Why you should be cautious with Google PageSpeed Insights scores

Your website should be your most powerful marketing tool that leaves a lasting impression. You want it to deliver a seamless user experience while boosting page conversion rates. Faster websites have better chances of attracting higher conversions, and page speed has a direct impact on ad campaigns and Quality score.

Reports show that mobile sites with load speeds of about five seconds earn over twice the amount of ad revenue than other sites loading in 19 seconds. The truth is that most people will abandon any websites taking too long to load.

One study suggests that over 40% of online viewers leave a page that takes more than two-three seconds to load. Therefore, it's safe to say that taking care of your site's speed is very important.

How do you hit 100 for your Google PageSpeed Insights mobile score?

Any website owner can use the Google PageSpeed Insights tool to get the scores of their page. It's a handy tool that you can use to analyse your website's front-end performance and offer optimised suggestions to rank higher or increase page speed.

It provides scores between 0 and 100 points. Any score above 85 is a good one and shows a well-performing page. But a high score doesn't necessarily mean it's a user-friendly page, (jump to our video on the issues with high scores later in this blog post, if you immediately want to know more.) 

Let's first look at the elements you can use to increase your page speed and even score 100/100 on your website's Mobile Google PageSpeed test.

1. Boost your website speed

To improve your site performance effectively, you need to have an optimised website speed. It's also a significant determinant for the new test tool for you to score higher. You can secure better rates for your site by checking on features, such as plugins. You can also consider other integrations that impact page speeds for further optimisation.

It's also easy to achieve better page speed by using reliable web-hosting services. Your website host plays a significant part in boosting your speed and allows you to optimise other minor details.

2. Take into account your visible content

A great user experience comes from the visible content on your website - how quickly can you configure your website to load when a visitor lands on your page? The content that appears first, also known as the above-the-fold content, should seamlessly present itself. Also, reduce the amount of data used on such pages, such as images in the header, for higher speeds.

Using HTML to load the critical above-the-fold content can help. Those who do not know how to code can still use themes that offer excellent services to boost visible content and load faster.

3. Optimise images

It is common knowledge that optimised images help to make websites load faster. You can manually optimise images by compressing them or using available image optimisation tools, such as TinyPNG, especially when you want the job done faster and with ease.

4. Consider code minification

Making your source code more compact helps improve site speed and offers an excellent user experience. You have to remove all the code that may not be necessary to your site, such as new lines, white spaces, unused code, and redundant formatting. The process is crucial since it provides a smaller and faster version of your files.

5. Implement browser caching

The browser stores downloads such as HTML, CSS, images, and JavaScript in the local cache, whenever you visit a site. Such caches make it easier to load the website next time you visit with the same browser. It reduces any delay occurring during the processing and rendering of the webpage so with great browser caching, you will achieve faster website load speeds. You can use plugins for browsers, and check if your web-hosting services use one.

Should you hit a 100/100 score?

Using these tips, you will certainly increase your score, possibly even into the 90s. But it would be best to ask yourself if you should; why is this the primary goal? After all, even the most capable technology companies globally, including Google, don't try to hit 100 for their PageSpeed scores. They choose to find a balance between performance, experience and functionality.

The compromise is a result of several considerations you have to make as a site owner. To boost your PageSpeed score, you have to sacrifice some of the values of your websites that are important for a better user experience. John Kelleher, Chief Executive at ESM Inbound, explains more in this video:

Google itself is highly vocal about the site-speed factor and how it will affect your ranking. User experience is more critical now than ever before, and site owners can focus on web vitals such as interactivity and visual stability. They are the most essential factors for delivering a good page experience in Google search.

Page speed is among the essentials, but it does not outweigh other on-page factors. Therefore, focusing too much on speed may render your website worthless when the other factors are not optimised, too.

Also, Google is committed to offering an obstacle-free and satisfactory online experience for everyone who uses their search engine. They state the importance of fast loading speed and user experience, with a condition. These factors cannot out-rank quality content. Content is still king to get more visitors and achieve higher leads.

Therefore, consider that Google doesn't look for websites with lightning-fast speed for ranking, but they focus on the website that meets the user intent.

The bottom line

Google rankings in 2021 and beyond, try to focus more on the user experience. Therefore, prepare to implement the necessary changes and use the tools available to make your website worthy of more visitors in the first place.

Your SEO campaigns should focus on user experience and content, rather than the scores you get on your mobile experience page. Remember that getting a fast website should be part of your goal, but it is a small part of the bigger picture.

ESM Inbound can help you find the right balance for your website. Get in touch today.