Enhancing Your PageSpeed Score with Actionable Insights
Hello everyone,
I’m in the process of optimizing my website’s performance, and after conducting a Lighthouse audit, my PageSpeed score for mobile came in at 67. Here are the detailed metrics:
- First Contentful Paint (FCP): 3.3s
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): 4.1s
- Total Blocking Time (TBT): 510ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0.024
I’m seeking advice on what might be causing the slower FCP and LCP times and how to decrease Total Blocking Time. Specifically, I need help with the following:
- What might be contributing to these longer-than-recommended times?
- Which optimizations or fixes should I prioritize to enhance these metrics?
- Are there any tools, strategies, or code changes you recommend to accelerate my site?
Does anyone have any insights to share?
2 responses to “Boosting PageSpeed performance”
Improving your PageSpeed score is a multi-faceted task that requires attention to various aspects of website performance. Let’s address your specific metrics and explore strategies to enhance your site’s speed.
Understanding Your Metrics
First Contentful Paint (FCP): Measures the time it takes for the first piece of content to be rendered on the screen. High FCP can result from large or render-blocking resources.
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Represents the time until the largest element on the page is visible. It often suffers due to server delays, resource load times, or client-side rendering issues.
Total Blocking Time (TBT): The time between FCP and Time to Interactive (TTI) when the main thread is blocked. High TBT indicates that scripts or tasks are consuming too much processing time.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Measures visual stability. Your CLS is already good, so focus on maintaining it.
Strategies for Improvement
Improve FCP and LCP
Implement responsive images (
<img srcset>
) to serve different sizes based on user device.Implement Lazy Loading:
Load images and iframes when they enter the viewport using the
loading="lazy"
attribute.Minimize Render-Blocking Resources:
async
attribute for non-critical JavaScript anddefer
for scripts that can be executed after the initial page load.Prioritize critical CSS and load the rest asynchronously.
Reduce Server Response Time:
Reduce Total Blocking Time (TBT)
setTimeout
orrequestIdleCallback
to postpone non-critical JavaScript functions.Use a Web Worker for running scripts in the background.
Optimize JavaScript Execution:
Hi there! Itโs great to see you taking proactive steps towards improving your websiteโs PageSpeed score. Based on the metrics youโve shared, here are a few insights that might help you tackle those FCP and LCP issues, as well as reduce Total Blocking Time:
1. **Identifying Contributors**: Longer FCP and LCP times are often due to unoptimized images, heavy JavaScript files, or render-blocking resources. Check if you have large images that arenโt properly compressed or lazy-loaded. Additionally, using plugins that minify CSS and JavaScript, while also deferring parsing of JavaScript, can significantly improve loading times.
2. **Prioritizing Optimizations**: I recommend starting with image optimization, as they often take up the most bandwidth and can impact load times significantly. Utilize formats like WebP for images and ensure that they are responsively sized. Then, focus on reducing JavaScript execution time by identifying unused scripts and minimizing their impact. Tools like WebPageTest can help you identify which scripts are causing delays.
3. **Tools and Strategies**: Beyond Lighthouse, consider using tools like GTmetrix and Pingdom for more granular insights. Implement lazy loading for images and iframes, which can defer offscreen elements until they are needed. If your website is using a Content Delivery Network (CDN), ensure itโs configured properly to serve static resources efficiently. Lastly, consider enabling HTTP/2, which can improve load times by allowing multiple requests