How do I check how my website is performing?

21 June 2026 · By John Carlsson

Check speed and Core Web Vitals with Google's PageSpeed Insights, which is free. Check search performance (indexing, rankings, clicks and search terms) in Google Search Console, and check visitors and conversions in your analytics. Speed tells you how the site feels to use, while Search Console tells you how it is doing in search.

To check how your website is performing, use free online tools that analyse page load speed, mobile friendliness, Core Web Vitals, and overall technical health. For SEO, look at organic traffic, keyword rankings, crawlability, and backlink profiles. Browser developer tools reveal performance bottlenecks. Many platforms provide a scored overview highlighting strengths and areas needing improvement, making it easier to prioritise fixes.

The difference between performance and SEO performance

'Performance' can mean two different things in a web context, and understanding the distinction matters for choosing the right tools to check how your website is performing.

Technical performance means how fast your pages load and how stable they feel to use — measured by Core Web Vitals metrics like LCP (Largest Contentful Paint, how quickly the main content loads), CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift, how much the page unexpectedly jumps around), and INP (Interaction to Next Paint, how quickly the page responds to clicks). SEO performance means how well your pages are doing in search — rankings, organic traffic, indexation, and click-through rates. Both matter, and they're related (slow pages rank lower), but they require different tools to measure.

Where to start if you've never checked how your website is performing

For a first check, Google's PageSpeed Insights tool (free, from Google itself) gives you both a technical performance score and Core Web Vitals data for any URL you enter, for both mobile and desktop. Google Search Console (free, requires site verification) gives you SEO performance data: which pages are indexed, which keywords you're appearing for, how many clicks and impressions you're getting, and any technical issues Google has flagged. These two free tools together give a comprehensive baseline covering the most important dimensions of how your site is performing.

Turning performance data into action

Performance data is only useful if you act on the specific issues it surfaces. The most effective approach is to identify your three biggest problems — the issues with the most impact on the metrics you care about most — and focus entirely on those before moving to less critical items. A site with a 2-second loading time and a few missing meta descriptions should work on the loading time first, since that's the more fundamental and higher-impact issue. Checking in regularly (monthly for most sites, after every significant change for active sites) ensures you catch regressions before they affect real users and search rankings.

Key Takeaways

Technical performance and SEO performance are distinct but related — use the right tools for each.
PageSpeed Insights + Google Search Console covers the most important free performance checks.
Focus on the three biggest issues first rather than trying to fix everything at once.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between website performance and SEO performance?

Technical performance is how fast your pages load and how stable they feel to use. It is measured by Core Web Vitals: Largest Contentful Paint (how quickly the main content loads), Cumulative Layout Shift (how much the page unexpectedly jumps around) and Interaction to Next Paint (how quickly the page responds to clicks). SEO performance is how well your pages do in search, covering rankings, organic traffic, indexation and click-through rates. The two are related, since slow pages rank lower, but they need different tools to measure them properly.

Which free tools should I use to check how my website is performing?

Two free Google tools together give a comprehensive baseline. Google PageSpeed Insights provides a technical performance score and Core Web Vitals data for any URL you enter, on both mobile and desktop. Google Search Console, which requires site verification, provides SEO performance data: which pages are indexed, which keywords you appear for, how many clicks and impressions you receive, and any technical issues Google has flagged. Used together, they cover the most important dimensions of how a site is performing for anyone checking for the first time.

How should I prioritise fixes after checking website performance?

Performance data is only useful if you act on the issues it surfaces. The most effective approach is to identify your three biggest problems, meaning those with the most impact on the metrics you care about, and focus on them before moving to less critical items. For example, a site with slow loading and a few missing meta descriptions should fix loading time first, because it is the more fundamental, higher-impact issue. Checking regularly, monthly for most sites and after every significant change for active sites, helps catch regressions before they affect users and rankings.