Google PageSpeed Insights Updated with Lighthouse Engine
In November, Google rolled out an update to their Mobile PageSpeed Insights tool. The new update uses Lighthouse and also incorporates field data provided by the Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX).
This update has seen many of our client’s websites receiving mobile usability errors from Google as well as very low PageSpeed scores from Google’s PageSpeed Insight tool.
This is because Google PageSpeed Insight Mobile is running on simulated mobile device with 3G connection. If you are signed up for our Search Engine Optimization service, rest assured we are on the case and working on solutions for your website.
Introducing Lighthouse as the Default Analysis Engine
Site speed matters as it helps your site to rank well and it also improves user experience and conversion rates. Hence, there are various tools that we use to measure mobile site speed.
Previously, Google’s analytics tools used different analysis engines for Desktop and Mobile – this created different recommendations for each tool; which made improving the site performance on each platform difficult to manage.
To resolve this issue, Google has introduced Lighthouse as its default analysis engine, providing developers with identical performance reviews and recommendations.
This update has brought significant alterations on the data and metrics around how a mobile page speed should be measured. Furthermore, according to Google’s release note, “PSI also incorporates field data provided by the Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX).
Version 5 of the Page Speed Insights API will now provide CrUX data and all of the Lighthouse audits. Previous versions of the PSI API will be deprecated in six months.”
Let’s look into what information the updated tool provides:
Lab Data
Lighthouse calculates a set of performance metrics that include First Contentful Paint, Time to Interactive, Speed Index, First Meaningful Paint, First CPU Idle, and Estimated Input Latency. This review then is summarized with a performance score from 0-100. Categories that score 90 and above are considered good.
Field data
This data displays the First Contentful Paint and the First Input Delay which is derived from the Chrome User Experience Report. However, not all site may have this field data available to be presented.
Opportunity
Not just performance reviews, PageSpeed Insights also offers you suggestions to improve your website’s speed performance based on the areas of issues.
Diagnostics
Last but not least, this section provides additional information such as user timing, cache, and JavaScript that can help to improve your mobile site’s speed.
If your mobile site’s speed test is scoring low, the reasons are most likely due to the PageSpeed Insights tool revamp. Need help to improve your mobile site? As Bali’s leading digital marketing agency, Island Media Management will assist you with our digital expertise. Get in touch with us.
