What is Google Page Speed Insights?
Google Page Insights (also known as Google Page Speed) is a free performance and website speed test provided by Google. It determines a score in four categories: Performance, Accessibility, Best Practices, and SEO. These scores are provided separately for mobile and desktop design.
You can analyze your website by using this link: https://pagespeed.web.dev
Why should I optimize my website for Google Page Insights?
Google wants to deliver the highest quality search results possible. Therefore, a website with a high Google Page Insight score will improve your SEO ranking. It will also indicate a good UX design (user experience) which should lead to better website conversions (sales).
How to score better Google page speed insights on Wix and Squarespace:
Compress and Optimize Your Images for the Web
The number one thing you have control over is the size of your images. Use tinypng.com or a program such as Photoshop to compress your images. Try to aim for under 100 kb, if you can, or under 200kb at the most.
Compressing your images won’t affect the quality on a screen. The pixels removed aren’t visible to the human eye in a digital format. Image compression is a great way to make sure your images load super-fast and don’t slow your site speed down! Read more about how to size your images down >>
Update your Theme/Template
Many of the performance errors on the Page Insights are due to how well your theme/template is performing. If you are still on Squarespace 7.0 or using an older Wix template (from more then 3 years ago), your outdated theme/template might be causing some of the performance issues.
Wix and Squarespace are constantly improving their platform to adhere to best SEO practices and user-experience practices. However, they only keep the most recent theme/templates up-to-date. After a while, their old templates or themes become “legacy” options which are no longer updated by the company. This means they will eventually fall out of compliance with the current best practices.
Be careful of too many animations
The more animations you have on your website, the slower it will load. A few animations here and there are fun and eye catching but be careful not to use too many. If you are finding your website performance is poor, try minimizing animations and using more static content. This will help increase your page speed time and improve user experience!
How to score better Google page speed insights on WordPress:
Choose your theme carefully
There are an incredibly large number of themes to choose from. A poor theme can be detrimental to your Page Insights. Choose a theme from a reputable company that has been around for a while (with lots of positive reviews). Make sure you are picking a theme that has built-in performance features that help you optimize for Page Insights and UX.
Don’t use too many plugins
If you have too many plugins (more then 10-15) it can slow down your site and affect your pagespeed. Be sure to delete any plugins you aren’t using and only use what you must. As with themes/templates, be sure to pick from a reputable company that updates their plugins on a regular basis.
Choosing a Fast host
Many people recommend Bluehost or HostGator because of their affiliate programs. However, these shared servers are incredibly slow. You can pay a premium monthly fee for faster hosting, but it can get quite pricy.
I recommend finding a local host. You’ll get a much faster server speed for a lower cost. This will dramatically improve your site speed on the Page Insights test and provide a better building experience for you.
Image compression on WordPress
On WordPress you have the option to use an image compression plugin. However, because too many plugins can slow a site down, I recommend manually compressing every image before you upload it to your website.
In WordPress you can also specify your image size in your page builder. In general, try to avoid using the “full” size for mobile. Set the image size as “large” or something slightly smaller than “full”. Page Insights likes to know you have a “max” size set for mobile devices.
Other ways to improve website performance
Search Console is another great free tool to help you manage and monitor page performance. It will also help you track keywords being used to find your site, validate errors, upload new pages, and site maps, and much more! You can learn more about how to install it here >>
