How to Measure Your Page Load Time
Before fixing anything, measure what you have. Use Google PageSpeed Insights (free, search for it) to get your page's performance score, your Largest Contentful Paint time, and a list of specific issues to fix. A score above 90 is good. Below 50 is a problem that is costing you customers and rankings.
- Go to PageSpeed Insights and enter your homepage URL
- Also test your most important service page, not just the homepage
- Check both mobile and desktop scores; mobile is what Google uses for ranking
The Specific Metrics That Matter
Google measures performance with Core Web Vitals: three specific metrics that determine whether your site feels fast to real users.
- LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): how long until the main content appears. Target: under 2.5 seconds.
- FID/INP (Input Delay): how quickly the page responds to a click or tap. Target: under 200 milliseconds.
- CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): how much the page jumps around as it loads. Target: under 0.1.
The Fastest Fixes for Slow Pages
Not all speed improvements are equal. These three changes will have the biggest impact for most small business websites:
- Compress all images to under 200KB using Squoosh or TinyPNG
- Enable Cloudflare (free) for CDN and caching
- Remove unused plugins and third-party scripts
When to Talk to Your Developer or Host
Some speed issues require backend changes that are beyond basic configuration. If your PageSpeed score is below 30 on mobile, your hosting might be the problem. If you are on shared hosting and cannot upgrade, migrating to a VPS or managed host is often the only real fix for persistently slow load times.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do my website pages take too long to load?
Most often: uncompressed images, slow hosting, too many third-party scripts, or no caching. Run PageSpeed Insights on your pages to get a specific list of issues with their impact level.
What is a good page load time for a small business website?
Under 3 seconds total on a mobile connection. The first meaningful content should appear in under 2.5 seconds. Anything over 5 seconds loses most mobile visitors.
How does page speed affect my Google ranking?
Google uses Core Web Vitals (LCP, FID/INP, CLS) as ranking signals. A site that scores Poor on these metrics ranks lower than an otherwise equivalent site that scores Good.
See Your Site's Speed Score
Our free audit measures your page load times, Core Web Vitals, and identifies the top 3 speed improvements for your site.
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