Why speed matters
Most people visiting a small business website are on a phone, often on mobile data. If the page takes too long to appear, many leave before they see anything. Google also takes speed into account, and it judges your site mainly by how it performs on phones.
Google’s own guideline is that the main content of a page should appear within 2.5 seconds, and that the page shouldn’t jump around as it loads.
Test your website in a minute
- Go to Google PageSpeed Insights (pagespeed.web.dev) and enter your web address.
- Look at the Mobile tab first. The score out of 100 is a summary; the useful number is Largest Contentful Paint, which is how long the main content takes to appear.
- Scroll down to Diagnostics. It lists what’s slowing the page down, usually starting with the biggest files.
Scores move a little each time you test, so run it two or three times and look at the typical result.
The usual causes, and the fixes
| Cause | How to spot it | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| Huge photos | PageSpeed says “properly size images” or “serve images in next-gen formats” | Resize photos to the size they’re shown and save them as WebP. A photo straight off a phone can be ten times bigger than it needs to be. |
| Background videos | A large .mp4 file near the top of the page | Compress it heavily, use a still image on phones, or load it only once the page has appeared. |
| Too many plugins and scripts | Long lists of JavaScript files in Diagnostics | Remove what you don’t use: old sliders, chat widgets, extra tracking and unused page builder add-ons. |
| No caching | Every visit rebuilds the page from scratch | Turn on a caching plugin, or use hosting that caches for you. |
| Slow, crowded hosting | “Reduce initial server response time” in PageSpeed | Move to faster hosting with UK servers. The cheapest shared plans put hundreds of websites on one server. |
| Things jumping as it loads | A poor “Cumulative Layout Shift” score | Give images and embeds a set size, and avoid banners that push the page down after it loads. |
What I found on my own website
On 5 October 2026 I tested this website’s homepage on Google’s phone test. It scored 38 out of 100, and the main content took 17.9 seconds to appear. The culprits were exactly the usual ones: a 3 MB video and a 1.4 MB image loading near the top of the page. After dealing with those two files, the same test scored 84.
Three weeks and a lot of new work later, on 25 October 2026, the phone score had slipped back to 47. The homepage was downloading around 30 MB of video the moment it opened: every project and service video, even the ones far down the page. I didn’t remove a single video. I changed them so each one only downloads as you scroll towards it, swapped three small pictures for properly sized versions, and turned on CSS combining in the caching plugin. The same day, the phone score was back up to 87, with every video still playing on phones.
One thing worth knowing: run the test twice and you’ll rarely get the same number. Scores move by several points from one run to the next, so judge the trend over a few tests rather than any single score.
Run the free check
What not to worry about
- Chasing 100/100. A score in the 80s or 90s with content appearing quickly is plenty. The last few points rarely make a difference to customers.
- One bad test. Results vary. Look at the pattern over a few tests.
- Desktop scores. They’re nearly always better. Fix the phone experience first.
When you don’t need me
If PageSpeed points at a couple of big images, you can usually fix it yourself: resize them, save them as WebP and upload them again. A caching plugin is a ten-minute job on most WordPress websites.
If the problem is the hosting, a heavy theme or a tangle of plugins, it’s worth getting help. My WordPress hosting runs on fast UK servers with caching built in, and speed basics are part of my Google fix.
Written by Ben Brailsford-Chambers, the web designer behind Clever Rabbit in Oldbury. Last updated 25 October 2026. More guides