time waiting for a website to fully load. The users are hardly going to show patience for a maximum of 2-3 seconds for website loading or else they’re going to move ahead with other options. Most of the online websites with slow loading speeds indirectly serve their competition. The website visitors will click back and start assessing the other results for their search.
Having a better score on the PageSpeed Insights tool as your focus will lead to a powerful and optimized website. The audit will help you find all critical issues and diagnose them one by one to amplify the website’s performance and experience. Regardless of the problem with images, text, codes, page elements, or more, the tool score will signify all essential factors and associated problems. Monitor and find where the problems lie with your WordPress websites with worthy recommendations. It has helped countless websites to have impactful results after achieving an improved PageSpeed Insights score.
We tried to cover some of the best and proven techniques to achieve a 100/100 score on the Google PageSpeed Insights tool. Our do’s and don’ts along with brief details will surely be helpful recommendations to improve the website audit and performance. We also look forward to reading your views and suggestions in the comments below.
If you need more help with website optimization and improving PageSpeed Insights score, contact our experts right away!
