Why Your Poor Google PageSpeed Score Is Killing Your Website

cartoon robot exasperated by PageSpeed Scores

If you own a business website, you probably want it to be fast, user-friendly and optimized for conversions. But did you know that your website’s speed also affects your ranking on Google and other search engines? That’s right, Google PageSpeed scores are one of the factors that determine how well your website performs on organic search results.

Google PageSpeed scores are a measure of how fast your website loads on different devices and browsers. They range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating better performance.

What makes up a Google PageSpeed score?
  1. First contentful paint: The time it takes for the first element of your page to render on the screen.
  2. First meaningful paint: The time it takes for the main content of your page to render on the screen.
  3. Time to interactive: The time it takes for your page to become fully interactive and responsive to user input.
  4. Speed index: The average time it takes for all elements of your page to be visible on the screen.
  5. First CPU idle: The time it takes for your page’s main thread to become idle and ready for more tasks.
fast car speed
Why a slow site can keep you from reaching your full potential
  1. User experience: Faster websites provide a better user experience, which leads to higher engagement, retention and conversion rates. Users tend to abandon websites that take too long to load or respond poorly to their actions. According to Google, 53% of mobile users leave a site if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. A slow-loading website can be frustrating for users, leading to a higher bounce rate and decreased engagement. This can ultimately result in fewer sales and conversions for the business.
  2. SEO ranking: Faster websites also rank higher on Google and other search engines, which means more organic traffic and visibility for your business. Google considers PageSpeed scores as one of its ranking signals since 2010, now uses Core Web Vitals (a set of metrics related to PageSpeed). A slow-loading site is more likely to rank lower, resulting in less organic traffic.
  3. Competitive edge: Faster websites give you an advantage over your competitors who may have slower or less optimized websites. You can attract more customers and generate more revenue by offering them a superior online experience.
  4. Decreased ad performance: As with improved ad performance, a slower-loading website means that ads are less likely to be viewed, resulting in a lower return on investment for businesses.
  5. Increased cost of operation: A slower website requires more resources to load, which can result in increased hosting costs or reduced efficiency for businesses with high traffic volumes.
  6. Negative impact on brand reputation: A slow-loading website can give the impression of a poorly-managed or outdated business, damaging the reputation of the brand.
fast speed city at night
Boosting your Google PageSpeed score benefits
  1. Improved user experience: Websites that load faster are more enjoyable to use and are more likely to keep visitors on the site for longer periods of time. This can lead to higher conversion rates and ultimately, more sales.
  2. Better search engine rankings: Google takes site speed into account when ranking websites in its search results. This means that a faster site is more likely to rank higher and receive more organic traffic.
  3. Increased mobile device performance: With the proliferation of mobile devices, it’s important for websites to load quickly on these devices. A slow-loading site can lead to a frustrating user experience, leading to a higher bounce rate.
  4. Reduced bounce rate: A high bounce rate (the percentage of visitors who leave a site after only viewing one page) can negatively impact a business’s search engine rankings. A fast-loading website is more likely to keep visitors on the site, reducing the bounce rate.
  5. Reduced cost of operation: A faster website requires fewer resources to load, which can result in cost savings for businesses that pay for hosting or have high traffic volumes.
  6. Improved ad performance: Advertisers often pay based on the number of impressions their ads receive. A faster-loading website means that ads are more likely to be viewed, resulting in a higher return on investment for businesses.
Ways to Improve Your Speed
  1. Use a reliable web hosting service: Your web hosting service plays a crucial role in determining how fast your website loads. Choose a web hosting service that offers high performance, security and scalability for your business needs. Avoid shared hosting plans that may slow down your website due to overcrowding or limited resources. Tunnel Vision Design will set your new site up on one of the fastest cloud hosting providers in the world–our competitors choose services based on what costs them the least, not what is the best fit for your business.
  2. Optimize images and videos: Images and videos are often the largest elements on your website, which can significantly increase its loading time. Optimize them by reducing their file size, compressing them, using responsive formats (such as WebP) and lazy loading them (only loading them when they are visible on the screen).
  3. Minify CSS, JavaScript and HTML files: CSS, JavaScript and HTML files are the code that makes up your website’s structure, functionality and appearance. Minifying them means removing any unnecessary characters (such as spaces, comments or line breaks) that do not affect their functionality but add extra bytes. This can reduce their file size and improve their loading speed.
  4. Enable caching: Caching is a technique that allows browsers to store copies of frequently accessed resources (such as images or scripts) locally on their devices. This reduces the number of requests sent to the server and speeds up subsequent page loads. You can enable caching by using plugins or tools that generate cache headers or files for your website.
  5. Use a content delivery network (CDN): A CDN is a network of servers distributed across different locations that deliver content faster by serving it from the closest server to the user’s location. This reduces latency (the delay between sending a request and receiving a response) and improves performance. You can use a CDN service such as Cloudflare, Digital Ocean, or Amazon CloudFront for your website.
  6. Minimize HTTP requests: Every time a browser requests a file (such as an image or CSS file) from a server, it adds to the load time of the website. Reduce the number of HTTP requests by combining files or using caching.
  7. Enable compression: Use Gzip compression to reduce the size of your website’s files, resulting in faster loading times.

These are some of the ways you can improve your Google PageSpeed scores and make your business website faster, but even better than spending months to years learning how to optimize your website is spending the next 15 minutes to let the eggheads at Tunnel Vision Design do it instead. By doing so, you can enhance user experience, SEO ranking and competitive edge of your new or redesigned website. So if you need help with optimizing your website’s speed or designing a fast and responsive website for your business, you can contact us at Tunnel Vision Design and set up a free consultation. We are experts in web design and development, and we will help you create a stunning and high-performing website. Don’t just take our word for it, here is a typical Tunnel Vision Design client website:

tunnelvisiondesign.com Google PageSpeed Score - 99 Performance / 93 Accessibility / 100 Best Practices / 100 SEO
Real life PageSpeed scores

Don’t trust any company that says that will promise 100s for every metric, depending on the individual goals and design vision for the specific site it may be preferable to decide on compromises which may slightly lower those scores. Dynamic, e-commerce, and multimedia sites in particular can have priorities that take precedence over pure speed, however, when you choose Tunnel Vision Design we’ll always craft your website to be the site of your dreams. There’s a reason we are known across the industry for our unique hassle-free maintenance plans which take all the headaches out of web hosting.

How Can Artificial Intelligence Like ChatGPT Empower Your Business?

Tunnel Vision Design is excited to announce the latest addition to our toolkit: ChatGPT. This powerful language model, developed by OpenAI, has the ability to understand and generate human-like text, making it a valuable asset for businesses looking to improve their online presence.

As more and more people turn to the web for information, communication, and commerce, the importance of having a strong online presence has never been greater. Traditional website design and development techniques are no longer sufficient to keep up with the rapidly changing landscape of the internet. This is where ChatGPT comes in.

Benefits to using ChatGPT and Artificial Intelligence

ChatGPT allows businesses to create personalized, engaging content for their websites, social media, and other online platforms. With its ability to understand and generate text, ChatGPT can help businesses create high-quality content that resonates with their target audience. This can be especially valuable for small businesses, which often lack the time and resources to produce large amounts of content on their own.

In addition to its potential for improving online content, ChatGPT and other emerging AI technologies have the potential to revolutionize the way businesses operate. By automating routine tasks and providing insights based on data analysis, AI can help businesses increase efficiency and productivity. This can be particularly beneficial for small businesses, which often have limited resources and manpower.

Furthermore, AI technologies like ChatGPT can help businesses better serve their customers. For example, ChatGPT can be used to power chatbots that provide instant answers to customer questions, allowing businesses to offer 24/7 support without the need for a large customer service team. This can improve the customer experience and help businesses build trust and loyalty.

Here are six key ways in which ChatGPT and emerging AI technology will change the web and impact small businesses:

  1. Personalized content creation: ChatGPT allows businesses to create personalized, engaging content for their websites, social media, and other online platforms. With its ability to understand and generate text, ChatGPT can help businesses create high-quality content that resonates with their target audience. This can be especially valuable for small businesses, which often lack the time and resources to produce large amounts of content on their own. Image creators such as Midjourney or DALL-E can even take prompts to generate images as an alternative to paying for photographers or buying stock photos for your blogs and articles.
  2. Improved efficiency and productivity: In addition to its potential for improving online content, ChatGPT and other emerging AI technologies have the potential to revolutionize the way businesses operate. By automating routine tasks and providing insights based on data analysis, AI can help businesses increase efficiency and productivity. This can be particularly beneficial for small businesses, which often have limited resources and manpower.
  3. Enhanced customer support: AI technologies like ChatGPT can also help businesses better serve their customers. For example, ChatGPT can be used to power chatbots that provide instant answers to customer questions, allowing businesses to offer 24/7 support without the need for a large customer service team. This can improve the customer experience and help businesses build trust and loyalty.
  4. Greater competitiveness: As more and more businesses begin to adopt AI technology, those that fail to do so risk falling behind their competitors. By leveraging the power of ChatGPT and other AI tools, businesses can gain a competitive edge and stay ahead of the curve in an increasingly digital world.
  5. Improved decision making: AI technologies like ChatGPT can also provide businesses with valuable insights based on data analysis. By analyzing large amounts of data and identifying patterns, AI can help businesses make more informed decisions and improve their operations.
  6. Increased security: As businesses increasingly rely on digital platforms, the importance of strong security measures cannot be overstated. AI technologies like ChatGPT can help businesses protect their data and systems from cyber threats and other vulnerabilities.

ChatGPT and emerging AI technology have the potential to greatly impact the web and the way businesses operate. By providing personalized content, automating routine tasks, and enhancing customer support, AI can help businesses improve their online presence, increase efficiency, and stay competitive. As AI technology continues to advance, Tunnel Vision Design is excited to be at the forefront of this revolutionary change.

Area Spotlight #1: Web Design Lexington, KY

Web Design Lexington, KY

From time to time, we are going to spotlight an area of the country with great local businesses that value quality web design. We wanted to start off with our home base of Lexington, KY before we continue to other locations in Kentucky and elsewhere in the United States.

Kentucky Awards

Area Spotlight #1: Web Design Lexington, KY 1

Expertise.com has recognized Tunnel Vision Design as one of the best web designers in Lexington, KY. Contact us today for your custom website design. Our team conducts a manual review to verify that each company on our list is truly one of the best. We grade each business by the following criteria:

  • Availability
  • Qualification
  • Reputation
  • Experience
  • Professionalism

If you are looking for Kentucky web designers, you’ve found the best.

Kentucky Horse Auctions

Platinum Equine Auction Screens - Lexington, KY

One of the things Kentucky is known for is its horse industry. Tunnel Vision Design is the leading web design firm for horse auction websites and have launched multiple auction sites over the years. One of our very successful clients, Platinum Equine Auction is seeing tremendous growth after we released their new website in 2020. Whether your Kentucky business is interested in an auction-based website or is equine focused, TVD has years of experience to deliver you the solution you need.

Local Meals + Catering – Come To The Table

Just outside of Lexington based in Harrodsburg is one of our newer clients Come To the Table. We are happy to announce the launch of their new website which we are very proud of. Emily asked us for an attractive, eye-catching design where people could order and pay online for a rotating menu of meals and as they say the proof is in the pudding. It’s always great to work with a local business that is also focused on serving local customers.

Come To The Table - Harrodsburg, Kentucky
Come to the Table – local catering

Local Partnerships

We partner with numerous local businesses to provide you the support and customer knowledge that your business needs. Whenever we can use the services of a local business or hire local talent we prefer to support local entrepreneurs too. Kentucky has a lot to offer from horses to bourbon to world-class athletics and we are proud to call Lexington, KY our home base. Outsiders don’t always understand what makes Kentucky Kentucky. It’s important for a lot of small businesses to have local roots and know that when they pick up the phone or send an email it’s not going eight time zones and an ocean away.

World-Wide Partnerships

Just as important as knowing when to support local is knowing when it’s best to go national or international. When it comes to big ticket items like hosting and security we prefer the biggest and best names possible for your website. For infrastructure services such as data centers, cloud storage, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) mitigation, content delivery, and domain services we will always choose the best company for the job.

Tunnel Vision Design — Local Roots, World-Class Business

5 Ways Your Old Web Design May Be Costing You Money

Design Credibility

48% of users believe website design is the #1 factor when judging a business’s credibility.

Many business owners are reluctant to refresh their website given the cost and difficulty associated with redesigning a site and finding an expert in web design. However, the amount of business lost can often pay for a new site several times over and make your customers happier at the same time. 94% of users create their first impression of a website based on web design alone so it’s critical to get it right.

Outdated websites may also not be up to new standards for accessibility, search engine, page load speeds, or mobile design. Each of these items if not addressed can cost thousands or more in lost sales. Studies have shown that a website tends to lose 5% of business per year when not updated and refreshed. In other words, a five year old site can be missing out on 25% or more of its sales potential!

Continue reading