SHARE

About Google Page Speed Scores and Why They Matter

How to Interpret Google PageSpeed Scores and Boost Conversation Rates as a Small Business Owner

Profile Pic of Snappy Web Design

Jul 13 · 5 min read

About Google Page Speed Scores and Why They Matter

In 2021, the quickest and most effective method of boosting your websites conversation rate (and search rankings) is improving your Google PageSpeed Insight scores by making your site faster.

It's why we focus so intently on building Snappy websites, and it permeates every decision we make when developing websites for our clients.

What are Google PageSpeed Insights?

Google PageSpeed Insights is a free tool by Lighthouse that tests a website's speed and identifies issues causing slow loading pages. Several tests are simulated on mobile and desktop devices to collect both lab data and real-world user experiences.

The result is a summary score of page-speed performance and issues causing bottlenecks.

Why Should You Care?

Every year, Google invests heavily into research surrounding page speed metrics and how it affects consumers habits in the real world. Why? Because the speed of your website directly predicts whether consumers will stay on your page or leave.

mobile-page-speed-new-industry-benchmarks-01-2.width-800 Think with Google Source: Google/SOASTA Research, 2017.

In one study, Google found that as page load times increase from 1 second to 10 seconds, the likelihood of a consumer leaving your site goes up by 123%. Another study by Google found that the average mobile page takes more than 15.3 seconds to fully load.

Yet another study by Google/55/Deloitte concluded that 61% of surveyed consumers stopped buying from a company because a competitor provided a better experience.

Speeding up your website is crucial to keep your customers happy. It'll also attract customers from your competitors who are providing slow experiences.

Below are a few statistics (courtesy of Think With Google) to illustrate the impact of page load times. 5fDoE-marketing-strategies-app-and-mobile-mobile-page-speed-conversion-dat (2) (1) n7M83-marketing-strategies-app-and-mobile-mobile-site-speed-tools-purchase (2) (1) kZ8iK-marketing-strategies-app-and-mobile-mobile-site-speed-user-preferenc (3) (1) gZUmG-marketing-strategies-app-and-mobile-mobile-site-app-speed-statistics (2)

Success Stories

We've claimed that improving your website's speed will improve conversion rates - but how true is it? Here are a few success stories from multinational brands on how speeding up their website improved their business, according to research by Google/55/Deloitte

Traffic to the BMW Sales Site increased from 8% to 30%

The Pfizer sites load 38% faster with the bounce rate reduced by 20%

Postbank achieved 8.5% more hits overal at the same cost. The click rate was 11% higher with the cost per click 8% lower

TUI has seen 31% decrease in bounce rates and 78% reduction in load times

Ebay: A 0.1 second improvement in load time resulted in a 0.5% increase in Add to Cart count

How do you Interpret Google PageSpeed Insight Scores?

First of all, it's important to note that having a passing PageSpeed score boosts your rankings in Google Search Results faster than maybe any other method. A passing score means your website meets the minimum requirements for the six categories that Google tests. See our websites report below as an example:

Screenshot 2021-07-13 162919

Here is a brief overview, in layman's terms, of what each category means:

  • First Contentful Paint (FCP) - measures the time from when the page first begins loading to when any part of the page's content first displays. A passing FCP score is 1.8 seconds or less.
  • Speed Index (SI) - how quickly the content is 'painted' (displayed) to the user, measured visually. A passing SI score is 3.4 seconds or less.
  • Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) - marks the point in time when the page's main content has loaded - one of the most important metrics to estimate user experience. A passing LCP score is 2.5 seconds or less.
  • Time to Interactive (TTI) - measures how long a page takes until it is fully interactive and able to be used. A passing TTI score is 3.8 seconds or less.
  • Total Blocking Time (TBT) - related to TTI, TBT measures how severely unusable a website is prior to it fully loading. If you've ever visited a website with spotty cell reception, you know how important this is. A passing TBT score is 300 milliseconds or less.
  • Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) - measures how much the content on your page moves, or shifts, as the page loads. This can be extremely frustrating for users. A passing CLS score is 0.1 or less.

Ready to See Your Scores?

Put your website through Google's free PageSpeed audit. Alternatively, contact us for a completely free consultation. We'll give you a level of information that can't be obtained through Google's report. No commitment necessary.

Sources:

Google/55/Deloitte, Speed Impact study, EMEA and U.S., n=37 brand sites analyzed hourly over a 30-day period totalling 30.5M sessions, Oct.-Nov. 2019.
https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-strategies/app-and-mobile/mobile-page-speed-new-industry-benchmarks/
https://developers.google.com/speed/docs/insights/v5/about


Want a FREE Comprehensive Report to Speed up your Site?

Head over to our contact form and send us a link to your website. We'll compile Page Speed insights and a list of the biggest bottlenecks/areas for improvement. We'll help you make a faster web for all!

Looking for more ways to improve your website & business?

Consider clicking the Follow button below. We'll notify you when a new post goes live that we think you'll like 🔔. Recommended reading: Tips to Write Content for Your Website

Need Website Development?

Check out our portfolio here. Or, shoot us a message by filling out the contact form here. We provide expert web design and development locally to Brighton, Ann Arbor, Detroit - as well as virtually to the rest of Michigan and the United States.

Hire me

More from Snappy Web Design

Subscribe to the Snappy Web Design Blog to get notified when a new post goes live. We'll never share your e-mail address or use it for any reason other than to share new posts.

Copyright © 2024. Snappy Web Design. All rights reserved.