Daniel Campbell-WhiteIf your website takes longer than a couple of seconds to load, you're losing customers before they ever see what you offer. That's not an opinion — it's what the data consistently shows. Speed is one of the few things on your website that affects rankings, conversions and brand perception all at once.
What "fast" actually means
When developers talk about speed, we're usually talking about Core Web Vitals — a set of real-world metrics Google uses to measure user experience:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) — how quickly the main content appears. Aim for under 2.5 seconds.
- Interaction to Next Paint (INP) — how responsive the page feels when you interact with it. Aim for under 200ms.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) — how much the page jumps around as it loads. Aim for under 0.1.
These aren't abstract numbers. They map directly onto how frustrating or effortless your website feels.
Why it matters for your business
A one-second delay in load time can reduce conversions by around 7%.
For an e-commerce store doing £100,000 a year, that's potentially £7,000 walking out the door — for a problem that's entirely fixable.
Fast sites also rank better. Google has used page experience as a ranking signal for years, and faster pages get crawled more efficiently too.
How to get there
- Optimise images — serve modern formats (AVIF/WebP) at the right size.
- Reduce JavaScript — ship less code, and split what you do ship.
- Use a modern framework — tools like Next.js render fast by default.
- Cache aggressively — at the edge, close to your users.
- Audit third-party scripts — analytics and chat widgets are often the worst offenders.
If you're not sure where your site stands, a performance audit is the fastest way to find out — and the gains are usually dramatic.
Want this kind of thinking applied to your website?
Get in touch and let's talk about your goals.