How fast should my website load, and why does it matter?
Google's targets: main content visible within 2.5 seconds, taps answered within 200 milliseconds, and no jumping layout. Speed helps visitors and counts in page experience.
A slow site loses visitors, especially on phones. Google measures speed and smoothness with three Core Web Vitals and gives a "good" target for each. Google says these line up with what its ranking systems try to reward, though good scores alone do not guarantee a top position.
The three Core Web Vitals
| Measure | What it means | Good target |
|---|---|---|
| Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) | How long until the main content, often a big image or heading, appears | 2.5 seconds or less |
| Interaction to Next Paint (INP) | How quickly the page reacts when someone taps or clicks | 200 milliseconds or less |
| Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) | How much the page jumps around while loading | 0.1 or less |
Google recommends meeting these targets for at least 75 percent of visits, measured separately on mobile and desktop.
How to check your site
- Open PageSpeed Insights from Google and enter your web address.
- Look at the field data at the top. That reflects real visitors, when Google has enough of it.
- In Google Search Console, open the Core Web Vitals report to see which groups of pages need work.
Common causes of a slow site
- Large photos uploaded straight from a camera or phone.
- Too many add-ons such as chat widgets, trackers and pop-ups.
- Videos that load automatically at the top of the page.
- Images and ads without set sizes, which makes the page jump.
We can fix this for you. Open a request in your client portal and tell us which pages feel slow. Our team will check them and handle the fixes.
Common problems
- If your score changes every time you test, that is normal for lab tests. Look at the field data and the trend over weeks.
- If the site is fast on Wi-Fi but slow on mobile data, large images are the usual cause.
- If the score is good but rankings did not move, speed is one factor among many. Content, relevance and reviews usually matter more for local businesses.
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