PageSpeed and Videos:
The Most Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

But there’s a catch: the effect on your PageSpeed score is like being stuck on 3G—everything slows down. Really slows down. If your visitors notice, it’s just plain annoying. And sometimes, they don’t even realize it—but Google definitely does. Many websites lose 20–40 points in Google PageSpeed Insights just because of poorly embedded videos. The real problem? Your site ranks lower, and visitors don’t even get the chance to click through.

The good news: it doesn’t have to be this way—you can keep your videos without sacrificing speed or diving deep into a tech manual. In this article, we'll first explain why videos often slow down your site—okay, it’s going to get a little technical—but stick with me. After that, I'll show you what you can do about it. And yes, fixing it might require a bit of tech, but I promise, it's manageable.

Why Videos Can Kill Your PageSpeed

Videos are not exactly lightweight assets. Even a single video can easily weigh several megabytes—especially if you just throw it onto your website without any optimization. Sure, you can reduce the file size by choosing the right format and compressing it properly, but that’s just one part of the story.

It’s not just the file size that slows down your page speed. There are several other reasons why videos can turn your website into a snail:

1. Autoplay and Preload
   When you enable autoplay or preload, the video starts loading as soon as the page is opened—whether the user watches it or not.
   Autoplay itself isn’t necessarily bad, but you need to use it wisely. If it starts playing before it's visible to the user, it's just wasting bandwidth.
2. No Lazy Load
   This is tech-speak for: The video player loads immediately, even if it’s far down the page and the visitor hasn’t even scrolled to it yet.
   When combined with autoplay, this is a real killer for your page speed.
3. Core Web Vitals Suffer
   Videos impact key performance metrics like:
   LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): How quickly the largest visible element loads—often, that’s your video.
   CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): When the video player suddenly loads and shifts content around, it creates a jarring user experience.
   (Don't worry, we’ll dig deeper into these terms in the next section.)
4. YouTube and Vimeo: Convenient but Heavyweight
   Embedding videos from YouTube or Vimeo sounds easy, but it’s far from lightweight.
   Why? Because these players load a ton of external scripts for fonts, tracking, and cookies. Plus, if you want to be GDPR-compliant, you’ll often need a two-click solution before the video even starts.
   For the tech-savvy: Google Lighthouse typically flags this with messages like:
   “Eliminate render-blocking resources”or “Reduce JavaScript execution time”
5. Standard Web Hosting Struggles with Video
   Even if your hosting includes "unlimited traffic," the bandwidth is often limited.
   If several visitors start autoplay videos at the same time, your site will slow down significantly. (We actually have an interview that dives deeper into why standard hosting isn’t great for video.)
6. Multiple Videos on a Single Page
   If you add multiple videos to a single page, you’re multiplying the problem.
   All the heavy loading, autoplay, and tracking scripts get stacked up, and your PageSpeed score drops like a stone.

Bottom line:

A well-placed video can make your website look great, explain your message better, and even boost conversions. But if you don’t optimize it right, it’s a one-way ticket to slow load times and frustrated users.

Taking a Step Back: What the PageSpeed Score Really Measures (And Why It Matters)

If you’ve ever used Google PageSpeed Insights or Lighthouse, you know that the final result is a number between 0 and 100. The closer you get to 100, the better the user experience—at least according to Google.

What many people don’t realize: The score takes your entire website into account, not just the videos. We’ve already touched on some key points related to videos. Now, let’s take a closer look at a few of the most important aspects.

1. LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)

What does it measure?

The time it takes for the largest visible element to load. On pages with videos, this is often the video player itself or a large thumbnail image.

Why does it matter?

Google views LCP as an indicator of how quickly users can see something on the page. The longer it takes, the higher the bounce rate—users leave before the content even appears.

2. CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift)

What does it measure?

The amount of unexpected layout shifts that happen while the page is loading.

Why does it matter?

Nothing is more annoying than trying to click on a link only to have it suddenly move because a video player loads and pushes everything down. Google penalizes this heavily—and honestly, it’s fair.

Typical problems:

• Video players that pop into the layout after the rest of the page has loaded.
• No fixed placeholder in the HTML, causing content to jump around.

3. TBT (Total Blocking Time)

What does it measure?

The time during which the browser is blocked by external scripts, preventing user interactions (like clicking, scrolling, or playing the video).

Why does it matter?

The longer this blocking period, the less interactive your page feels. Users get impatient and leave because nothing happens.

Typical problems:

• External players that load tons of JavaScript.
• Tracking scripts from third-party providers (like Vimeo and YouTube).

4. FID (First Input Delay)

What does it measure?

The delay between a user’s first interaction (like a click) and when the page actually responds.

Why does it matter?

If your video player takes several seconds to react because scripts are still loading in the background, it feels sluggish and unprofessional.

5. SI (Speed Index)

What does it measure?

How quickly the visible parts of the page are displayed.

Why does it matter?

If your video is prominently displayed and not optimized, it drags down the entire Speed Index.

Typical problems:

• Video loads synchronously instead of asynchronously.
• No Lazy Load or preview image, so the entire player loads immediately.

6. INP (Interaction to Next Paint)

What does it measure?

The responsiveness of your site when users interact with it.

Why does it matter?

If users click the play button and it takes a few seconds before the video starts, it feels like the button is broken.

Typical problems:

• Unoptimized video players with delayed start.
• Complex JavaScript that blocks the response.

And the list goes on...

You get the idea: It’s all about load times, speed, and when something happens on the page. In practice, even an optimized video can drop your score from 90 to below 50 if embedded incorrectly—negatively impacting SEO, page load times, and user experience.

And it doesn’t just hit your SEO. Often, it also affects the performance of your entire campaigns:

Longer load times = higher bounce rate = poorer campaign performance = lower ranking and higher costs = less efficiency and wasted budget

It’s a chain reaction: Slow videos aren’t just a tech problem—they can hit your marketing success directly.

How Can I Optimize My Lighthouse Score with Videos on My Website?

The truth is, many factors come into play when it comes to optimizing your Lighthouse score with videos on your website. It's not just about compressing files or picking the right format—there’s a whole list of things that can make or break your PageSpeed.

The good news? We have a lot of experience with videos on websites, and sometimes there are very specific solutions for the problems mentioned earlier. With the right setup and optimizations, you can keep your videos smooth and fast—without sacrificing quality or user experience.

In the next section, I'll walk you through practical steps to fix the most common issues and boost your Lighthouse score. Let's get into it.

Additionally Useful:

• A "lightweight" video player instead of 5 MB of JavaScript:
  Many video players come loaded with unnecessary features, tracking scripts, and tons of bloat that you don’t actually need. Switching to a streamlined, minimalist player can dramatically improve load times and reduce bandwidth consumption.
• Mindful loading of videos:
  If a video is outside the initial viewport, it doesn’t need to load right away. Implementing lazy loading ensures that videos are only fetched when the user scrolls to them.
• Optimize your autoplay videos:
  Autoplay videos are often just decorative or used for visual impact. They don’t always need to be long. Short, impactful videos of 5 to 15 seconds are usually enough and much easier on your page load.

These measures alone can boost your PageSpeed score by 20–30 points—without sacrificing video quality.

Pro Tip: An Alternative to YouTube, Vimeo & Co.

Let’s be honest: Google isn’t going to penalize YouTube’s own player. Same company. They like each other.

But that doesn’t change the fact that the YouTube player is far from optimal when it comes to performance. And it’s not just the speed—there are other limitations:

• No customization: You’re stuck with their branding and UI.
• No autoplay: Good luck trying to get it to play smoothly.
• Limited format flexibility: It’s their way or no way.
• Weird recommendations after the video ends: Sometimes it’s your competitor’s content. Great.

We could go on, but you get the idea.

And then there’s privacy...

YouTube is owned by Google, and Vimeo isn’t much better when it comes to GDPR compliance. Here are two tutorials that break it down for you:

• Embedding YouTube GDPR-compliant

• YouTube NoCookie – What is it and how to use it?
• Embedding Vimeo GDPR-compliant
• Vimeo: DoNotTrack – What is it and how to use it?

You can go through them, but you’ll quickly realize that you always need a two-click solution to make it work. That means not all of your visitors will actually watch your videos. Frustrating, right?

But there are alternatives:

1️⃣ Self-hosting – But as mentioned earlier, it’s not as simple as it sounds. You need a proper player, lazy loading, a poster image, and so on. But honestly, it only makes sense if you have low traffic. If your site gets a lot of visitors, your server can easily get overwhelmed.

2️⃣ Or you use solutions that are specifically built for Europe and its privacy needs.

That’s exactly why we created Ignite Video. You simply upload your video and integrate the player. You don’t have to worry about any of the issues mentioned above.

It’s directly GDPR-compliant, uses no cookies, everything is adaptive streaming, the player fits your brand, it’s accessible, the servers are based in Germany, and you’re supporting a local company instead of a global corporation. Pretty much everything is handled for you.

Okay, almost everything—you should still keep an eye on the video length. But other than that, it’s smooth sailing.

Conclusion:
Videos are great—but only if they’re implemented the right way.

The short version: Don’t just throw your videos onto your site. Pay attention to the key KPIs mentioned above. Don’t try to fix everything at once. Start by optimizing the formats, then move on to a better video player. Alternatively, you can go straight to a professional provider.

You can do it all yourself, but be warned—it’s pretty complex.