Page performance
Also known as page speed · Core Web Vitals · load performance
How quickly and smoothly a page loads and becomes interactive, commonly measured by server response time, HTML weight, and Core Web Vitals.
What it is
Page performance covers server-side speed such as time to first byte (TTFB) and front-end metrics like Largest Contentful Paint, Interaction to Next Paint, and Cumulative Layout Shift. A lightweight HTML payload and fast response are the foundation that these user-experience metrics build on.
Why it matters
Speed is a confirmed ranking factor and strongly affects bounce, conversion, and crawl efficiency. AI crawlers operate under time and resource budgets, so slow or heavy pages may be partially fetched or skipped, reducing how reliably your content can be indexed and cited.
How to verify
Run the page through Lighthouse in DevTools or PageSpeed Insights for lab and field Core Web Vitals, and check TTFB and transfer size in the Network tab. Search Console's Core Web Vitals report shows how real users experience your pages across the site.
How to fix
Keep HTML lean, reduce TTFB with caching and a CDN, compress and lazy-load images, and minimize render-blocking CSS and JavaScript. Prioritize the largest contentful element, set explicit image dimensions to avoid layout shift, and re-audit with Lighthouse after each change.
Related terms
- Server-side rendering (SSR)Delivering the page's core text and markup in the initial HTML response, so it is readable without executing client-side JavaScript.
- Viewport meta tagA <meta name="viewport"> tag tells mobile browsers to match the layout width to the device screen, enabling responsive, mobile-friendly rendering.
- Image alt textThe alt attribute on an <img> provides a text description of the image for screen readers, search engines, and cases where the image fails to load.
- HTTPS with HSTSServing every page over HTTPS encrypts traffic, and the HSTS response header forces browsers to use HTTPS for all future requests to the domain.
Official references
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Put this into practice.
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