Has Your Analytics or Google Tag Manager Been Flagged as a Severe Issue in a Page Speed or Page Experience Update Test?

Tony Villanova - May 10, 2021

Has your Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Google Optimize, GA4, or Microsoft Clarity script been identified as a “severe issue” when running a page speed or experience update test? You are not alone if so, but it might not be as bad as you think.

Data in the Page Experience tests comes from Google’s Chrome User Experience (CrUX) Report, which gathers anonymized metrics about performance times from actual users visiting your page.

Most of the time this is occurring when your website is being read by software or a bot and since it is not an actual User on your website, these tracking scripts do not fire which is a good thing. However, since your tracking scripts (GA4, Universal Analytics, GTM) are static during the test, they are marked as unused script which is why it is populating. Another reason this comes up is due to the tracking scripts being cached which allows for faster page load times for return visitors.

Of course, you want and need your Analytics tracking scripts as they are being used when a visitor comes to your website and do not remain static.

So, what can you do about this being marked on the test? That depends on the platform. In the page speed test example although they are pointed out in the results, we can see that the numbers displayed by these scripts do not directly impact your performance score.

So, although these tracking scripts are being flagged, it isn’t something that you should be concerned with since it does not directly impact the test.

Have more questions or are interested in a Page Experience test for your website? Reach out to MoreVisibility to see how we can help today at 561-620-9682!