Which pages to test
Most dealer site checks stop at the homepage, but shoppers from ads and search land on vehicle and inventory pages. Those carry the most photos and tools. Pick one vehicle with a full gallery and one with only a few photos, and take your ad landing pages from the ad accounts rather than from memory.
Which tool to use
| Tool | What it shows | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Free speed test | Google's real-visit results and lab score, plus the tools holding the page up | A quick, plain-language answer for one page |
| PageSpeed Insights | Real-visit Core Web Vitals, the lab score and a full diagnostics list | Seeing the detail behind a result |
| Search Console | Which groups of pages pass or fail, over time | The whole site, if you have access |
| Your own phone | What a shopper actually sees | Checking a real ad on a cell signal |
How to read the results
The top of a PageSpeed Insights report shows how real Chrome visitors experienced the page over the last 28 days, against Google's limits for Core Web Vitals. If a page has too few visits, it shows the whole site's results instead, or none. Below that is the lab test: one simulated visit and the 0 to 100 score. More on reading a PageSpeed report.
Mistakes that give the wrong answer
- Testing only the homepage. It's rarely where shoppers land.
- Reading the desktop result. Mobile is the harder test and the one Google ranks on.
- Trusting one run. The lab score moves a few points each time; run it three times.
- Testing from the office on Wi-Fi. Your browser has saved much of the site already.
What to do with the results
If the report names chat, tracking or other tools as holding the page up, Site Speed Engine makes those load after the vehicle and price on every page. Send us your site for a free speed analysis and we'll test these pages for you.