Skip to content
    SunMatch AdvisorsGet my free planFree plan

    How fast should a website load?

    By Joshua at SunMatch Advisors · Updated · 3 min read

    Google's three numbers

    Google calls them Core Web Vitals. Each one has a "good" line and a "poor" line, with "needs improvement" in between.

    • Loading (Largest Contentful Paint). How long until the biggest thing on screen, usually the main photo or headline, shows up. Good is 2.5 seconds or less. Poor is over 4 seconds.
    • Responding (Interaction to Next Paint). How long the page takes to react when someone taps a button or opens a menu. Good is 200 milliseconds or less. Poor is over 500 milliseconds.
    • Staying still (Cumulative Layout Shift). How much the page jumps while it loads, like a button moving just as you tap it. Good is a score of 0.1 or less. Poor is over 0.25.

    Does speed affect where you show up on Google?

    Google says it recommends good Core Web Vitals for success with Search, and that they line up with what its ranking systems reward. It also says good scores don't guarantee a top spot. A fast page with thin content won't beat a slower page that answers the question better. Treat speed as part of a good site, not a trick.

    How to check your site for free

    1. Open Google's PageSpeed Insights and type in your address.
    2. Look at the mobile results first. The phone test is the harder one, and the one to get right.
    3. If your site gets enough visitors, the top section shows how real people experienced it, measured against the three numbers above. That is the part that matters most.
    4. Below it is a lab test with a score out of 100 and a list of what to fix. Use it to find problems, and run it more than once, since the score moves a little each time.

    What usually slows a small business site down

    • Photos uploaded straight from a camera or phone instead of resized for the web.
    • A large video or slider at the top of the page.
    • Too many add-ons: chat widgets, pop-ups, trackers and plugins that each load their own code.
    • Slow or overloaded hosting.
    • Images and banners without a set size, which push the page around as they load.

    What to ask whoever builds your site

    1. Can I see the PageSpeed Insights results, on mobile, for a site you built?
    2. Will photos be resized and compressed when they're added?
    3. Who checks speed after launch, and who fixes it if it slips?

    Speed is one thing that changes what a site costs. Our guide to what a small business website costs covers the rest.

    How we build

    We build sites for phones first, with tap-to-call and quote forms, and we keep the add-ons to what the business needs. This site scores 100 for SEO and accessibility in Google Lighthouse. We sketch your homepage for free first and walk you through it on a Google Meet. See how we build websites.