Pagepseed insights give a lot of issues to fix and make the website better for search and users.

When you enter your web URL and hit ‘Analyse.’ Boom! Now you’ll be displayed with the status of our site performance in terms of performance, accessibility, best practice, and SEO.

But do you know how your website impacts each factor?

And what are the common important issues that can arise in almost every website? 

Initially, I didn’t have any idea about it. And sometimes it’s hard without the understanding of the fundamentals. 

That’s why this blog – To make the hardest the simplest.

1. Oversized images

Problem

Large, unoptimized images can seriously slow down your website’s loading time. When images aren’t compressed or resized correctly, they demand more bandwidth to load, resulting in sluggish page speeds.

Solution

• Employ image optimization tools: Tools like Adobe Photoshop, TinyPNG, or ImageOptim can help you compress images without compromising their quality.
• Choose the right image format: JPEG works well for photos, while PNG is preferable for images with transparency. Select the format that suits your content.
• Implement lazy loading: Lazy loading ensures that images only load when users scroll to them, reducing the initial load time.

2. Too many HTTPS requests

Problem

Each time a browser makes an HTTP request, it consumes time and resources. The more requests your page makes, the longer it takes to load.

Solution

• Cut down on external resources: Reduce the number of external scripts, stylesheets, and fonts on your page.
• Combine and compress files: Merge multiple CSS and JavaScript files into one for quicker loading. Minify your code to remove unnecessary characters and spaces.
• Utilize Content Delivery Networks (CDNs): CDNs distribute your website’s assets across multiple servers worldwide, reducing the distance between the user and the server, leading to faster loading times.

3. Unoptimized code

Problem

Bulky or unoptimized HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code can slow down the rendering process of your website.

Solution

• Trim down unnecessary code: Regularly review your codebase and remove any redundant or unused elements.
• Optimize CSS and JavaScript: Minify and compress your CSS and JavaScript files to reduce their size.
• Make use of browser caching: Set expiration dates for static resources to ensure browsers cache them, cutting down load times for returning visitors.

4. Slow server response time

Problem

Slow server response times can significantly affect your website’s loading speed, especially during periods of high traffic.

Solution

• Upgrade your hosting plan: Consider moving to a more robust hosting provider or plan to handle increased traffic effectively.
• Fine-tune server configuration: Adjust server settings, optimize database queries, and streamline server-side scripts for improved performance.
• Employ a Content Delivery Network (CDN): CDNs help distribute the server load and reduce latency by serving content from servers closer to the user.

5. Lack of browser caching

Problem

Without browser caching, each time a user visits your site, their browser must download all the assets again, resulting in longer load times.

Solution

• Set up browser caching: Configure your server to instruct browsers to store static assets locally, reducing the need for re-downloading on subsequent visits.

The four factors that come under ‘Diagnose performance issues’

Each of these factors can influence the loading speed of a web page.

1. Best practises

• Efficient Coding: Following best coding practices, such as minimizing unnecessary code and optimizing images and media, can directly impact page speed. Well-structured and efficient code loads faster.

• Minification: Minifying CSS, JavaScript, and HTML by removing unnecessary characters and spaces reduces file sizes, leading to faster load times.

• Responsive Design: Implementing responsive web design ensures that your site adapts to various screen sizes and devices, which can affect page speed by optimizing content for different contexts.

2. SEO

• Content Quality: High-quality content and optimized on-page SEO elements, such as headings, meta tags, and keyword placement, can indirectly impact page speed by improving user engagement and reducing bounce rates.

• Mobile Friendliness: Google’s mobile-first indexing considers mobile page speed, so optimizing for mobile can positively affect your SEO performance.

• Site Structure: An SEO-friendly site structure that’s easy for search engines to crawl and index can indirectly improve page speed by ensuring efficient content delivery.

3. Accessibility

Accessibility considerations, such as properly structured HTML, semantic tags, and providing alternative text for images and multimedia, can have a minor impact on page speed. These considerations ensure that assistive technologies can interpret and present content effectively, which may influence how quickly a page loads for some users.

4. Performance

Things that impact the factor ‘performance’ in the PageSpeed Insight

• Server Response Time: The speed at which the web server responds to a request plays a vital role in page speed. Optimizing server response time, which can include upgrading hosting infrastructure or optimizing server-side code, is a crucial aspect of performance optimization.

• Content Delivery: Performance optimization often involves using Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) to distribute content across multiple servers globally. CDNs reduce the physical distance between users and the server, which can drastically improve page load times.

• Caching: Caching mechanisms, including browser caching and server-side caching, can significantly improve page speed. They store static content and assets, reducing the need to fetch them from the server on each request.

• Compression: Compressing files, such as CSS, JavaScript, and images, reduces their file size, leading to faster downloads and rendering times.

• Resource Loading: Properly managing the loading of resources, including scripts, stylesheets, and images, can prevent render-blocking issues and ensure a smooth, uninterrupted user experience.

• Code Optimization: Optimizing the front-end code (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) for performance involves minimizing code, eliminating unnecessary requests, and using efficient coding practices.

• Critical Rendering Path: Optimizing the critical rendering path ensures that essential content is delivered quickly, allowing the user to see and interact with the page faster.

• Image Optimization: Efficiently compressing and delivering images, including responsive images for different screen sizes and using next-generation image formats like WebP, is a key component of performance optimization.

• Mobile Optimization: With the growing use of mobile devices, optimizing for mobile performance is crucial. Responsive design, mobile-friendly assets, and efficient mobile code all contribute to a faster mobile experience.

• Load Testing: Conducting load testing and performance testing to identify bottlenecks and optimize the site’s capacity to handle concurrent users is essential for maintaining good performance under heavy traffic conditions.

While these factors do have an impact on page speed, it’s important to note that they are not the primary drivers of speed. 

Page speed primarily depends on technical factors like server response time, file optimization, and network conditions. 

However, best practices, SEO, and accessibility should be integrated into your website development process alongside speed optimization to create the best experience for users and a site that performs optimally. 

I hope we have seen enough of the common PageSpeed Insight issues and their important factors.