HONEST ALTERNATIVE · SEO + AI VISIBILITY
Google PageSpeed Insights is a free performance testing tool — Lighthouse lab diagnostics identifying which specific resources cause LCP, CLS, and INP failures, plus real CrUX field data from Chrome users. DeepSEOAnalysis extends beyond performance: property-level structured data validation, URL-level CrUX Core Web Vitals, canonical tag analysis, broken link detection, and AI visibility scoring — all in one free audit, no signup.
At a glance
The useful answer is not “which tool is best?” It is which tool fits the job you need done this week.
| Criterion | Competitor | DeepSEOAnalysis |
|---|---|---|
| Core function | Google PageSpeed Insights (PSI — pagespeed.web.dev) is Google's free page performance testing tool powered by Lighthouse. It provides two views of page performance: **Field Data (CrUX)**: real user Core Web Vitals from Chrome's CrUX (Chrome User Experience Report) dataset — LCP, CLS, INP, and FCP at the 75th percentile from real user sessions. CrUX field data is shown for the specific URL (if it has sufficient traffic) and for the entire origin (all pages on the domain). **Lab Data (Lighthouse)**: simulated performance measurements from a controlled Lighthouse environment — runs the page in a throttled network and CPU condition and measures: Performance score (0–100), LCP, TBT (Total Blocking Time — a proxy for INP), CLS, FCP, Speed Index. Also provides the Lighthouse Accessibility, Best Practices, and SEO audits (basic checks). **Opportunities and Diagnostics**: Lighthouse identifies specific performance improvement opportunities — unused JavaScript, render-blocking resources, image sizing issues, missing resource hints — with estimated impact on performance. PSI is completely free, requires no account, and works on any publicly accessible URL. | A crawl-based technical SEO and AI visibility auditor. Validates structured data against Google's Rich Results specifications with property-level error detail, measures Core Web Vitals from URL-level CrUX field data, detects JavaScript rendering gaps, checks robots.txt and sitemap configuration, validates canonical tags, checks broken links, and scores five GEO/AI visibility signals. Free with no signup. Does not provide Lighthouse lab performance diagnostics or resource-level waterfall analysis. |
| Core Web Vitals measurement | PSI provides both field data (CrUX — real user measurements) and lab data (Lighthouse — simulated). The field data shows LCP, CLS, INP (and FCP) at p75 from real Chrome users — the same data Google uses for Page Experience ranking signals. The lab data (Lighthouse Performance score and sub-metrics) is a controlled simulation useful for identifying performance regressions and diagnosing root causes in a reproducible environment, but lab scores often diverge from field data because real users have different devices, connection speeds, and browsing contexts than the Lighthouse simulation. PSI's strength for Core Web Vitals: the Lighthouse diagnostics identify specific resources causing performance issues (which scripts are render-blocking, which images are oversized, which third-party requests are delaying paint) — detail that CrUX field data alone doesn't provide. | URL-level CrUX field data for Core Web Vitals — LCP, CLS, and INP at p75 from real Chrome user sessions, the same data Google uses for Page Experience signals. DeepSEOAnalysis surfaces this alongside the full technical SEO audit (structured data, canonical tags, robots.txt, AI visibility) so Core Web Vitals findings appear in context with other SEO findings. Does not provide Lighthouse lab diagnostics or resource-level waterfall analysis — use PSI for that detail after DeepSEOAnalysis identifies which pages fail CrUX thresholds. |
| Structured data validation | PSI does not validate JSON-LD structured data. Lighthouse's "SEO" audit category includes basic structured data checks (detects if structured data is present, and may flag obvious parse errors) but does not validate which required properties are present, does not check property value formats, and does not distinguish between server-rendered and client-side structured data. The Lighthouse SEO score reflects general technical SEO basics (meta description, crawlability, canonical, mobile-friendliness, font sizes) — it is not a structured data audit. To test structured data specifically, Google offers the Rich Results Test (search.google.com/test/rich-results) as a separate tool. | Property-level structured data validation for all schema types found on the page: Article, Product, FAQPage, HowTo, LocalBusiness, BreadcrumbList, Recipe, Event, Review, and more. For each schema type, the audit identifies which required properties are present, which are missing (with property names and expected values), whether property value formats are correct (ISO 8601 dates, absolute image URLs, valid price formats), and whether the structured data is server-rendered in the initial HTML or only in the client-rendered DOM (GTM injection gap). Provides corrected JSON-LD snippet for each error found. |
| Technical SEO audit breadth | PSI's Lighthouse SEO audit covers: document has a <title> element, meta description present, page is crawlable (not blocked by robots meta tag), links are crawlable (not JS-only navigation), canonical URL defined, mobile-friendliness (tap targets, viewport config, font sizes), image elements have alt attributes, and document avoids plugins. This is a lightweight on-page checklist — valuable for catching obvious omissions but not a comprehensive technical SEO audit. It does not check: canonical tag correctness (only presence), robots.txt configuration, sitemap validity, broken internal links, redirect chains, orphan pages, or AI visibility signals. | Full crawl-based technical audit: canonical tag validity (not just presence — checking the canonical URL is absolute, points to the right destination, and isn't self-referential on a redirect), robots.txt and sitemap analysis, JavaScript rendering gap detection, broken internal and external link detection, heading structure validation, Open Graph tag completeness, and AI visibility scoring across five GEO signals. Runs on any publicly accessible URL without installation. |
| AI visibility scoring | PSI does not evaluate AI visibility signals. Lighthouse's SEO audit is based on traditional search engine crawlability signals — it has no awareness of GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) considerations like llms.txt, AI crawler robots.txt access, FAQPage JSON-LD for AI citation eligibility, question-heading ratio, or content chunkability. | Five-signal AI visibility score: (1) AI crawler access in robots.txt (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot explicitly allowed or unblocked), (2) llms.txt presence and basic structure, (3) FAQPage or HowTo JSON-LD server-rendered in initial HTML, (4) question-heading ratio ≥20% (H2/H3 headings phrased as questions), (5) content chunkability (average section length ≤400 words). The GEO score appears alongside Core Web Vitals and structured data findings in one combined report. |
| Lighthouse performance diagnostics | PSI's core differentiator: Lighthouse performance diagnostics identify the specific resource-level causes of performance issues. When LCP is slow, Lighthouse shows which specific resource is the LCP element (image or text), how long each phase of its loading took (TTFB, resource load delay, resource load time, element render time), and which opportunities would reduce it (eliminate render-blocking resources, preload the LCP image, reduce server response time). This level of specificity is valuable for engineering teams implementing performance fixes — it names the specific file and estimated improvement. Lighthouse's TBT (Total Blocking Time) identifies which JavaScript is blocking the main thread and for how long, directly attributing slow INP to specific scripts. | No Lighthouse lab diagnostics or waterfall analysis. DeepSEOAnalysis surfaces real CrUX field data (the outcome) but not the Lighthouse resource-level breakdown (the cause). The intended workflow: DeepSEOAnalysis's CrUX data identifies which pages fail Core Web Vitals thresholds (with real user data); PSI then diagnoses the specific resource-level causes on those pages. The two tools are designed to be used together, not as alternatives. |
| Best fit | PSI is best for diagnosing performance issues at the resource level — identifying which specific scripts, images, and stylesheets are causing LCP, CLS, or INP failures, with Lighthouse's estimated impact of each fix. It is also valuable for comparing lab performance before and after an optimisation to confirm the change had the intended effect. Use PSI when you know a page has a Core Web Vitals problem and need to know exactly what is causing it at the resource level. | Best for complete technical SEO audit in one pass: property-level structured data validation, URL-level CrUX Core Web Vitals in the context of other SEO findings, canonical tag and robots.txt correctness, broken link detection, and AI visibility scoring — free, no signup. Natural workflow: DeepSEOAnalysis to identify all technical SEO issues (including which pages fail Core Web Vitals from CrUX data), then PSI for engineering-level performance diagnosis on the pages that need performance work. |
What each product is
PageSpeed Insights is strongest for performance engineering: Lighthouse diagnostics naming the specific scripts, images, and stylesheets causing Core Web Vitals failures with estimated fix impact, lab scores for before/after comparisons, and CrUX field data showing real user experience. Essential for engineering teams implementing performance fixes.
DeepSEOAnalysis is strongest for complete technical SEO audit in one pass: property-level JSON-LD structured data validation (the detail PSI's Lighthouse SEO audit doesn't provide), URL-level CrUX Core Web Vitals in context with other SEO findings, canonical tag correctness, robots.txt analysis, broken link detection, and five-signal AI visibility scoring — free with no signup.
When to choose which
Pricing context
FAQ
Google PageSpeed Insights (PSI — pagespeed.web.dev) is Google's free page performance testing tool. It runs Google Lighthouse against a given URL to produce lab performance scores and diagnostics (Performance, Accessibility, Best Practices, and a basic SEO checklist), and also surfaces real user Core Web Vitals data from Google's CrUX (Chrome User Experience Report) dataset — showing LCP, CLS, INP, and FCP at the 75th percentile from actual Chrome users. PSI is free, requires no account, and works on any publicly accessible URL. It is one of the primary tools developers use to measure and diagnose web performance issues because it directly surfaces the data Google uses for Page Experience ranking signals.
PageSpeed Insights includes a Lighthouse SEO audit category, but it is a basic on-page checklist — not a comprehensive SEO audit. The Lighthouse SEO audit checks: presence of a title tag, meta description, canonical tag, viewport meta tag (mobile-friendliness), image alt attributes, crawlability (robots meta tag not blocking indexing), and link crawlability. It does not validate structured data property completeness, check canonical tag correctness (only presence), audit robots.txt or sitemap, detect JavaScript rendering gaps, check broken links, or score AI visibility signals. For comprehensive technical SEO audit including structured data validation and AI visibility scoring, use a dedicated SEO audit tool like DeepSEOAnalysis alongside PSI.
The Lighthouse Performance score in PageSpeed Insights is a lab simulation — it is not directly used in Google's ranking algorithm. Google's Page Experience ranking signal uses real user Core Web Vitals from CrUX field data, not Lighthouse lab scores. However, Lighthouse scores and CrUX scores are correlated: consistent Lighthouse performance improvements typically improve real user CrUX scores over time, because the underlying performance issues (render-blocking scripts, large images, slow server responses) affect both lab and field measurements. Focus on the CrUX field data (the "Field Data" section at the top of PSI) for understanding actual ranking impact — the lab score is a diagnostic tool, not the signal Google measures.
Both — they serve different purposes and are complementary. PageSpeed Insights: best for diagnosing specific performance causes at the resource level — which scripts are blocking rendering, which images are oversized, which third-party requests are delaying load. Use PSI when you need to understand why a page has a Core Web Vitals problem and what specifically to fix. DeepSEOAnalysis: best for a complete technical SEO audit in one pass — property-level structured data validation (which PSI doesn't do), canonical tag correctness, robots.txt and sitemap analysis, broken link detection, and AI visibility scoring alongside real CrUX Core Web Vitals. Natural workflow: run DeepSEOAnalysis to identify all technical SEO issues across your most important pages; use PSI to diagnose and fix the specific performance bottlenecks on pages that fail Core Web Vitals thresholds.
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