Does your WordPress site work but find it a bit slow? Don’t panic!
With today’s users more impatient than ever and increasing digital competition, it’s vital to have a fast-loading website if you want to succeed.
Google has a tool called “PageSpeed Insight” that analyzes the content of a webpage and then gives suggestions to improve your site speed. It gives you a score between 0-100 on mobile and desktop too. The benchmark is between 50-89. By focusing on some elements, you can quickly boost WordPress speed.
In this blog, we’ll shed some light on how to improve Google PageSpeed Insights on WordPress. So, without further ado, let’s dive in!
What is Google PageSpeed Insights?
We, therefore, know that Google attaches great importance to the loading speed of websites. We often talk about web performance. In short, to know if the site is loading fast enough and to find out how to optimize the loading of its website, Google has created the Google PageSpeed Insight site.
This site is today one of the best tools to measure the speed of its Internet site. It also gives information on how Google rates the performance of your website:
- Between 0 and 49, your site is considered slow, and you will most certainly be penalized by Google. It is urgent to act if you want to stand out in the search engines.
- Between 50 and 89, your site is considered usually fast, within the average for global websites. You are then neither penalized nor favored in terms of reference. This can pass if you are in an industry with low, competitive keywords. But if there is a lot of competition, you will inevitably have websites that will have better work on their web performance and, therefore, be favored. At work!
- In 90 and 100, you will understand that Google considers your site optimized for loading and will favor you in its search results compared to slower competitors.
The latest version of PageSpeed Insights includes two types of real-world test data:
Lab data is an emulated test that shows how long it takes your site to load on a mobile network (e.g., 4G).
Field data incorporates accurate data from real anonymous mobile Chrome users via the Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX).
Why should you aim for a maximum score under Google PageSpeed Insights?
Know that you are certainly not the only one in your industry, looking at your site’s load time. The better you’re rating on Google PageSpeed, the more likely you are to outperform your competition.
In addition, also know that the loading time directly influences the results on your site. For example, in the e-commerce sector, various studies have shown that improving the loading time on a site can increase sales by 7 to 10%.
What are the speedometers?
Google on its PageSpeed Insights tool offers indicators that will give you an idea of what is working or not on your website:
- First Contentful Paint, FCP, indicates the time it takes for your site to display the first piece of content within your page. Between 0 and 2 seconds, your site is fast on this indicator; between 2 and 4 seconds, it is average, and above 4 seconds, it is too slow on this point.
- The First Meaningful Paint, the FMP, indicates the time it takes for a browser to display the main content of your page. The measurement scale is the same as for the FCP. Between 0 and 2 seconds, your site is efficient; between 2 and 4 seconds, it is average, and if it exceeds 4 seconds, your site is considered too slow on the FMP indicator.
- The Speed Index indicates the time it takes for the content to be available on the page.
- The Interactivity Timeout is an indicator that measures the time it takes for the page to become fully interactive.
- The Max Potential First Input Delay represents the maximum delay that a user can wait before seeing their interaction with the page. This, therefore, corresponds to the most critical time during which your site saturates the rendering engine of your page.
How to improve your Google PageSpeed Insight score?
Improving your PageSpeed Insight score will take a lot of effort. Some solutions are simple to implement, without even the slightest technical skill, and others are much more complex, requiring a lot of testing before you get there.
Likewise, some solutions will have a very significant impact on your Google PageSpeed Insights score and other solutions that are more difficult to implement but which will allow you to get closer to the maximum score of 100.
You will find below the list of improvements offered by Google to optimize the loading time of your site. Later on, we will provide you with an article to give you indications on the techniques to pass these criteria for each point.
- Eliminate resources that block rendering
- Correctly size images
- Defer loading offscreen images
- Reduce the size of CSS resources
- Reduce the size of JavaScript resources
- Delete unused CSS resources
- Encode images efficiently
- Distribute images in new generation formats
- Enable text compression
- Connect in advance to the desired origins
- Avoid multiple page redirects
- Preload key requests
- Use video formats for animated content
- Avoid massive network payloads Total size
- Use efficient cache rules on static items
- Avoid excessive DOM size
- Reduce the depth of critical requests
- User time marks and measurements
- JavaScript execution time
- Make sure text remains visible while web fonts are loading
- Third-party code. The main thread was blocked by third-party code
- Reduce server response times (*TTFB)
- Minimize the number of requests and the size of transfers
- Reduce the work of the main thread
What are the expected results of optimizing your Google Page Speed score?
Improving your Google PageSpeed Insights score has a direct impact on your search engine results. This is one of the parameters to consider for your SEO and undoubtedly one of the first points to work on when you start SEO optimization. With the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) validation of your website, these two indicators are the guarantors of a quality site.
Is it possible to get a score of 100 on Google PageSpeed Insights?
The answer is yes, but you have to distinguish the Google PageSpeed Insights score on desktop and mobile.
It’s easier to score 100 on a desktop than on mobile. The site of our Seahawk Media, the one you are currently on, has a score of 100/100 on the test.
On mobile, getting 100/100 on PageSpeed is more complicated. It will undoubtedly be necessary to cut corners on a few features to achieve them. Follow the advice that is listed above!
Our methodology to achieve a score of 100 on Google PageSpeed Insights
Methods for an existing site
Achieving a score of 100 on Google PageSpeed Insights on an existing site is a challenge. Our methodology is then simple. We study the Google PageSpeed test results and tackle each recommendation, sorting them by difficulty level and by the power of their potential outcomes.
Methodology for the creation of a new site.
With a bit of rigor, it is possible to stick to a score of around 100 throughout development.
Here is our working methodology:
- During development, we avoid third-party JavaScript libraries as much as possible.
- We work the CSS with the BEM method.
- We compile our code.
- We use a system during deployment to monitor fluctuations in Google PageSpeed Insights ratings throughout the project.
In conclusion on optimization on Google PageSpeed Insights
Start working serenely on optimizing your site’s load time and improving your Google PageSpeed Insights.
If you cannot optimize your WordPress site’s load time, please do not hesitate to contact us. We can help you!
For more details & information, read this blog: HOW TO SPEED UP YOUR E-COMMERCE WEBSITE?
