FAQs about 3rd-party scripts and PageSpeed

Why is my PageSpeed score low?

Long-running or unoptimized third-party scripts and scripts that manipulate the website's visual elements are the most common reasons for lower-than-expected page scores. 

Do all GTM Tags impact Pagespeed?

All third-party integrations will inevitably have some impact on PageSpeed scores. While some vendors offer more optimized code that reduces this effect, any DOM manipulation (changes to front-end source code) or requests to third-party resources will affect specific PageSpeed metrics. In some cases, the impact from individual vendor code may be minimal, but when multiple integrations are combined, these effects can accumulate. Therefore, it's essential to regularly review and remove any unused or redundant tags to minimize performance degradation.

How can I improve my PageSpeed scores?

The first step is to review the tags in your GTM container and ensure their functionality is essential to your business goals. Removing outdated, redundant, or non-essential tags can substantially increase PageSpeed scores.

Next, you can use page view triggers to scope any remaining tags to only the pages where they are needed. See: https://support.google.com/tagmanager/answer/7679319?hl=en (step 3 under "To create a new page view trigger")

Will moving these scripts from GTM into my theme code improve PageSpeed scores?

No. In most cases, scripts loaded over GTM will load faster than scripts directly embedded in the website.

Will moving tags to a new container improve my PageSpeed scores?

In most cases, no. However, we recommend following vendor recommendations whenever possible. For example, if a vendor suggests that adding their tags to a new container will help, please follow their instructions. 

Can I remove a GTM container? 

By default, your website will have at least two containers installed: one created by BloomCU and one made by your team during the website build.

BloomCU container—This container is required and should not be removed

CU Marketing Container—This container is optional but highly recommended, as we require all third-party integrations to be added via GTM.

Additional containers—BloomCU considers any containers not listed above optional. However, please check with your internal team and vendors before removal to ensure this container is not required for other operations.  BloomCU is not responsible for broken integrations resulting from the deletion of a GTM container. Troubleshooting such issues may not be covered by your BloomCU support plan.