Site speed is of great importance to satisfy users, bring them to your page, have Google to like you, and thus boost your ranking. But how does that work? Let us see how Google understands speed metrics. We will also see why all of this actually matters, and how we can visualize some of the performance metrics so that we can use them to benefit our SEO and UX, and thus ultimately generate more revenue.
How does Google understand speed? A fast site can satisfy users better. But, Google cannot understand this relationship directly. It hasn’t been designed to understand this and incorporate it into its algorithms. Only since last July has Google been looking at speed, ever since the mobile speed update had come up. It is a mix of lab and field data, wherein lab data is being brought in, which is mixed with data from anonymous users. This data includes five different metrics. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
First paint – When anything loads on the page First contentful paint – When a text or image loads DOM content loaded – When the DOM is loaded Onload – When additional scripts have loaded, like a full page load First input delay – The time between when a user interacts with a site, to when the server responds to it
How can you access this data? 1. With PageSpeed Insights – Plug in the page you are interested in, and it will return some of the above metrics along with a bunch of recommendation about how the site performance can be improved.