How do I check how my website is performing?
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. 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 before
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.