A PageSpeed test asks Google to load one page of your website the way a phone or a computer would, and scores how quickly it shows and responds. Google loads the page, not Arva SEO, so you can test before your website is verified.
Run a test
Open the website, then PageSpeed, and choose Run test. Pick the page and the devices, then how many times Google loads it:
- Steadier score: test 3 times (the default) loads the page three times and keeps the middle score. It takes 2–4 minutes.
- Quick: test once loads it once, in about a minute.
Each page and device uses one PageSpeed test from your plan's monthly allowance, however many times Google loads it, so testing a phone and a computer uses two. When Google's daily limit for Arva SEO is nearly used, new tests run once and say so.
Read the result
- Middle of 3 runs · 94–97: the three runs scored from 94 to 97, and the result shows the middle one. Every figure comes from that same run, so they agree with each other.
- Single run: the page was loaded once. Tests from before Arva SEO tested three times show this too.
- Google gave back its result from 9:29: Google answered with a test it had run moments before, instead of loading the page again. Arva SEO asks again a minute later, twice at most. When only earlier results come back, the test shows Google's result and uses none of your PageSpeed tests.
- Google could test this page 2 of 3 times: one run didn't work, so the result is the middle of the runs that did. With two runs it shows the lower one, and says Lower of 2 runs.
Each time Google loaded the page, under the scores, lists every run with its score, and Test history has a Runs column with each test's spread.
Scores move a few points between runs, so a change of 1–2 points means about the same. Lab metrics come from Google's test. Core Web Vitals show how real Chrome visitors experienced the page over the last 28 days, when it has enough visits for Google to report them.
What changed
Under the scores, What changed compares a result with the page's previous test on the same device, in one sentence; Show details opens the rest, and Compare with picks another earlier test. It says:
- whether the score really moved, is about the same, or changed only a little (a Small change of 1–2 points whose runs don't overlap with the earlier test's, so it may be real)
- how many points each measure added or took away, for example "Largest content showed 3.3 s sooner: +18"
- findings that were fixed, are new, or got larger
- what changed on your website in between: Arva SEO Connector fixes switched in WordPress or from Arva SEO, and updates of the Connector itself. When the score went up and a fix addresses a finding that was then fixed, it "likely helped"; when the score went down after a fix was turned on and a finding it addresses got worse, it "may have caused" that. When the score is about the same, fixes are only listed. Arva SEO started keeping this list recently, so for an earlier test from before that it says changes may be missing instead of saying nothing changed
- your website at each test: the Connector's version, the page cache, Cloudflare and how many fixes visitors get, with what differed between the two
- other things that move scores: the page's size and number of files, how fast your server answered, a different largest element (a cookie banner instead of your main image, for example), a new version of Google's test, or a slower test computer at Google
A fix changed less than 10 minutes before a test may not show yet, because caches can still serve the old page. Test again a few minutes later.
Fix what it finds
Each finding explains what it means and how to fix it on your website's platform. On WordPress, the Arva SEO Connector can fix many of them for you.