Skip to content
  • There are no suggestions because the search field is empty.

BLAZE Sites | Site Performance and Optimization

This article will cover how to improve your site performance and optimization

Site speed, loading times, and performance scores are elements that contribute to SEO in a couple of ways. While these factors are a small fragment that search engines consider, their impact on site visitors is potentially more significant. Faster websites tend to reduce bounce rates and increase engagement, which are key factors in SEO. Therefore, although search engines like Google may not rank sites based on these optimizations, the improved visitor interaction they facilitate can positively impact search engine rankings.

    

Testing for Optimization

Testing for optimization can be challenging. Most testing tools use a simulated environment. While these tools can give an idea of what visitors might experience, they don't provide real-world data. It's important to understand that the results from these tools are approximations and may not fully reflect actual user experiences. Therefore, scores from these tools may not accurately predict how SEO is being affected.

For the most accurate assessment, complement simulated testing with real-world performance monitoring using tools like Google Search Console.

The most accurate testing tools using simulated environments are Google’s Lighthouse and PageSpeed Insights. Both tools leverage Lighthouse technology to provide detailed performance insights.

🚨 Google's WebPage Test tool is no longer an industry recommended tool.

    

Google's PageSpeed Insights and Lighthouse

These tools examine many technical details of how webpages are built and check to see if they adhere to best practices that enable quick loading. The most important aspect these tools evaluate is how the website code is structured. Google ensures that the code is organized in a way that allows the browser to load the content as quickly as possible.

For information on what can potentially cause low scores and possible solutions, see the FAQ below in this article.

    

How Optimization is Monitored

If there isn't a tool that tests in a real-world environment, how is optimization monitored? This is where Google's Core Web Vitals come into play. Once a site has around 2,000 unique visitors in a month, a set of metrics are tracked to evaluate performance.

Because it uses real-world data, Core Web Vitals is the most accurate method for monitoring optimization. This approach provides insights based on actual user experiences, making it a reliable indicator of site performance.

BLAZE Sites focuses on these metrics not just for scoring purposes, but because they best reflect what site visitors are experiencing.

For more on Google's Core Web Vitals, see Core Web Vitals.

    

Built-In Optimization

Optimizing is an ongoing practice at BLAZE. We will continue to stay up to date and implement changes to ensure continuous improvements.

Further reading:

    

What Can Not Be Changed

While BLAZE Sites strives for the most optimized sites, some components cannot be changed due to the nature of drag-and-drop editors.

These components should have minimal impact on site performance.

The components that are not able to be changed are:

  • Leverage browser caching

  • Minify HTML / CSS / JS

  • Optimize CSS delivery

 
    

 FAQ and Troubleshooting

    

My page speed or loading time is slow. How do I fix it?

While BLAZE Sites works hard to ensure sites perform at their best, you should be aware of the implications of adding scripts and custom code to your site as they have the potential to decrease page speed.

There are ways to avoid performance costs when adding scripts. We recommend learning about the scripts you add to your site in order to optimize its performance. Google has helpful resources, such as: web.dev.

There can be other contributing factors, for tips on optimizing your site, see Core Web Vitals Best Practices: Site Performance and Optimization.

    

How do I Increase Google's PageSpeed Insights or Lighthouse?

While BLAZE Sites wishes every website we run would always rank high, it’s not something we can promise. This is because our customers can add their own content and designs to the website, so we don’t have full control over what they can or can’t add. For this reason, there are some scenarios in which BLAZE Sites websites will not score in the high 90s.

Below is a list of errors/issues we see Google PageSpeed reporting to us and solutions for fixing them.

There are issues reported by Google that cannot be fixed:

  • Leverage browser caching

  • Minify HTML / CSS / JS

  • Optimize CSS delivery

 
    

Render-Blocking JavaScript and CSS in Above-the-fold Content

If you place a map element at the top of your website, a store front above the fold, custom code/script in the header, or embed a custom iframe into a BLAZE Sites website above the fold.

Solution:

  • Move the map element to the bottom of the page.

  • Move the heavy element lower on the page.

Add an image and helpful text above the store element, so that the store itself is not in the "above the fold" area of the website.

  • Place the code in the body-end.html file or make sure the script is loaded asynchronously (see Note below).

  • Move embedded iframe lower down the page or remove it completely.

  • To enable async on scripts, alter it as follows:

    Old Code: 

    New Async Code: