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As you all know very well, the Google Speed Update has begun rolling out and while it is a bit too early to see the impact SEOs and webmasters are super eager to make sure their web pages do not get dinged by this update.
Remember, this update only impacts the slowest pages - so I wouldn't get too worked up about the Speed Update. But that doesn't stop SEOs from obsessing about the little details and no one would suggest anyone not to work on making their web pages faster.
One of the most common questions I get is how do I know if my pages are fast enough for the Google Speed Update? The answer is, you don't know. Google won't be sending you a notice in Google Search Console and Google won't tell you which specific tool to use to measure your page speed. Google just says you can use new PageInsights report over here, also check the Chrome user experience report and use the Lighthouse tool or other tools.
This morning, Gary Illyes from Google told someone to pick one tool they like and use it to measure their pages. Like it doesn't matter which speed testing tool they use:
Just pick one you like
— Gary "鯨理" Illyes (@methode) July 12, 2018
I think overall, the Speed Update won't be big of a deal for the vast majority of SEOs and webmasters.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
Update: Gary added a bit more after I posted this:
Or if you don't like this answer either, then go with page speed insights ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
— Gary "鯨理" Illyes (@methode) July 12, 2018
Comments:
George Liu
07/12/2018 12:12 pm
Bit too late my obsession led me to build out my scripting tools to query webpagetest, pagespeed insight and gtmetrix respective APIs https://github.com/centminmod/google-insights-api-tools LOL
Sergei Eremeev
07/12/2018 03:01 pm
amazing! thanks for sharing!
TiredoftheCrackers
07/12/2018 03:02 pm
I like Lighthouse, on AMP / PWA and on most tests, Lh recommends next-gen images like .webp so will have to use fallback images/src sets, etc to be sure images render IOS devices.....
Richard
07/12/2018 03:08 pm
I use PageSpeed online for the most part, and Chrome dev tools of course. Managed to get my homepage footprint down to 208k. Like a person who loves to mutilate himself I'm always thinking "What else can I cut...?"
Dan Richardson
07/12/2018 03:50 pm
..but what if you pick a rubbish one?
aloísio maciel
07/12/2018 05:08 pm
newbie here... is it a webservice, or do I need to download it and install somewhere?
Bernd Verhey
07/12/2018 09:41 pm
Hey Barry, yes, I made this tweet because of the mobile ranking page speed update. But not only because of that. I am wondering for years, why it is necessary to have several tools from the same company with different metrics. And there is NO official explanation, when I should use this or that tool and when tool x make sense instead of tool y. A current case (in Germany, but I am pretty sure, this could happen or also happen in US or elsewhere): A client optimized for pagespeed insights and the client was happy to see everything is green. Now he is seeing the results of Lighthouse and everything is red. What shall an agency OR in-house SEO OR a responsible developer could answer now??? My experience with pagespeed insights (so far): - It is fine to optimize the quality score for Google Ads (but not my business) - Optimizing for SEO to reach 100/100 might be the wrong goal I am wondering that there are no tests or case studies from kown technical SEOs using all that metrics and showing their results. Maybe a challenge? :-) (I would love to do it myself, but I don't have the time and infrastructure) Kind regards, Bernd PS: I am not really pro-active on Twitter (as you can see on my profile). But this topic really annoys me (for years) and I would love, if somebody could join me. Or maybe I am the only one? Anyway, thx for reading... oh, PPS: Regarding to your blogpost about respecting people (Googlers/Community) I am completely with you and Googlers.
George Liu
07/13/2018 04:17 am
It's a shell script which you download and install on a linux server which you have root user/SSH access to. Used to query webpagetest, pagespeed insight and gtmetrix's API endpoints to run tests and optionally send those requests to your own slack channel :)
George Liu
07/13/2018 04:39 am
Results vary between testing tools due to many factors, location tested from, device/browser tested from etc. If you really want a good grasp of geographical location and browser based page speed factors use webpagetest.org first - for close approximation to Google PageSpeed Insights, webpagetest.org 3G Fast connection profile would be the one to use and enable webpagetest's optional lighthouse reports
George Liu
07/13/2018 05:03 am
seems like there's a bug in chrome audit > lighthouse tests it incorrect includes chrome-extension scripts in the report https://github.com/GoogleChrome/lighthouse/issues/4878 - I get performance rating 0 in chrome audit lighthouse report because of this ! No such problems using webpagetest.org's google lighthouse reporting
Anuradha Chawla
07/13/2018 06:28 am
Don't get confused! Choose the one best speed testing tool which gives the best results.
Adam Heaton
07/17/2018 10:05 am
Then more fool you. There are plenty of well respected tools out there now that most will mention (PageSpeed Insights, GTMetrix and Pingdom).