Many businesses over-obsess about PageSpeed scores for SEO. While speed is a factor, it’s not the only one that matters. In reality, many digital marketing agencies make the same mistake with technical execution, often ignoring the broader strategy that drives meaningful results.
So, if you’re serious about climbing the rankings, it’s time to take a step back and answer some important questions. Here’s what you should consider when optimizing for website performance:
What Are Your Competitors Doing?
Google has made it clear: when all other factors are equal, PageSpeed is the tiebreaker. In other words, it’s a minor factor compared to other SEO areas, like content and authority, and won’t move the needle much. Therefore, your priority should instead be content marketing that:
- Targets relevant, low-competition keywords.
- Always addresses user intent without the fluff.
- Builds topical authority over time.
- Uses data-driven decision-making to understand opportunities and areas of improvement.
SEO tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Moz can help you identify keyword opportunities and assess ranking difficulty. Consistent content creation is key, but it is a challenge for any organization.
When Should PageSpeed Optimizations Start?
Once you’ve got good content authority and volume, then it makes sense to optimize for PageSpeed. However, you may notice performance metrics fluctuating due to bot traffic, server load, and even the time of day. This makes things tricky.
Always start with mobile, since the desktop will be taken care of in the process. Additionally, Google’s mobile-first indexing means your mobile performance has a greater impact on rankings than desktop performance. But don’t obsess over hitting a perfect score of 100. Instead, aim for the best possible performance within the limits of your tech stack.
If you’re unsure about your progress, consider a professional audit from an SEO expert to evaluate whether further technical improvements are worth the effort, or whether you should shift focus to content.
Is the Juice Worth the Squeeze?
Some website performance improvements are no-brainers. For example, adding a CDN (Content Delivery Network) to your website can drastically improve load times by serving content from the nearest server location to your visitors. CDNs like Cloudflare, AWS CloudFront, or Fastly will boost performance scores with minimal effort.
If you’re using a CMS like WordPress, Wix, or Shopify, the next performance boost can come from implementing:
- Image compression
- Browser caching policies
- Lazy loading
That said, there are other areas that may not provide the ROI you expect, such as:
- Deferring scripts
- Disabling non-essential plugins on some pages
- Increasing server resources when it’s not a constraint
- Shrinking your database when it’s already small
As such, you might invest 30 more hours into something without improving your website performance at all! You might even find that the work breaks your site and disables key services. In many cases, investing in content marketing is smarter for long-term gains than wrangling code.
How Do You Know You’ve Maxed Out PageSpeed Optimization?
Here’s the easiest indicator: if an update breaks your website, it’s time to stop.
Let’s say you’re using WordPress and realize that deferring scripts interferes with:
- Google Analytics tracking
- Paid media tracking (Google Ads, Meta Ads)
- Live chat or CRM integration
These scripts are essential for your marketing strategy and ROI tracking. Over-optimizing can break key features and derail your broader business and SEO goals.
The better approach? Accept that you’ve done what’s possible and shift your energy toward content creation, UX improvements, and conversion rate optimization.
The Bottom Line
PageSpeed is an important part of technical SEO, but it’s just one piece of a larger SEO puzzle, which includes content marketing.
Here’s what you should remember:
- Don’t chase perfect performance scores at the expense of functionality.
- Prioritize content over speed if you’re behind in your industry’s keyword footprint.
- Focus on improvements with the highest return, such as CDNs and mobile optimization.
- Know when to stop, especially if optimizations threaten your site’s essential services.
Smart SEO is all about balance. A fast site with no content won’t rank. A content-rich site that loads too slowly won’t convert as well. And a beautiful website without SEO? That’s a digital ghost town.
At Uplancer, we help businesses with SEO, combining technical performance, strong content marketing, and impactful web design that drives traffic and turns visitors into customers.
Need help finding your SEO sweet spot? Reach out today to get started.
