Test your Google Speed
The Google Speed Check score for your website is pretty important isn’t it? Type in your web address in the Google Speed Check and after a few seconds of processing it gives you a score out of 100 for desktop and mobile based on the sites speed.
I’ll give you a minute to go and check your Google Speed Check score.
If you’ve come back to read this you’ve either discovered your google speed check score is “slow” (below 50) or “average” (between 50-89). If it’s fast (90-100) you’ve probably just come back to gloat.
It’s no exaggeration that a lot of business owners and website designers get hung up on the score that Google provides. No matter how many hours have been put into a websites content, sadly Google’s speed analysis is used as the defining indicator of the projects success.
Why is Google Speed Check Important?
Google Speed Check is important because everyone cares about Google ranking. They know their sites speed is an important part of where their sites end up in the search.
But search ranking aside, speed is essential part of providing site visitors with an excellent website experience. You don’t want visitors to give up on your great business simply because your website is incredibly slow.
Yes, optimise your websites speed for the benefit of Google and search engines, but more importantly get a great Google Speed Check score to provide a better user experience.
Whether users are visiting your site from a desktop or a mobile device make sure their experience is the best it can be. With mobile devices rapidly taking over people’s chosen method of surfing the internet there has never been a more important time for your site to be mobile-first ready.
PageSpeed Insights doesn’t only allow you to run a Google Speed Check but also provides a wealth of advice on ways that your website can be improved to increase the score.
For anyone that isn’t familiar with css minification or javascript compression the red text and warning signs can be extremely daunting.
So how do you go about making those changes,
to get that elusive 90-100 speed score?
The truth is there is no guaranteed solution and I wouldn’t recommend anyone to confront the Google PageSpeed Insights head on.
Here’s what I do and I think you should to:
I run my own and clients websites on WordPress and there are plenty of cache solutions that can really help boost your website. W3 Total Cache, and Super Cache are just a couple of the freemium solutions that you can use to speed up your site without spending a penny.
However my favourites are WP FASTEST CACHE and WP ROCKET . Both are paid speed optimising solutions, but the wealth of features including image compression make them money well spent. They offer a straight forward solution to optimising a sites speed, that anyone with basic website knowledge can get a grips with.
Of course there is more that goes into creating each of our websites, including design choices, the navigational experience. However, optimising a sites speed is just a great way of making our design and navigation choices work as effectively as possible.
Don’t let Google Speed Check get the better of you
Do what you can to enhance the speed of your website and master the Google Speed Check. But don’t just do it with the illusion of hitting the top spots on Google ranking. Do it to offer your visitors a better user experience and enhance the opportunity to generate new business.
What are your experiences with Google Page Insights and Google Speed Check? Have you mastered the mobile and desktop experience? Let us know in the comments below.
