But how does Google's PageSpeed Insights Tool operate? Furthermore, how does page speed impact SEO? Everything you require to know is contained in this article.

In the past, the PageSpeed Insights Tool could have been more accurate. The majority of the data there was easily accessible elsewhere and didn't show speed. But Google just improved the tool, making it far more useful. Unfortunately, understanding it is far more difficult.

However, PageSpeed Insights, which is powered by Lighthouse but understandably presents the information on a web page, has helped this technology gain popularity among SEOs.

Google PageSpeed Insights: What Is It?

Google's online PageSpeed Insights tool is used to find websites that have performance problems. The tools examine the site from a User Experience and accessibility point of view, even though they are primarily concerned with technical SEO issues.

Desktop Versus Mobile

Google will provide two scores whenever you add a page to evaluate it: a score for the desktop version and one for the mobile version.

Mobile:

With the Desktop version, the PageSpeed Tool initially only provided one score. Yet, using a mobile device has grown in popularity recently.

More than 50% of search engine users as of 2018 conduct their searches on mobile devices. It made it logical for Google to evaluate mobile versions for speed first as they transitioned to a mobile-first index.

However, take into account that many mobile consumers still only receive 3G signals globally, and despite their slower connection speeds, they still anticipate a website to load quickly.

And this is the issue. The speed of the connection is more important than your website sometimes. When the connection speed is slow, it could appear that your website is slow.

Desktop:

The score is greater on a desktop due to the faster connection speed. The problem with fiber optics and light is that you need to reside in the UK and still use cups and string for the internet. The website undergoes the same testing, but the main difference is the connection speed.

Because mobile devices typically have slower connections, mobile comes first. With 5G, things might change, but until then, make sure to concentrate on enhancing your site's mobile device performance.

What is Page Speed, exactly?

We know what the tool does: provide a score depending on how quickly it believes your website to be. How fast is a page, though?

The speed at which a specific page load on your website is known as page speed. Due to elements like graphics and JavaScript, various pages may load at varying speeds.

Speed varies, though. It depends on many variables, including the speed of the website, the server, the specific web page you're on, the type of connection, the internet package offered by the user's ISP, the device's processing power, the browser, what the user is currently doing, how many apps are open, and so forth.

To be clear, page speed isn't measured by a score like PageSpeed Insights. It is the amount of time, in seconds, it takes for a web page to load. It is what counts.

Because of this, Google PageSpeed Insights previously needed to be more accurate. You weren't exactly given information regarding how quickly your website loads. just scores.

This new version is excellent because of this. It keeps the best features of the previous edition while providing all the information you require regarding loading times.

Of course, the loading time has a variety of interesting points. For instance, since some scripts don't need to be used initially, you could run them afterward.

Does Page Speed Impact SEO? Is a Perfect Insights Score Required?

The short answer is yes. Page speed has an impact on SEO. After Google's Algorithm Speed Update, the fact that page speed directly affects rankings has become more widely known. Speed, however, can also indirectly impact rankings by raising the bounce rate and lowering dwell time.

Users always come first at Google. Google studies reveal that the typical 3G loading speed is extremely slow. They also demonstrate that people abandon the website within three seconds. This indicates that their experience could have been better, and Google dislikes listing websites that offer poor user experiences.

What you must keep in mind is that speed is not measured in points from 0 to 100 but rather in seconds. Although PageSpeed Insights is a tool that aids in speed improvement, the results don't always translate to the actual world.

Why?

Because we are unsure if Google uses the score as a ranking element, Google uses seconds, right? Is the score used? Who knows...?

You must, however, consider how Google conducts these testing. The location from where the tests are run is still being determined. If Google checks your server using a 3G connection in the US, is it a Romanian server? Hence it stands to reason that modest speeds are to be expected.

Lab and Field Data:

These new measures are genuinely helpful ones. They are divided into two groups: field data and laboratory data. Field data, which Google extracts from actual users via Chrome or other data providers, is what matters in the real world.

Indeed, it's average, and Google will let you know if it currently needs more information. An average of the site's speed is displayed in Origin Summary.

By doing so, you may understand how your page stacks up against the site as a whole and against other websites in the Chrome User Experience Report.

Although still useful, lab data could be viewed as less significant because it is gathered in a regulated setting.

Important Elements for Increasing the PageSpeed Insights Score:

I've disregarded the idea that getting a perfect score is necessary. Here are the main components that will significantly speed up your website's loading time.

Warning: Before implementing these changes, back up your files and database. You must ensure you can return to a prior version in case they screw up your website.

The Speed of The Server:

You can only truly change the server with others. Either you have a decent one, or you don't. If you don't own the machine, you would have to either dramatically lower its load or increase its hardware to improve it.

So, having a good server from the start is crucial. But how can you pick a reliable server?

However, every hosting provider with a good Google ranking must offer respectable services. You must, however, conduct the test. best guidance? Choose a local server if your main goal is local SEO. For instance, if most of your audience is from Italy, select a server with an Italian data center.

The information will have to travel a great distance before it reaches your target audience if the data center is located in the US.

To evaluate the speed there, it would be preferable if you knew someone who is a real hosting company customer.

While your website will be on a shared hosting plan, the host's website will most likely be on a dedicated server. This implies that other websites share your computer's CPU and internet bandwidth.

It's fantastic if you can test an actual customer site. You can find customers' reviews by looking through them, or you can ask the customer care staff for one.

Image Compression:

Images are typically the largest issue with websites. They are large and consume a lot of download space.

The photos have two different kinds of problems. The first one compares the screen size to the size of the real image in pixels, while the second one is the size of the disc.

Disk Size: An image will take longer to download the more physical space it requires on a hard drive or SSD. 1000 KB will download far more slowly than 100 KB (1MB). Expect your website to load quite slowly if your blog post contains 10 images in that format.

WP Smush can help you optimize your photos. The photos will be compressed using this plugin without any quality being lost. This implies that you can reduce an image with a resolution of 1000 by 1000 pixels from 200 KB to 150 KB without perceiving a difference in quality, resulting in a 25% faster load time.

Make sure you aren't utilizing a picture that is larger than it will be displayed to speed up image loading. For instance, you would lose load time for the 700x700 pixels if you had a 300x300 CSS-styled HTML section but loaded a 1000x1000 image in the source. The browser must first download the 1000x1000 pixel image before reducing it to 300x300 pixels.

Conclusion:

A faster website is essential for higher search rankings. A list of best practices and potential upgrades are provided by PageSpeed Insights, ordered according to how they will affect how quickly your site loads.

Even if you shouldn't worry too much about the score, it's smart to aim for a score of at least 50. But pay attention to the load time, which is expressed in seconds. It should take a good website roughly 3 seconds to load. One that is extremely quick should load in around 1.

Regarding website speed, having a reliable server, compressing images, and maintaining clear, straightforward code will be the most useful to you.

If you want to launch your very own professional business website, be aware of the role that loading speeds play into google rankings, and take note of the points highlighted in this article. Do these things and I am confident that your website will rank highly on the google rankings!