How to Score Better with Google PageSpeed Insights

So, you have a wonderful website. You have worked really hard on it and you are really proud of it. It looks fantastic. However, there is one problem. You ran your website through a diagnostic test like Google PageSpeed Insights and your page is, well, pretty slow. And as it turns out, speed does matter. The faster your site speed is, the better chance you have of ranking high on Google.

If you care at all about your conversion rate and search engine optimization, it’s important for your website to be fast. That’s why it’s important to get a high score on GooglePageSpeed Insights. We will give you some tips for how to score better with Google PageSpeed Insights in this article. The ultimate goal is to get a 100% score. While that is hard to obtain, it is not impossible. Either way, we can help you improve your site speed.

Google pagespeed insights

Why is Page Speed Important? 

There are two reasons why page speed is important: it is important for your user experience and it is important for your search ranking. If your website is slow, it will bother your visitors and they will leave your site, giving it a high bounce rate. Not to mention, you will lose out on business and visitors because of your site’s response time.

Page speed is also an important criteria when it comes to search engine rankings. If your website isn’t as fast as the top ten pages on the same topics, it has no change of ranking on the first search engine results page. And as we all know, most search engine users do not click the second page of results. This is why it’s important to have a quick website so that your website can rank high, and also please your visitors.

How Quickly Does My Website Need to Load? 

The average load time for many websites is more than ten seconds, according to one analysis. However, the average load time every website should aim to have is less than three seconds.  If you aren’t sure what your load time is, there is performance testing available online. So, how does your web page perform?

Why is my Website Slow? 

So, what causes a slow loading speed? The most common reasons a web page loads slowly are bulky, numerous images and poorly-designed coding. Most websites these days are bursting to the brim with pictures. If images aren’t optimized, it is likely that they are taking up way too many megabytes. Your page weight and size are measured by page weight bytes.

how to score better with Google pagespeed insights

How Do I Fix my Page Speed?

Now, you are probably wondering if there is a free website speed test. Luckily, Google created a website performance tool that lets you test your site speed. It gives you a page speed score and even tells you ways you can improve your load time for slow pages. In the next section, we will tell you how to use this Google page tester to improve your site speed.

How to Use Google PageSpeed Insights

To get started, first open the PageSpeed Insights tool. Then, copy and paste or type your website’s URL into the bar. Then, click “Analyze” to have Google test your site’s speed. It will then give you a report that will include a score out of 100 and give you suggestions for possible optimizations. There are almost always ways to improve your page speed. You will need to take care of each optimization in order to score a perfect 100.

Next, you will want to test your mobile site separately. Google has a separate tool for you to test your mobile site. The tool will even tell you how many site visitors you are losing due to your slow site speed!

How to Speed Up Your Website and Get a Better Google PageSpeed Insights Score 

It is not easy to score a perfect 100% on Google’s PageSpeed Insights Tool. And it might take some time to really speed up your site. However, in the end it will be worth it because you will bring in more website traffic, create more conversions, and ultimately, grow your business. Here are some ways you can speed up your site and get a better score on Google PageSpeed Insights:

Compress and Optimize Your Images

The main reason web pages load slowly and get a low score from Google is large images. So, one of the main optimization techniques to speed up websites is compressing your images. If you use simple compression tools, you can save an average of 50% or even more on image size.

But, how do you compress your images? If your website is on WordPress, the best way to compress images is to use a plugin. For example, you can try the WP Smush Image Compression and Optimization. WordPress sites have several plugins available to help your page loading times, which is why we recommend WordPress for website building.

If you don’t use WordPress, there are other plugins for other web hosting sites you can find, too.

Google pagespeed

Leverage Browser Caching

Another way to reduce your page speed in a big way with minimal effort is browser caching. Did you know that every time someone loads your website, it has to fetch each resource, like loading each individual web page and page element, and then deal with the heavy HTML and coding? Browser caching helps speed up this process by “remembering” the resources that have already loaded previously. This way, it doesn’t have to reload them every time someone visits your website or checks out a new page on your site. This results in a large speed increase when visitors find your site.

So, how do you start browser caching? Luckily, there’s a plugin for this, too! Anyone can implement a plugin. You don’t need to be an expert coder. If you have WordPress, you can try using W3 Total Cache, which is the most popular caching plugin available online. It claims to give you a higher score on Google’s PageSpeed Insights.

Minify your HTML

Another step you can take to speed up your website and score higher on Google PageSpeed Insights is to minimize the space that your HTML coding takes up. This is called minification. Minifiction is the process of removing or fixing unnecessary or duplicated data, without impacting how a browser will process the HTML. This process involves fixing code, formatting, removing unused code, and shortening code wherever you can.

However, don’t worry! You don’t need to be an expert coder because – once again – there’s a plugin for that! One tool you can try is WP Super Minify if you have a WordPress website. It won’t take long – generally, only about a few seconds. Once you install it, it only takes a few quick steps you will need to accomplish before you will instantly see a faster load time for your website.

site speed

Implement AMP 

The final step we recommend you take to speed up your website is to implement AMP. Amp stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages. AMP is a project Google created to help mobile web pages load quicker. It creates an open-source format that takes away all the unnecessary content and helps your mobile pages load almost instantly. Not to mention, the pages also look extremely clean when they load without the other content. It helps give users a much better experience when they use their mobile phones to look at your website. Google also gives AMP pages higher preference on the “Top Stories” section of their search result.

There are several ways you can implement Accelerated Mobile Pages on your own website. If you know HTML, you can follow AMP’s own tutorial. If you are not familiar with HTML, you can use a plugin, like AMP for WP, if you have WordPress. It allows you to create AMP-friendly content with an easy-to-use drag and drop format.

Ready to Increase your Site Speed with Google PageSpeed Insights?

Hopefully, you have learned a lot in this article about how to increase your site speed and score better with Google PageSpeed Insights. Optimizing your site to load quickly can be tough if you aren’t an expert in coding and design. If you still need help with any of these steps, or improving your overall user experience, contact our web design and development experts at SEO Design Chicago today.

Google page speed

FAQ:

  • How do I use Google PageSpeed Insights?
  • What is a good Google PageSpeed score?
  • Does PageSpeed Insights affect SEO?
  • How do I increase my Google page speed?
  • What is a good page load time?

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