Page Performance & Speed

Page speed has been a confirmed Google ranking factor since 2010 for desktop and since 2018 for mobile. Slow pages frustrate visitors, increase bounce rates, and are actively deprioritised in Google's rankings through its Core Web Vitals assessment.

Why Speed Matters for SEO

Google's algorithm directly uses page speed as a ranking signal, especially for mobile searches. Additionally, Google's Core Web Vitals — a set of user experience metrics that measure loading, interactivity, and visual stability — are part of the Page Experience ranking signal. Poor Core Web Vitals can directly reduce your rankings.

From a user perspective, research consistently shows that visitors abandon pages that take more than 3 seconds to load. A faster site means lower bounce rates and higher conversions — both of which indirectly support SEO.

Page Size

Our audit checks the size of your HTML document. Large HTML files (over 100 KB) can indicate bloated code, excessive inline scripts, or unoptimised content. However, total page weight (including images, scripts, and stylesheets) is more important than HTML size alone. Use Google PageSpeed Insights for a full analysis.

Core Web Vitals

• LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) — how quickly the main content loads. Target: under 2.5 seconds
• INP (Interaction to Next Paint) — how quickly the page responds to user input. Target: under 200ms
• CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) — how much the page layout shifts unexpectedly. Target: under 0.1

How to Improve Page Speed

• Compress images — use WebP format and tools like TinyPNG or Squoosh to reduce file sizes
• Enable server compression — GZIP or Brotli compression reduces file transfer sizes by up to 70%
• Enable browser caching — set long cache lifetimes for static assets via your .htaccess
• Minify CSS and JavaScript — remove whitespace and comments from code files
• Use a CDN — Content Delivery Networks serve files from servers close to your visitors
• Defer non-critical JavaScript — add the defer or async attribute to script tags
• Lazy-load images — add loading="lazy" to images below the fold