PageSpeed Insights is a Google service that allows you to test your website’s performance, which generates suggestions to optimize it. It can be used on smartphones, tablets, and computers. The page loading speed test is based on an analysis of content rendering’s effectiveness and responsiveness in the user’s browser. The following data are taken into account: the JS script used, the structure and cleanliness of HTML+CSS, the optimization of multimedia content, etc.

In this article, we will look at how to test a website loading speed in Google PageSpeed Insights, and then analyze the main indicators on the example of analyzing the English version of the Apple website. We will also show possible ways to solve speed problems.

Testing the website loading speed with PageSpeed Insights
Apple’s website was taken as an example for three reasons:

  1. It is a well-known brand.
  2. Its optimization is poor, according to Google.
  3. The iPhone 12 has been released a few months ago.

Apple is a cutting-edge technology brand. However, there are obvious problems with the website, as you have to wait a long time – about 4 seconds – for the initial content to load.

The analysis is performed as follows:

  1. Click on the link developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights.
  2. Enter the page address in the input line.
  3. Click on the “Analyze” button.
  4. Wait for testing to complete and the page to refresh.

Evaluating website loading speed with Google PageSpeed
There are two versions of the analysis, one for mobile devices and the other for computers. Indicators and recommendations are different. The Apple website scores 40 points on the mobile version, which is not enough for a regular project. As a result, people are leaving the website much faster, as they are not willing to wait. The desktop version scores 74.

Mobile version:

Computer version:

There are various criteria for evaluating speed – we will address them further below. For now, we should focus on the following scores:

  • from 0 to 49 – the speed is poor;
  • 50 to 89 – it needs improvement;
  • from 90 to 100 – it is good.

The presence of a low indicator affects the number of bounces on the website, and the slower the page the clients open, the less they are willing to wait for the content to load. Problems with the organization of the rendering process need to be resolved as soon as possible.

But in the end, one might wonder what should be the normal website loading speed? In fact, the answer to that is the faster, the better.

Then, there are subsections with recommendations for fixing problems, if there are any.

Page loading simulation

This section contains 6 metrics. Their combination allows you to determine the total number of points awarded for meeting the system’s requirements. Let’s analyze each one of them in more detail:

  1. First Contentful Paint (FCP) aims to measure how long it takes to paint the first text or image.
  2. Speed Index evaluates the time it takes for the content to be visually displayed.
  3. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) indicates how much time the largest element has been rendered to the screen.
  4. Time to Interactive (TTI) points out the amount of time after which the page is fully interactive.
  5. Total Blocking Time (TBT) indicates the total amount of time between First Contentful Paint and Time to Interactive.
  6. Cumulative Layout Shifts (CLS) helps to quantify how often users can experience the occurrence of layout shifts, that is to say, the unexpected movement of visible elements.

Optimizers have different attitudes towards this service, but evaluating the speed of a website resource affects the search engines’ results. They are affected at least indirectly, based on the behavioural factors of customers who go back to the search engine without waiting for the end of loading of all the elements.

Website optimization based on PageSpeed Insights recommendations
This section contains tips for increasing the loading speed. When you click on each of the list items, you will see a recommendation for improving the website.

For instance, by clicking on an item from the list with a recommendation to use modern image formats, you can find a suggestion to switch to JPEG 2000 and WebP image formats instead of the usual and inefficient PNG and JPEG formats.

In the case of the Apple website’s main English-language page, you can increase the download speed by 0.16. The screenshot also shows the potential savings on image compression.

Diagnostics
This section provides information on the performance of a web resource and a number of recommendations.

When you click on the first one, you can see a recommendation for setting up all text display when fonts are loaded. This function is implemented based on CSS.

By eliminating each of these problems, you can increase page loading speed to an excellent value. The number of bounces will decrease, which will indirectly affect the rise of positions in search engine results, provided that the site content itself is useful and interesting to users.

We hope this article has brought you useful knowledge on how to measure and improve page loading speed.