Maintaining high performance for your website is crucial for providing an optimal user experience and improving search engine rankings. A valuable tool in this regard is PageSpeed Insights (PSI), a free tool from Google that analyzes the performance of a web page on desktop and mobile devices, offering suggestions to improve speed and user experience.
PageSpeed Insights is an essential tool for SEOs and anyone who wants to optimize their website’s performance. By analyzing field and lab data in detail, PSI provides precise guidance on how to improve loading speed and user experience, key elements for search engine ranking and user satisfaction.
By integrating PageSpeed Insights into your workflow, you can constantly monitor your site’s performance, identify problems, and make the necessary changes to ensure an optimal user experience and improve organic ranking.
What is PageSpeed Insights?
PageSpeed Insights is a web performance analysis tool developed by Google. By analyzing the HTML, CSS, font, and JavaScript code of a web page, PSI provides specific recommendations to optimize performance and improve user experience. This includes suggestions such as image compression, code minification, and reducing the number of HTTP requests made by the page.
How to use PageSpeed Insights
To start using PageSpeed Insights, simply go to the official website and enter the URL of the page to analyze. You can choose to view the analysis for desktop or mobile devices, as mobile scores tend to be lower than desktop scores.
Field Data
The next section contains data from real users of your website. PageSpeed Insights draws this data from the Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX), which collects data from Chrome users who have consented to share this information.
Here, data related to Core Web Vitals (CWV) is shown, including a pass/fail rating. The key metrics are Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), which Google uses for search engine ranking.
The values are color-coded to indicate if they are good (green), need improvement (orange), or are poor (red). To be considered “good,” 75% of user experiences must meet the established threshold for each metric.
Lab Data
In addition to real user data, PageSpeed Insights also uses Lighthouse, an open-source tool for measuring the performance and quality of web pages. Lighthouse runs on Google’s servers and provides scores for Performance, Accessibility, Best Practices, and SEO.
The performance score is particularly relevant for SEOs, as it indicates how well a web page performs in terms of loading speed. This score ranges from 0 to 100, with thresholds of 90-100 for “good,” 50-89 for “needs improvement,” and 0-49 for “poor.”
It is important to note that a good performance score does not guarantee passing Core Web Vitals, as other factors such as network conditions, server load, and the user’s device also influence page loading times.
Lab Metrics
In the lab data section, you will find key metrics such as Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). However, you will not see First Input Delay (FID) or Interaction to Next Paint (INP) metrics, as these require user interactions, which lab tests do not replicate. In their place, you can use the Total Blocking Time (TBT) metric as a proxy to work on improving these metrics.
Opportunities and Diagnostics
The “Opportunities” and “Diagnostics” section of PageSpeed Insights will provide a series of suggestions for improving your web page’s performance. These suggestions can include image compression, code minification, reducing HTTP requests, and more.
It is important to note that estimated improvements may not be realistic, as there may be other factors limiting potential gains. Often, multiple issues need to be addressed to see an actual performance improvement.
Using PageSpeed Insights Data
Once you have identified problems and opportunities for improvement, you can use the suggestions provided by PageSpeed Insights to make the necessary changes to your website. Additionally, you can leverage tools like Ahrefs Site Audit to monitor performance over time and identify problematic pages more easily.
Integrating PageSpeed Insights into Your Workflow
To evaluate and monitor your website’s performance, we recommend using both Ahrefs Site Audit and the Core Web Vitals report from Google Search Console (GSC). Ahrefs will allow you to view page-level issues and monitor trends over time, while GSC will group similar pages, enabling you to work more efficiently on templates or systems.
Once you have identified the pages or templates to improve, you can use the guidance from PageSpeed Insights to make the necessary changes. Finally, you can verify the impact of your actions by using PageSpeed Insights again or by running another crawl in Ahrefs Site Audit.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between field data and lab data in PageSpeed Insights?
Field data comes from the real user experiences on your website, collected through the Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX). This data includes Core Web Vitals metrics, such as LCP, FID, and CLS, which Google uses for search engine ranking.
Lab data, on the other hand, is generated by Lighthouse, an open-source tool that tests your web page’s performance on Google’s servers. This data provides a performance score and other metrics, such as LCP and CLS, but does not include metrics like FID or INP that require user interactions.
Why should I use both PageSpeed Insights and Ahrefs Site Audit?
Using both PageSpeed Insights and Ahrefs Site Audit offers several advantages:
- PageSpeed Insights provides detailed guidance on your web page’s problems and improvement opportunities.
- Ahrefs Site Audit allows you to view page-level issues, monitor trends over time, and get Core Web Vitals data in bulk.
- By integrating the two tools, you can assess your site’s performance status, identify problematic pages, and make the necessary changes more efficiently.
What are the main metrics to monitor in PageSpeed Insights?
The main metrics to monitor in PageSpeed Insights are:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): measures the time it takes for the main content of the page to load.
- First Input Delay (FID): measures the page’s response time to user interactions.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): measures the visual instability of the page during loading.
These three metrics, known as Core Web Vitals, are fundamental for search engine positioning and user experience.
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