PageSpeed Insights

What is Google PageSpeed Insights?

Googles PageSpeed Insights is a tool that analyzes a web page and generates scores of key performance metrics and suggests how to improve the performance of the page.

It's important to understand PSI scores are a guide—not a definitive measure of success.

Field vs. lab data

PageSpeed Insights shows both field and lab data about a page's performance.

Field Data (CrUX)

The first section of scores shows field data, or "actual" data of real users on your website. This data analyzes Core Web Vitals and gives you a breakdown of how your website is performing with real users over a period of time.

The field data focuses on the 3 Core Web Vitals, LCP, INP, and CLS—as well as other notable metrics FCP, and TTFB.

Lab data (Lighthouse)

The second section of scores shows lab data, or "programatic" data of what users may experience on your website. This data also analyzes Core Web Vitals, but also gives you a full report of how to improve the score of your website. It's important to note that these suggestions are generalized and not always the best strategy for your website's ideal user experience.

The lab data focuses on FCP, LCP, TBT, CLS, Speed Index, and other tests related to performance.

In the lab tests, there is a "Performance" score that creates a cumulative score based on several programatic tests run on the web page. It's important to note that yellow color does not mean "bad." At Finsweet, we always prioritize our desired user experience over speed tests scores.

Although it may be valuable to see the recommended performance suggestions at the bottom of this test, you should never change your ideal user experience to satisfy speed test scores.

Are great Page Speed Insights scores important for SEO?

Speed tests, Lighthouse results, and Web Core Vitals are not stand-alone ranking factor for search engines. While some of these metrics will not directly affect your website rankings, they are important principles for great web developers to understand. Bad scores that indicate a bad user experience may hurt your SEO if users bounce from your website.

Looking at Apple, Amazon, Stripe, and Google

Excellent scores on PageSpeed Insights don't always translate to a great user experience. Low and failing Page Speed scores may be seen on websites with excellent user experience.

The largest brands in the world, who are known for fantastic user experience, often fail Page Speed Insights tests and Core Web Vitals tests. Apple, Amazon, Stripe, and even Google fail in Core Web Vitals measurements on many of their web pages

Go to Page Speed Insights, and try a few of your favorite brands. You'll be shocked at how poorly large websites perform on speed tests. However, these sites still dominate in search results and are known for outstanding online user experience.

Why are mobile and desktop PageSpeed Insights scores different?

A question we're asked a lot at Finsweet Agency... so let's answer it.

There’s a few reasons why page speed differs on mobile and desktop. Mobile scores will always be lower than desktop scores because:

• Mobile devices have slower processors, so they are slower in general. Since mobile devices are less powerful than desktops, your website will load slower on mobile.
• Automated PageSpeed tests can be run on simulated 3G or 4G connection, mimicking a much slower internet speed.

The lab tests of desktop and mobile results may not accurately represent the experience of your users. For example, if your users are wealthy and live in a metropolitan city, their mobile phones may be able to process your website better than the generalized speed tests from PageSpeed Insights.

Should I focus on speed test scores?

The short answer, "no." Focusing on other topics like content, user flow, and how your brand is represented is far more important than speed test scores. We can get high scores, but it should not replace your ideal user experience.

Yes— it is important to recognize these scores and make the appropriate updates to improve the performance of your website.

No—Key user experience flows and core business tools should not be changed to get higher speed test scores.