A slow website loses customers before they see what you do, especially on phones. Speed also feeds into how Google judges page experience. For most small business sites, a few fixes make the biggest difference.
Google's Core Web Vitals, in plain English
| Measure | What it means | Good score |
|---|---|---|
| Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) | How fast the main content appears | 2.5 seconds or less |
| Interaction to Next Paint (INP) | How quickly the page responds when tapped | 200 milliseconds or less |
| Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) | How much the page jumps around while loading | 0.1 or less |
Thresholds from web.dev.
How to check your site
Paste your address into Google PageSpeed Insights and look at the mobile results. Search Console also has a Core Web Vitals report once your site has enough visitors.
The fixes that matter most
- Compress and resize images. Photos straight off a phone are often many times larger than needed.
- Use a lightweight theme instead of a heavy page builder with lots of effects.
- Remove plugins you don't use.
- Turn on caching. Many hosts include it.
- Limit sliders, pop-ups and embedded feeds on the home page.
- Use decent hosting. The cheapest plans can be slow at busy times.
Every Ranktide site is tested with PageSpeed Insights before launch. See website design, or get a free audit of your current site.