Did you know that 53% of users abandon a page that takes longer than 3 seconds to load? That's Google's own data — and it's unforgiving for owners of slow websites.
Page speed isn't just about aesthetics or convenience. It directly affects your revenue, your Google ranking, and the first impression you make on potential clients.
How does speed affect Google rankings?
Google has officially included page speed as a ranking factor since 2010. Since 2021, it has expanded this system further with Core Web Vitals — a set of metrics measuring real user experience.
The three key metrics are:
- LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) — how quickly the main content loads
- FID / INP — how quickly the page responds to clicks
- CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) — whether page elements jump around during loading
Pages with good Core Web Vitals scores rank higher in search results. It's simple maths.
How does speed affect conversion?
Research shows that:
- Every additional second of loading reduces conversion by 4–7%
- Pages loading in 1 second convert 3x better than pages loading in 5 seconds
- Mobile users are especially sensitive to loading times
If you run an online store, a clinic, or offer any service — a slow website is literally costing you money.
What slows websites down?
The most common causes of poor performance:
- Oversized images — unoptimised graphics are the most frequent culprit
- Too many plugins — especially in WordPress
- Poor hosting — cheap hosting means slow servers
- No caching — the page is generated from scratch on every visit
- Blocking scripts — JavaScript loaded before the page content
How to check your page speed?
You can do this for free with several tools:
- Google PageSpeed Insights — pagespeed.web.dev
- GTmetrix — gtmetrix.com
- WebPageTest — webpagetest.org
Enter your website address and check the results. A score above 90/100 is good. Below 50 — it's worth taking action.
What can I do?
When I build your website from scratch, speed optimisation is built into the process — I don't treat it as an add-on. Every site I create goes through performance testing before launch.
If you already have a website and want to find out what's slowing it down — get in touch. I'm happy to take a look.