For years, Google placed an emphasis on website and page speed as a major ranking factor toward search engine optimization. So, we completely understand why so many clients come to us concerned about page speed alerts and their SEO taking a hit. This was top of mind for digital marketing strategy for a long time!
We’ve seen this scenario play out often, marketing professionals and business owners alike with PageSpeed Insights and Core Web Vitals bookmarked in their browsers; when their numbers fluctuate, the results pages start to shift, or even their domain authority score dips by a point or two, these the first things they’ll check and often one of the first things they’ll mention when talking to us about the challenges they face with their SEO, website or marketing online in general.
Let’s start here, without burying the lede: page speeds do matter. PageSpeed Insights, on the other hand? Not so much.
Common Google PageSpeed Insights Misconceptions
As long as there have been search engines — think AltaVista, Lycos, Excite and some of those others from the 90s — there have been attempts to game these engines to show someone’s stuff first. These old, underhanded practices eventually came aboveboard as Google and the others laid ground rules in an attempt to level the playing field and make SERPs more meritocratic, this eventually became SEO.
And the old practices of keyword stuffing and dirty tricks in markup or images started to be penalized, giving way to increasingly contextual search terms. When strings of terms led to a glut of low-quality sites, in the absence of being able to evaluate every single site for every single term, Google started to look for ways to separate good sites from the more spammy ones.
PageSpeed Insights was a well-intentioned approach to evaluation, but it gave rise to two problems: first, developers built sites with little if any regard for editorial standards or quality content – pages in many cases became speedy for speed’s sake. Secondly, this focus on speed became the end-all, be-all for many digital marketers, web developers and the entire SEO cottage industry, giving rise to an entire host of urban legends, misconceptions and outright falsehoods when it comes to webpages, rendering and page rank.
Misconception #1: Site speed is the most important factor for page ranking.
This has never been the case, but this is not the same as saying that site speed is not important.
If your site suffers from poor web dev practices and sloppy markup, slow, unreliable servers from sketchy providers, bloated, unoptimized images and legacy Javascript, then yes, site speed will weigh down your page rank.
Even if you use best dev practices, have fast, first-rate servers, minified, leading-edge programming, appropriate styling and site security, your site likely will still not pass PageSpeed Insights. Consider the self-proclaimed “Worldwide Leader in Sports,” ESPN: a major website with strong domain authority, access to powerful tech and able programmers, leading streaming and multimedia capabilities; just about everything you could ask for when it comes to website performance.
ESPN.com’s PageSpeed score? 20.
Go to search just about anything related to breaking news in North American sports, and what will you find within the top five results on the SERP? ESPN.
Why? Because ESPN is regularly updated all day, every day with fun, interesting content people want to read, engage with and share. (More on that down below.) It’s an established brand and media property with cultural cache. It’s also a resource-heavy, feature-rich website with a lot going on on the backend.
Site speed does matter for a separate and I would say more important reason, though: user experience.
PageSpeed Insights was developed based on a common frustration for everyone online: laggy sites. Nobody liked waiting for a Geocities page to load on 56K dial-up; no one likes waiting for pages to fully load in the era of fiber and 5G.
Insights is just a score. User experience considers the actual people you want actually engaging with your actual site. Treating them well, as though they were guests in your store or facility, means giving them consistent digital experiences that respect their time and intelligence.
Their experience isn’t just getting them in and out the door as quickly as possible, but about ensuring every aspect about their time with you reinforces that they made the right choice in darkening your doorstep. The same holds true for digital.
Misconception #2: Scoring well on PageSpeed Insights means hitting the top of your intended SERPs.
There is no correlation between PageSpeed score and SERP performance.
As we showed with the ESPN example above, they perform poorly in the Insights environment, but are routinely among the top-performing sports websites in the world. But let’s really get to the point here:
In order to reach the strongest-possible scores on Insights, you need to strip every bell and whistle from your website and make it as barebones as possible. On a related note, there was a time when Google suggested that sites equipped with AMP functionality for mobile devices would have enhanced load times, indirectly suggesting that AMP-enabled sites would enjoy preferential treatment by crawlers, and in reality punishing sites for not enabling it. This was in fact part of the DOJ’s antitrust claims against them.
Since these claims were made in court, Google has, at least on the surface, moved toward more meritocratic measures: first, Core Web Vitals, then Helpful Content, and now, rich snippets and AI Overviews. Google’s core algorithm is now increasingly infused with AI and trying to mimic human behavior and intent to weigh site quality and rank accordingly.
In short, site structures that prioritize intuitive, user-focused experiences are gaining increasing importance. And, according to data from the recent Google leak, the prevailing ranking factor is not speed, but referral traffic earned from backlinks.
Misconception #3: PageSpeed Insights results are accurate.
Sorry, this also isn’t totally true. PageSpeed Insights can be of value in the same way that other Google tools like Search Console or the Schema Markup Testing Tool are helpful – as a general resource identifying red flag issues on your website.
PageSpeed Insights doesn’t consider many factors; for example, it doesn’t consider non-Chrome users when gauging site speeds. While Chrome is the major browser out there, quite possibly as a result of practices that landed Alphabet in legal trouble as mentioned above, it’s not reflective of everyone’s experience. Your mileage may vary.
Insights also doesn’t evaluate mobile particularly well, because mobile is more than responsive display on smaller viewports, it’s video, interactive features that leverage GPS, haptic feedback, cameras…paint retailers that allow you to visualize a color on your wall. Furniture outlets that let you size up that new couch in your existing space. Eyeglasses companies with virtual try-on functionality. All of these things make for better user experiences; none of them can be evaluated properly by Google.
Also, the enemy of good is great: with any SEO factor, it’s one thing to boost a score, say, from 30 to 50 or 50 to 70, but getting from 70 to 80, 80 to 90 and up is exponentially harder, and that’s a lot of effort to be investing into chasing a number rather than insisting on or taking into consideration the quality of your ideal customer or persona’s experience.
A New (Old) Way To Think About Healthy SEO Strategy
We’ve already brought this point up over and over, but any SEO strategy worth anything these days starts with a healthy digital marketing strategy: putting the best interests of your clients or customers first.
Having that comprehensive foundational knowledge of who your buyers are, what problems they face and how you can best address them frames any keyword strategy for any business sector.
We’re not satisfied with keywords, though. From there, we find the touchpoints and connections between the work done in understanding our ideal and existing clients and personas and keyword data to develop a thorough content strategy informed by keywords and powered by your expertise.
The goal: that every piece of content offers exceptional value to those on your buyers’ journey and becomes something that both encourages their progression on that journey and also is good enough for them to share (a leading indicator of whether or not someone isn’t just going to buy from you, but end up a brand loyalist and evangelist for your services).
If this sounds like a lot of work, it is a lot of work. SEO success doesn’t happen in a vacuum; it takes merging those insights with a deep understanding of your business and your audience. Like working toward running a marathon, dropping a few pounds or growing into a persistent presence atop relevant search results pages, good work in SEO takes time, effort and intentional, quality content crawlers can find and easily index. Page speeds and good UX just make the good things you have going on your site that much better, both for you and your visitors.
For Website Performance, SEO and Content Strategy, Kuno’s Got You Covered
It’s long past time to be so reliant on PageSpeed Insights or otherwise trying to find shortcuts to cheap SEO wins. Real search engine optimization victories come from putting in the work toward solid websites that deliver great, user-friendly experiences, brand and keyword research that gets to the heart of your audience and clientele, and content that meets those on the buyer’s journey right where they are with exactly what they need to see.
The team here at Kuno does this for our clients every day: our SEO and Content teams work closely to best execute strategies that earn success both on SERPs and from your sales pipeline. Our WebOps team crafts outstanding digital experiences that puts brands in the best possible light online. And our strategists find ways to put it all together to help your team reach and exceed your goals.
Your brand is more than a score, and your digital marketing strategy should reflect that. Let’s talk and see how our insights can elevate both your SEO and your business objectives.
