WordPress is, without a doubt, the most popular Content Management System. After all, it powers more than 42% of all websites on the Internet. It's a solid platform that offers flexibility and room for creativity.
However, it's also susceptible to slowness due to its plugins and themes. Code bloat, too many of them installed, and incompatibilities can all contribute to a WordPress site's sluggishness. That's why it's essential to test it after significant changes to the theme or after installing new plugins.
Here's where tools like Google PageSpeed Insights come in handy. It's one of the most common ways to test how fast your site loads, but it's not just about raw speed. It's about the overall user experience.
Read on as we explain exactly what PageSpeed can do for your website, how to read the results, and how Managed WordPress hosting can help with it all.
What is Google PageSpeed?
PageSpeed Insights tests how quickly your website loads but it also goes deeper than that. There are two other factors we'll focus on in this blog post: site responsiveness and layout shifting.
But, before we dive into those, let's quickly explain how testing your site works. It's very simple. After visiting PageSpeed Insights and analyzing your site, you'll see a series of bars followed by a score out of 100.
That score is a good guideline, but not a target goal to be achieved. Instead, scroll down and review the individual suggestions on what needs improvement. They are what you should focus on and are also what will provide the most positive impact.
Besides, the numerical score is arbitrary, which you'll notice if you use any other testing tool (GTmetrix, Pingdom, WebPageTest, etc.). The results will never line up perfectly with each other.
So, let's focus on the important bits instead. The three primary factors that affect your site's performance and the user experience.
The Core Web Vitals
While the name of the tool is PageSpeed Insights, it measures more than just how many seconds it takes for your site to load. It instead measures how your site feels to users. We know it's an abstract concept, but it'll make sense soon.
Firstly, there are three Core Web Vitals that Google uses to measure this "feeling."
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): This measures how fast the largest content element renders on the page. Whether it's an image, a text block, or anything else, always aim for under 2.5 seconds here.
Interaction to Next Paint: (INP): Next is how quickly your site responds to user interaction (clicks or taps). It's the time it takes between the interaction and the response from the site. A good target to aim for is under 200 milliseconds.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Finally, this indicates the stability of a page layout while it loads. Every time you've tried to click a button and it's jumped away, that would have been a minus in this category. We recommend a score below 0.1.
There is one more metric we'd like to mention, though. Even if it's not a part of the Core Web Vitals, Time to Interactive (TTI) is an important one. It's a good way to measure real-world usability.
As the name implies, it shows how long it takes before a web page becomes fully, wholly usable. The timer stops when the page has visually loaded, all the script behind is settled and working properly, and the user can interact with any of it without any tangible delay.
In other words, it tells you when the page feels ready, instead of when it looks ready. "Fake fast pages" exist, and TTI is their kryptonite. They appear loaded, but are useless because some script is loading too slowly, for example.
We hope it makes more sense now how PageSpeed Insights measures "feel" and user experience, and not just raw speed. Combined, these four statistics show how smooth and frustration-free your site is to browse.
Why PageSpeed Insights results matter
The results you get from PageSpeed reflect not just how fast your site is or how it looks, but how it performs in the real world. Lower scores on each of the Core Web Vitals might not seem like much at first glance, but they can have tangible consequences.
It all comes down to the user experience, as it always does. It's all about providing a site that's comfortable and intuitive to browse. There are three significant ways the score in PageSpeed Insights can impact your site.
SEO ranking: Google loves fast, user-friendly sites. Yours is far more likely to appear in a search result if it scores high marks.
Bounce rate: Visitors tend to leave sites that take too long to load, are unresponsive, or shift all over when they try clicking.
Conversions: And when visitors stay on your site, they are far more likely to "convert." In other words, they will likely do what the page they are on prompts them to, such as buying something or filling out a form.
So if your site is slow or sluggish, it's more than just a technical issue. It can have a genuine impact on your business if left unchecked. Remember how we mentioned that WordPress is susceptible to such slowness and sluggishness? Let's examine what that entails and how to address the issue.
Common causes and fixes for a low PageSpeed score
If you are seeing a bad score, don't panic. Fortunately, most performance issues with WordPress stem from a few common, well-understood, and thoroughly tested culprits.
Heavy and uncompressed images, or a heavy file format. WebP is always preferable.
Too many plugins that add poorly coded or unnecessary scripts.
Bloated themes can also add to the bad code and unnecessary scripts.
Insufficient caching.
Slow or unoptimized servers.
Because WordPress is so popular, issues like these have been thoroughly dissected and are well-documented. The solutions are usually as simple as removing a plugin or choosing the right host.
And in that vein of thought, our Managed WordPress Hosting plans will resolve all of those, and even more. If you are currently on a standard Shared Hosting plan, upgrading to our Managed solutions will feel like your site suddenly has jet engines strapped to it.
We've worked closely with our sister company, Rocket.net, to bring our customers the ultimate Managed WordPress environment that eliminates all the hassle and frustration. Here's why.
Our Managed WordPress Hosting plans all live on servers specifically optimized for WordPress. Through this laser focus on WordPress, we are capable of implementing systems and technologies that are tailor-made for the CMS.
Caching is also no longer an issue, as our servers all support the best caching solutions. Additionally, you gain access to the top caching solution on the market: WP Rocket.
WP Rocket is also fully equipped with tools to minimize and compress images and code, further improving your site's loading times. To learn all about this fantastic plugin, check out our livestream with Joe Di Salvo from the WP Rocket team.
Not only are our Managed WordPress Hosting plans blazing-fast, but they also boast robust security and stability. Guarded by a comprehensive security suite and running on contemporary hardware, our servers will ensure your site runs smoothly and uninterrupted.
Forget having to update your WordPress core, plugins, and themes manually. Our automated system handles all of that for you.
Finally, our team of support professionals is always available to assist with any issues you may encounter. You no longer have to wonder which plugin or theme is slowing down your site, or how to increase performance. We've got you covered instead.
With our help and Managed WordPress Hosting solutions, you can free yourself from having to tweak settings, chase optimizations, or be on a constant lookout for updates. We do all the heavy lifting for you. All you have to do is focus on your content and your visitors.
Improve your PageSpeed Insights score the smart way
In the past, site owners and developers had to spend hours poring over code and documentation to improve a site's score. With Managed WordPress Hosting by hosting.com, that's no longer the case.
Migrating your website to our services (which is free, by the way) means you get expert performance tuning, automatic optimizations and updates, and access to our ever-vigilant support team.
Take the next step in your site's journey and upgrade to one of our plans. You'll notice the difference immediately.
