Improving Your PageSpeed Score
Google PageSpeed Insights provides performance scores that can help identify optimization opportunities for your Ghost site. While perfect scores aren’t necessary for most websites, understanding how to improve performance can benefit both user experience and search rankings.
Setting Realistic Expectations
Important Context: Most successful websites, including major news publications, achieve scores between 30-70. Content quality and user experience typically have greater impact on success than achieving perfect performance scores.
Industry Benchmark Scores (March 2025)
Major websites demonstrate that perfect scores aren’t required for success:
| Website | Mobile Score | Desktop Score |
|---|---|---|
| CNN | 30 | 47 |
| The New York Times | 26 | 24 |
| Fox News | 37 | 46 |
| NBC News | 25 | 55 |
| USA Today | 35 | 71 |
| Forbes | 34 | 49 |
Primary Optimization Strategies
Image Optimization
Images often represent the largest opportunity for performance improvement:
- Resize before upload: Keep images under 1MB and approximately 1200px wide
- Leverage Ghost’s optimization: The platform automatically generates responsive image sizes
- Include alt text: Improves accessibility while supporting SEO efforts
Ghost automatically creates multiple image sizes for different devices when you upload properly sized source images.
Hosting Infrastructure
Your hosting environment directly impacts performance scores:
Key requirements:
- SSD storage for faster data access
- Adequate RAM allocation (minimum 1GB for typical sites)
- Server location proximity to your primary audience
- Reliable uptime and response times
Recommended providers:
- Ghost Pro (official managed hosting)
- DigitalOcean
- Linode
- Vultr
Platform Maintenance
Regular updates maintain optimal performance:
- Ghost core updates: Install latest versions for performance improvements
- Theme updates: Keep themes current with security and performance patches
- Media management: Remove unused images and files periodically
Font Strategy
Typography choices affect loading performance:
- Limit font families to 1-2 maximum
- Use system fonts when design allows (zero loading time)
- For web fonts, load only necessary weights and styles
Areas to Deprioritize
Focus Your Efforts: Achieving scores above 90 often requires diminishing returns on time investment. Mobile scores typically run lower than desktop scores due to device constraints. Prioritize actual loading speed over perfect scores.
Implementation Checklist
Immediate Actions
- Test current performance at Google PageSpeed Insights
- Audit recent posts for oversized images (>2MB)
- Review hosting performance if load times exceed 3-4 seconds
Weekly Tasks
- Remove unused media files
- Check for available Ghost and theme updates
- Monitor any significant score changes
Monthly Review
- Test key pages for performance consistency
- Evaluate hosting performance under traffic loads
- Clean up accumulated unused content
When to Seek Technical Support
Consider professional assistance when:
- Page load times consistently exceed 5 seconds
- Error messages appear during content loading
- Hosting costs are disproportionately low (< $10/month) with performance issues
- Large content volumes (thousands of posts) create performance bottlenecks
Target Performance Ranges
Practical Benchmarks: Aim for mobile scores of 40-60 and desktop scores of 60-80. Sites performing within these ranges typically provide good user experience while allowing focus on content creation rather than optimization.
Recommended targets:
- Mobile: 40-60 points
- Desktop: 60-80 points
Performance within these ranges indicates solid optimization without over-engineering.