Have you ever wonder why it’s so hard to get 100 score on Google PageSpeed Insight (PSI)? Me too, my website minhthe.net as example, a simple website that even took me few days of optimazation work to achieve highest score. Let’s find out what I have done. To clarify what I have said, here is the result of PageSpeed Insight of my website:
As you may know, Google PageSpeed Insights simulates a slow mobile device on a slow connection and expects your page to load and respond almost instantly, without layout shifts, without delays, and with minimal JavaScript.
In short, it’s an extremely high bar. Even a tiny issue, like a late-loading font, a 3rd-party script, an unoptimized image, or a small layout shift can ruin your score.
Real-world example
You may think your website’s fast, but for PSI will penalize it heavily for these reasons:
Let’s say your homepage for example:
- Loads a Google Font ✅
- Has a cookie popup ✅
- Uses a YouTube embed ✅
All of these are normal, but for PSI:
- The font delays first paint ❌
- The popup causes layout shift ❌
- YouTube embed loads a heavy iframe ❌
…and that’s three strikes already — and you haven’t even scrolled yet.
PageSpeed Insights doesn’t care that these are standard practices. It doesn’t care that your visitors are fine with waiting half a second. It grades like an angry teacher marking a pop quiz you didn’t study for.
And the worst part? You fix one thing, the score still drops. You preload the font — now it complains about unused CSS. You defer the popup — now CLS is fine, but your FCP tanks. You replace YouTube with a thumbnail — now you get dinged for not having enough meaningful content in the viewport.
You optimize. You tweak. You debug. You scream.
And PSI just quietly stares back at you, 64/100 in bright red, like a slap in the face.
Moral of the story? You’re not building a website. You’re trying to win an impossible race against a robot with a stopwatch and no chill.
How do I optimize my website
Ah, right – let’s get this straight: I did it. 100/100. On mobile and desktop with Google PageSpeed Insights. No hacks, no AMP, no fake landing page stripped down to nothing. All green, every metric. The elusive perfect score. And it wasn’t luck.
I chose GeneratePress – the fastest Wordpress theme because it’s built for performance – clean, lightweight, no bloat, no surprises. It gave me the solid foundation I needed to go all-in on speed.
I ditched web fonts – went with system fonts. Instant text render, no layout shifts, no delay.
I optimized every image – served in the right size, modern formats, lazy-loaded smartly.
I enabled Gzip, OPcache, and used LiteSpeed Cache to handle everything from browser caching to critical CSS generation. No need to juggle five different plugins – one does it all.
I put the site behind Cloudflare CDN, fully integrated with LiteSpeed for edge caching, DNS speed, and security.
- Every point of friction – removed.
- Every warning – squashed.
- Every red flag – turned green.
This wasn’t magic. It was strategy. And a bit of obsession.
So yes, it is possible to score 100. But it doesn’t come from chasing the number. It comes from building a site that actually deserves it.
But it’s my case
Now, to be fair. I’ll admit something: My site is quite simple!
No crazy animations. No bloated JavaScript. No WooCommerce, galleries, or video embeds everywhere. About 90% of it is just content and text – written to be read, not danced around with popups and sliders.
And maybe that’s exactly what Google wants.
At the end of the day, Googlebot doesn’t care how “pretty” your site is. It doesn’t care about your design awards or the slick JavaScript carousel you spent hours tweaking. What it wants – what it rewards – is clean structure, fast load times, and actual content.
My layout is simple because it works.
My stack is lean because it’s efficient.
And honestly? That’s probably why I managed to hit 100/100.
Would it be harder on an eCommerce store with 20 product sliders, Instagram feeds, and 15 analytics scripts? Absolutely.
Would a video-heavy portfolio have to bend over backwards to shave milliseconds? No doubt.
But for my site, the formula was clear: Strip the fluff. Serve the content. Keep it fast.
So yes, I got the perfect score… but I also built the kind of site that made it possible.
