Why Page Speed Matters for SEO (And How to Check Yours Free)
Page speed directly affects your Google rankings. Check your Core Web Vitals for free and see what to fix.
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Use BriskTool's free tool for this task
Google has been very clear: slow websites rank lower. Since 2021, Core Web Vitals are an official ranking factor. If your site is slow, you're leaving rankings and money on the table.
Check Your Speed
The Page Speed Checker runs a Google Lighthouse audit on any URL. You get a performance score (0-100) and four Core Web Vitals metrics:
- FCP (First Contentful Paint): When the first text or image appears. Target: under 1.8 seconds.
- LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): When the main content is visible. Target: under 2.5 seconds.
- CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): How much the page layout jumps around. Target: under 0.1.
- TTFB (Time to First Byte): How fast your server responds. Target: under 0.8 seconds.
What Slows Most Websites Down
#1: Unoptimized images. A single 5 MB hero image can add 3-4 seconds to your load time. Compress your images. Use WebP format. Set explicit width and height to prevent layout shift.
#2: Too much JavaScript. Every third-party script (analytics, ads, chat widgets, social embeds) adds weight. Each one might only be 50KB, but 10 of them is 500KB of JavaScript your page has to download and execute.
#3: No caching. If your server sends the same CSS and JavaScript files fresh on every page load, you're wasting bandwidth. Set cache headers so returning visitors load instantly.
Quick Wins
Compress images (saves 60-80% file size). Enable GZIP/Brotli compression on your server. Set long cache expiration on static files. Defer non-critical JavaScript. These four changes can improve your score by 20-30 points.