keyword rankings
We have clients that come to us on a daily basis asking why their Google PageSpeed Insights score is not higher. Some want to know how they can achieve a score of 100. Page speed tools attempt to give a score to a website, which is independent of the ranking process on Google or other search engines. We have sites scoring below average, but still rank in the top positions for numerous competitive search terms.

Slow website? Call us at (443) 475-0787 or Contact Us online.

What PageSpeed Is… and Isn’t

First, I should explain briefly what the PageSpeed Insights tool, and others like it, are really for. While anyone may access it and run a test on their website, this tool is truly for developers who can analyze the issues and fix them. One look at the documentation or results, and you can tell Google has provided very detailed and technical instructions in terminology common to webmasters.

Once the tool has been run you now have items organized from high to low priority common to the development world. Fix the high priority issues first because those are the worst problems, and then work your way down. Once you have fixed everything you can, run the scan again to confirm the fixed items are no longer on the list. Or maybe they have been moved to a lower priority than they were previously.

Notice I have yet to mention the score. That is because the score does not matter! The score itself is, IMO, the worst part of the tool as it tries to give you a graded outcome like you are back in school getting a test grade. But what you won’t find is a high score directly increasing your search rankings. Or, even worse, the lower your score, the less likely you will rank or be indexed. You won’t see that in your results and for good reason. So, why a grade at all?

Developers like numbers and scores and it makes many of us happy to know that when we fix things, we go from red to yellow to green, or C to B+, or from 72 to 89. That is the only reason the score is there. Stop using the number or score to judge SEO performance.

When It Matters

So, what does happen when you fix a bunch of issues and get a better score? The resources such as CSS, JS, and image files are compressed and now your website loads faster because everything is smaller and less power hungry on your server. This in turn gives your users a better experience and faster load times. Your users spend more time on your website, which are valued by the search engines and indirectly help you rank higher.

Make your site fast with our technical specialists. Call us at (443) 475-0787 or Contact Us online.

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