How fast does my website load?

You have a website. It looks fine on your own laptop, everything works. But how fast does it actually load on a phone, for someone quickly searching while on the go? That is a very different question, and for most small business owners, the answer is not encouraging.

What is loading time exactly?

Loading time is the time between someone clicking on your website and the page being visible and usable. Google measures this with the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): the moment the largest visible element has loaded, usually a large image or a heading.

Google’s benchmarks:

Under 2.5 seconds: good
2.5 to 4 seconds: needs improvement
Above 4 seconds: poor

How do I measure my website’s loading time?

Free, in one minute: go to pagespeed.web.dev, enter your website address and look at the mobile score. That number is the most honest picture of how your website performs for most visitors.

Note: the mobile score is almost always lower than the desktop score. That is normal. But mobile is what counts, most people now search on their phone.

Why does loading time matter?

Visitors do not wait. Someone searching on their phone for a hairdresser, a plumber or a restaurant has no patience for a slow page. They click on the next result. You never saw them. You never knew they were there.

Google pays attention. Loading speed is an official ranking factor. A slow website ranks lower in search results, regardless of how good your content is.

AI search engines too. ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity pull information from websites. They prefer sites that load quickly and are easy to read.

What causes a slow website?

The most common causes:

Images that have not been optimised
Unnecessary plugins running in the background
No caching set up
Cheap hosting without fast servers

Many of these problems can be fixed without building a new website.

Frequently asked questions

Question: My website is fast on my own computer. How can that be? Answer: Your browser has cached the website. New visitors load everything fresh.

Question: My website looks great. Can it still be slow? Answer: Especially good-looking websites with many images and animations are often the slowest. Aesthetics and speed are two separate things.

Question: Does better hosting help? Answer: Sometimes. But better hosting will not make a poorly built website fast. Start by understanding what the problem is.

Question: Can I fix this myself? Answer: Partly. Compressing images and removing unnecessary plugins you can do yourself. For technical settings you need a developer.

Question: How fast should my website be? Answer: Aim for under 2.5 seconds on mobile. Every second less loading time helps.

What can you do today?

Measure your loading time at pagespeed.web.dev
Compress heavy images
Remove WordPress plugins you do not actively use
Ask your web manager whether caching is set up

Want to know how your website scores and what the priorities are? A PVwebsites analysis gives you a complete overview.

Analyse my website, €9.95