Page Speed is brought up a lot, it is after all a major ranking factor for Google and SEO.
However, it’s a very unreliable metric.
To prove the point, this morning, from the same internet connection, at our office in Swansea, I ran Google’s own Page Speed test on their own website.
On the plain Google.co.uk page, on my Desktop computer I got a Performance score of 89, and the laptop, 93. Same internet connection, same time, same page. Pretty Close.
Then on the Google.co.uk Results page for “plumber” a contrast of 68 against 30.
Same internet connection, same time, same page, just a different device.
The page being tested hadn’t changed.
Page Speed is important, but quite often people will come to us with a report another organisation has done for them, worried about their website, whether we’ve built it or they want to transfer to us.
I’ll happily sit down and look at the report and look for genuine improvements that can be made, but quite often, I’ll run the report again in front of them and we’ll get different results.
That’s why it’s important my team, of proper web developers understand how things work under the hood, so we can put the right foundations in place.
DIY websites are often a problem for speed, WordPress with loads of Plugins, Shopify, Squarespace, Wix, because their code can be rather bloated as they have to cover off a solution for everyone. The best solution for page speeds is a lightweight code, designed specifically for the solution – very minimalist!
If your website has genuine speed issues, because of poor code or slow hosting, get in touch for a chat to see if we can help!
But beware of looking at these reports at face-value!
