They have used this or that application to scan their websites for improvements, and the conclusion of the tools is that they need to make changes.

During this time, I have also heard companies and programmers announce that their clients are going to get a 100/100 in PageSpeed.

So, as is: 100/100. Insured.

Well yes. I am. All this I…

• It is surprising: because we spend a lot of time improving metrics that, deep down, we do not know what they are for.
• Pisses off: because they make us waste time and divert our focus from what is important. And on top of that they want to sell it to me.
• Tired: because it is very difficult to explain to someone who wants to hire you that we are hardly going to be able to get changes.

Eye! I’m not telling you that you don’t have to worry about your website being secure and optimized.

That never.

Optimizing your website is key to the success of your online business.

But just because a website loads fast does not mean that you have managed to stop “javascript resources from blocking page loading”.

Let’s see: what are they blocking? Does the page not load well and as it should?

Forget what a bot tells you. Most of the time they are not up to date or aware of all the plugins.

Take the recommendations like this, as advice, not as the law that you have to strictly comply with because otherwise your website will end up in internet hell for contravening Google (supposedly).

Do not go crazy:

• A fast website is one that loads in 2 seconds or less .
• A secure website is one that cannot be scanned , that limits login attempts and that is kept up to date.

There’s no more.

Not because you have more PageSpeed ​​are you going to position yourself better or sell more.

Or at least, it’s not like that at all.

The Truth About Analytics Tools

Let’s take a look at the different tools. I am going to show you what you can really expect from each of them and what they are for.

To do this, I’m going to test my own page and analyze the results, so you can compare them with those of your own website.

Of course, this is my opinion, based on my experience. If you’re an expert on these tools, I’d love to discuss with you in the comments.

Google Pagespeed ​​Insights

Let’s start with the jewel in the crown.

Google PageSpeed ​​Insights is the main resource we go to when we want to optimize our website.

What is the goal desired by all? Get the long-awaited 100/100.

And when you don’t, you only get negative messages from Google, so it looks like you’re torturing kittens.

Well, I’m going to tell you a reality: you will never get 100.

At least as long as you use WordPress.

Remove display-blocking JavaScript and CSS from content in the top half of the page

Does it ring a bell? Surely yes, because it is the problem that many go crazy with and look for information on the Internet to solve it.

You will always see this parameter in red. Forever. And, of course, it overwhelms you, right?

What happens is that it is impossible to solve , unless you invest in expensive custom developments.

If you think that moving the CSS and JS files so that they load last, your website will look terrible for a while.

And in some cases you can’t even see well at all.

Specify browser cache

As soon as you use a plugin with external resources, you will find this error .

And it is that you cannot easily specify the browser cache of an element that does not even load from your server, such as Google fonts, Facebook JS files, etc.

So all that remains is to resign yourself and turn a deaf ear to this error (or invest in expensive optimizations that you probably don’t need).

Optimize images

Most curious. I get this warning because I can further optimize an image that I have on home page.

If I optimize it, I know that I lose quality (I’ve already tried), and all to save… 22Kb!

If you’re getting this error because you have hundreds of unoptimized images, okay, you need to fix it. But the problem is that you lose the same score whether you have one photo without optimizing or you have a thousand.

The rest of the errors appear for similar reasons: external resources or changes in the WordPress code that it does not pay you to make.

With a 100% custom website, it is possible to achieve a 100/100.

All for what?

It is good to review the Google PageSpeed ​​tips to optimize your website, but do not get obsessed with getting the perfect result or it will be the only thing you do , instead of networking or selling more, which are the tasks in which you should invest efforts.

Wp-Doctor

It promises to analyze your website to help you detect errors, correct them and optimize your website to the fullest.

The problem?

It does not always offer the same values ​​and the database is outdated.

Look at my result.

In the WordPress section, it marks me as an error that it has detected an old version. I’m not actually using this one, because I always have the most recent one.

Could it be that I do not let my version of WordPress be consulted, to avoid attacks against the vulnerabilities of my version?

It also tells me that I don’t use CDN, when I use CDN77 for my images. And no caching plugin detects me, when I use WP-Rocket, one of the best premium caching plugins.

In security it suspends me, because it does not detect some of the security measures , although I do have them implemented.

But the most curious thing is that it states that I do not use SSL.

Do you see the green padlock on my url?

Well that’s because I DO use SSL.

We continue to review the results of WP Doctor and dwell on the speed information. Here it takes the Google PageSpeed ​​values, so you know what I get.

Website Grader

A tool from the HubSpot team that I didn’t know about until recently and I don’t quite understand where it gets the results from, because I’ve seen everything.

It is one of those that have left me in the best place.

It just takes some of my score away, again because of the JS and CSS in the header.

But I have seen cases on other websites, in which it has given a score of zero patatero on a mobile device when the websites are clearly responsive.

At the end of nothing you can trust!

Other Tools

Are these all the resources we have available? No, there are other alternatives:

• GTMetrix: for me, it is one of the best and most reliable, although I recommend you again not to get obsessed with the perfect result.
• Dareboost:  the truth is that I just met her writing this entry, and I liked it. It gives some interesting information.
• Quickprout:  a tool from Neil Patel that allows you to analyze your website. The most striking are its SEO options and comparison with the competition.

Really Useful Values ​​And Tools

The most important thing is that you do not become obsessed with achieving perfection in these tools.

You must use them wisely: solve the easily solvable and sometimes, with the help of an expert, you can scratch a few more points.

But that’s it.

One thing is to try to improve your website as much as possible and another is to waste hours and hours trying to optimize values ​​that are not worth spending time or energy on.

Why? Because there are only 3 really important aspects that you should consider:

• Make your website responsive .
• That it  loads in less than 2 seconds if it is a normal website or a blog, or 4 seconds if it is an online store.
• That it is secure , capable of stopping a standard login attack and is up to date.

For this, some tools that are really useful are:

1. https://tools.pingdom.com/ → To check the loading speed of your website. Always choose to test from your closest location to the server. For example, with Raiola Networks it would be Sweden. You are also interested in looking at the files that your website loads, because sometimes you detect plugins (such as Sumome) that make a lot of requests.
2. https://sitecheck.sucuri.net/ → To check if your website is clean of malware or if you have been included in a blacklist.
3. https://wpscans.com/ → Scan the security of your website and look for vulnerabilities so you can fix them.
4. https://search.google.com/search-console/mobile-friendly → Check if your page is optimized for mobile. This is important, because even if you see it well on your mobile, if you block any resource, Google may consider that it is not optimized for mobile and penalize you in the search results.

Dedicate Your Time To What Is Important

Now you know which tools you should listen to and which ones you shouldn’t. Seriously, a few points more or less is not going to allow you to get more readers, more subscribers or more sales.

If you have doubts about whether your results are valid or not, consult a professional to guide you and help you solve it.

The rest of the parameters do not matter to you and are not important.

Have you already fought with these tools? Have you wasted a lot of time trying to get the best score, but you have not succeeded? I wait for you in the comments to continue the conversation.