Everyone says website speed matters, but nobody tells you what 'fast' actually means. Here are the benchmarks Google uses and what they mean for your business.
You've probably heard that website speed matters. But how fast is fast enough? And which numbers should you actually care about?
Google answers both questions through something called Core Web Vitals. These are the specific metrics they use to measure how your site feels to real users. Not just how quickly the server responds, but how quickly people can see content, interact with it, and trust that the page isn't going to jump around on them.
If your site fails on these metrics, Google ranks you lower. If it passes, you get a measurable advantage over competitors who don't.
Here's what each one means in plain English.
What it measures: How long it takes for the biggest visible element on the page to finish loading. Usually a hero image or a large block of text.
The target: Under 2.5 seconds. Ideally under 1.5 seconds.
Why it matters: LCP is the moment a visitor feels like the page has loaded. Everything before that is waiting. If your LCP is 4 or 5 seconds, half your visitors have already hit the back button.
Common causes of slow LCP:
What it measures: How much the page layout shifts while it's loading. You know that annoying thing where you're about to tap a button and the page jumps, so you tap an ad instead? That's layout shift.
The target: Under 0.1. Ideally as close to zero as possible.
Why it matters: Layout shift destroys trust. It makes your site feel broken and unreliable. It's especially bad on mobile where the screen is smaller and shifts are more noticeable.
Common causes of high CLS:
What it measures: How quickly your site responds when someone taps a button, clicks a link, or types in a form field.
The target: Under 200 milliseconds.
Why it matters: If someone clicks "Add to basket" and nothing happens for half a second, they click again. Or they leave. Fast interactions feel professional. Slow ones feel broken.
Common causes of poor INP:
Core Web Vitals get the most attention because Google uses them directly for ranking, but there are other metrics worth knowing about.
First Contentful Paint (FCP) is when the first piece of content appears on screen. Under 1.8 seconds is good. This is the moment a visitor knows something is happening.
Time to Interactive (TTI) is when the page becomes fully usable. Under 3.8 seconds is the target. A page can look loaded but still be unresponsive if JavaScript is still running in the background.
Total Blocking Time (TBT) measures how long the main thread is blocked by long-running scripts. Under 200 milliseconds is good. High TBT means the page feels sluggish even after it looks ready.
To put numbers in context:
| Speed | What It Feels Like | |-------|-------------------| | Under 1 second | Instant. The best sites on the web. | | 1 to 2.5 seconds | Fast. Users are happy. Google is happy. | | 2.5 to 4 seconds | Noticeable delay. You're losing some visitors. | | Over 4 seconds | Slow. Over half of mobile users will leave. |
Most small business websites fall in the 3 to 6 second range. That's not a guess; Google's own data shows the average mobile page takes 4.7 seconds to load.
The sites we build load in under 1 second. Not because we're magicians, but because we use modern technology (Next.js, static generation, edge hosting) instead of WordPress on shared hosting. The performance gap between a hand-coded site and a template site isn't incremental. It's dramatic.
This isn't just a technical exercise. Speed directly affects revenue.
Google reported that a 0.1-second improvement in mobile load time increases conversion rates by 8%. Vodafone found that a 31% improvement in LCP led to a 15% increase in sales. Pinterest reduced perceived wait times by 40% and saw a 15% increase in sign-ups.
For a small business, the maths is straightforward. If your site gets 500 visitors a month and converts at 2%, that's 10 leads. Speed your site up and improve that conversion rate to 3%, and you've got 15 leads from the same traffic. That's a 50% increase in business from a change your visitors won't even consciously notice.
You don't need to be technical. Here are two ways to find out where you stand:
Google PageSpeed Insights (pagespeed.web.dev) gives you a full Lighthouse report for any URL. Enter your site, choose "Mobile", and look at the scores. Green is good, orange needs attention, red is a problem.
Our free audit tool at saffronstudio.dev/audit runs the same test and gives you plain-English explanations of what each score means, plus a comparison against what a modern site should score.
Either way, the numbers don't lie. If your site is slow, your customers are noticing even if they're not telling you. They're just leaving instead.
Ready to find out? Run a free audit and see your scores in 30 seconds.
We build fast, beautiful websites for small businesses. Let's talk about yours.