PageSpeed Insights

Dashboard Overview

The BoostPro dashboard gives you a real-time view of your site's performance directly in WordPress. No need to leave your admin panel to check how your site scores.

The dashboard displays:

• Mobile and desktop performance scores with visual gauges
• Core Web Vitals metrics
• Optimization statistics (enabled features, last cleanup, etc.)
• Quick actions for common tasks

Running a PageSpeed Test

Click Run PageSpeed Test on the dashboard to test your site's homepage. The test runs via Google's PageSpeed Insights API and returns results for both mobile and desktop.

• Test duration: Up to 90 seconds
• Results cached: Stored locally with a timestamp
• Daily automated test: BoostPro runs a test once per day via WordPress cron

Understanding the Metrics

Performance Score

An overall score from 0-100 that combines all metrics. Scores are color-coded:

• 90-100 (Green): Good performance
• 50-89 (Orange): Needs improvement
• 0-49 (Red): Poor performance

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)

Measures when the largest visible element (usually a hero image or heading) finishes rendering.

• Good: Under 2.5 seconds
• Improve with: Image lazy loading (skip above-fold), font display swap, preconnect hints

First Contentful Paint (FCP)

Measures when the first text or image appears on screen.

• Good: Under 1.8 seconds
• Improve with: Remove unused CSS, CSS minification, resource cleanup, JS deferral

Total Blocking Time (TBT)

Measures the total time the main thread was blocked by long tasks (50ms+) between FCP and Time to Interactive.

• Good: Under 200ms
• Improve with: JavaScript defer/delay, removing unused scripts

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

Measures visual stability. A high CLS means elements are shifting around as the page loads.

• Good: Under 0.1
• Improve with: Proper image dimensions, font display swap (prevents layout shift from font loading)

Time to First Byte (TTFB)

Measures how long it takes for the server to respond to the first request.

• Good: Under 800ms
• Improve with: Server-side caching, CDN, database cleanup, Heartbeat limiting

Quick Actions

The dashboard provides one-click actions:

• Run PageSpeed Test: Trigger a manual test
• Apply Recommended Settings: Enable all settings marked as "Recommended"
• Reset to Defaults: Restore all settings to their default values

Optimization Statistics

The dashboard shows how many optimizations you have enabled:

• Number of enabled features vs total available
• Percentage of optimization potential utilized
• Last database cleanup date and items cleaned

Recommended Workflow

1. Run a baseline PageSpeed test before enabling any features
2. Apply recommended settings
3. Run another test to measure the improvement
4. Enable advanced features one at a time (page caching, JS defer, CSS optimization)
5. Test after each change to measure impact and catch any issues
6. Let daily automated tests track your performance over time