Google has said it loud and clear: page speed is an integral factor in their search ranking algorithm. Today, Coalition Technologies discusses a few key points toward understanding Google’s web speed app, Google Page Insights. Using this tool, and others, you’ll be able to assess your own site’s speed and affect changes to improve it.
The Need for (Digital) Speed
Google’s focus on website speed is well-founded: page speeds affect your website’s traffic and even revenue, according to studies conducted by leaders in both search and e-commerce. Google has also created a host of tools to help users understand their website speed, chief among them Google page insights.
Simply typing a web page into the app’s search bar begins the analysis. The results are broken down into a series of analyses and suggestions. They are:
- Field Data
- Lab Data
- Opportunities
- Diagnostics
- Passed Audits
Understanding each of these metrics will provide a strong foundation for your growing website speed knowledge, as well as for SEO in general. We’ll cover the basics of each below.
Field Data
Your site’s field data is gathered via Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX), which measures your website’s speed to First Contentful Paint (FCP) and First Input Delay (FID). FCP refers to the time from navigation to when the browser renders the first bit of content from that page. In short, it’s how fast your site provides pixels to a user’s browser.
FID measures refers to how long it takes your website to respond to a user’s navigation input, e.g., from the moment they clicked on your page. Google page insights draws data from your site’s real traffic over the last 30 days to measure both these metrics and organizes sites’ results into three categories: fast, average, and slow.
Lab Data
The Lab Data metric shows your website speed as measured through a series of independent tests rather than your site’s data. This provides a more in-depth look at your site’s performance, measuring when your site can first handle input, when the majority of your content is populated on the screen, projected delay times for users, and much more. These paint a more in-depth picture of your website speed.
Opportunities
Here we find the first set of suggestions for optimizing site’s performance. Depending on your website’s build this list will be shorter or longer, but it provides a place to start as you affect changes. This is where you directly leverage Google page insights into improving your company’s website speed, and ultimately your page ranking.
Diagnostics
Here you will find specific problems Google page insights has discovered on your site. This provides a more granular look at where your site needs to improve, identifying problems in your site’s code that is hindering your speed. Clicking on each listed diagnostic item brings up the data that went into the assessment and recommendations for improvement.
Passed Audits
It’s not all bad, though. The final metric of the Google page insight speed audit provides information on what your site already does well. This can also be important, providing designers and developers with feedback on what’s working in their build and things to avoid disrupting as they affect changes to their site.
The Coalition Insight
If you are considering whether or not SEO and digital marketing are right for your needs, we’d be happy to talk with you today and start developing your strategy. Our expertise in this industry is something we are proud to share and use to empower users and online businesses alike. If you’d like to see what a professional SEO agency can do to optimize your business’ performance, please give us a call at (310) 827-3890 or email us at sales@localhost. We offer a free consultation to potential clients and take on new clients year-round, meaning there’s never a bad time to get in touch. Contact us today!
