Guidelines Of Google PageSpeed Insight

 

In the digital age, where speed and accessibility are critical elements of online success, website performance plays a pivotal role. Users expect websites to load quickly, and search engines like Google prioritize the user experience by considering page speed as a ranking factor.

One of the most important tools available for assessing and improving website speed is Google PageSpeed Insights.

What is Google PageSpeed Insight?

Google PageSpeed Insights is a free tool from Google that evaluates the performance of web pages on both mobile and desktop devices. It analyzes the content of a web page and then generates suggestions to make the page faster. The tool uses both field and lab data to evaluate a page’s performance.

Field data is based on Real User Experience (RUX) data collected from users who visit the site. It provides insight into how real visitors experience the speed of the site. Lab data, on the other hand, is simulated and provides suggestions and optimisations based on best practices and rules defined by Google.

Guidelines of Google PageSpeed Insight

Follow these steps to use Google PageSpeed Insights:

• Open your web browser and visit the Google PageSpeed Insights site.
• Type or copy and paste the URL of the website you want to evaluate into the field provided.
• Click the “Analyze” or “Analyze with a new URL” button.
• The tool will start analyzing the website you entered. This may take a while depending on the size and complexity of the site.
• Once the analysis process is complete, PageSpeed Insights will provide a performance score for both the desktop and mobile versions of your site. These scores range from 0 to 100, with higher values indicating better performance.
• Below the performance score, you will see a list of improvement recommendations sorted by priority. Study the suggestions and focus on the improvements indicated.
• Click on the “Opportunities” section to see specific improvement suggestions and their expected impact. The “Diagnostics” tab provides more information about the factors affecting your site’s performance.
• Implement the recommended fixes to improve your site’s performance.

Take note: PageSpeed Insights provides recommendations based on technical analysis, but implementation may vary depending on the platform or content management system (CMS) you use.

Tips To Improve Page Speed

Here are some tips for those of you who want to improve your page speed.

1. Optimize Images and Videos for Fast Loading

Image and video content is often the cause of slow website performance. Using optimized images can help speed up the site and avoid display problems.

Tips:

• Resize and compress images.
• Setting specific image dimensions.
• Use Content Delivery Network (CDN) to deliver images.

2. Utilizing Videos from External Sources

If you have a video that demonstrates a product or service, you should avoid uploading it directly to the site. As well as taking up storage space, using videos directly can put pressure on the web server if many users are playing the video at the same time.

It is recommended that you store the video on other platforms (such as YouTube) and insert it into the website to improve loading time.

3. Avoid Overuse of Redirects

The use of redirects can slow down the response time between the request to the server and the initial delivery of data. Reducing the overuse of redirects will help improve the overall speed of the site and benefit search engine optimisation.

4. Choose a Fast Website Theme

There are special themes on websites that have been optimized to improve loading speed. Some themes are lighter, use GZIP compression or have responsive designs for different devices.

It is recommended that you check the list of WordPress themes that have high loading speed and consider changing the theme of your site to improve your site score and search engine optimization.

5. Use Asynchronous Loading for JavaScript

Asynchronous loading helps browsers perform multiple tasks simultaneously. With synchronous loading, the browser stops performing other actions while the JavaScript file is loading.

With asynchronous loading, the browser can perform other tasks, such as drawing a table or loading a CSS stylesheet, while downloading a JavaScript file. This tweak requires deeper technical knowledge, so it is best to get help from a web developer to implement it.

6. Enable Browser Caching

Enabling browser caching is a basic step to help websites load faster for returning visitors. With browser caching, images and videos are stored on the user’s device and loaded from there when they visit the page again.

Conclusion

Google PageSpeed Insights provides invaluable insight into optimizing website performance. By following the guidelines and best practices provided by this tool, webmasters and developers can significantly improve the user experience, potentially leading to higher search engine rankings and increased user engagement.

Prioritizing website speed not only meets user expectations, but also aligns with Google’s focus on providing the best possible experience for online users. Incorporating these guidelines into website development and maintenance is essential to remaining competitive in the digital landscape.