Website speed optimisation for phones first
I make slow websites load faster on phones, working from Baramulla for businesses in Kashmir and around the world. Most visitors open a site on mobile data, so I measure on a phone first, fix what the test shows and then measure again.
What PageSpeed Insights is telling you
The score, and the three Core Web Vitals under it, in plain words.
PageSpeed Insights is a free test from Google. You paste in a web address and it runs Lighthouse, which loads the page the way a mid-range phone on a slow mobile connection would and gives it a performance score out of 100. The desktop score nearly always comes out higher, because that test assumes a faster machine and a faster connection.
Core Web Vitals are three measurements Google uses for how a page feels to use. Largest Contentful Paint is the time until the biggest thing on screen, usually your main photo, has appeared, and Google counts 2.5 seconds or less as good. Interaction to Next Paint is how quickly the page reacts when someone taps. Cumulative Layout Shift is how much the page jumps about while it loads, which is why people end up pressing the wrong button.
Busy sites also get a box of real visitor data from Chrome users over the last 28 days. Most small business sites don't get enough traffic for that, so the lab test is the number to work with. My guide to Core Web Vitals goes into more detail.
What makes a business website heavy
Small business sites tend to slow down for the same few reasons, and photo-heavy sites such as hotels, resorts and online stores feel them most.
Huge hero photos
A photo of your building or your view, straight from a camera or a drone, can weigh several megabytes. Placed full width at the top of the home page, it is the first thing every visitor waits for.
Sliders
A slider downloads five or six of those photos while the visitor looks at one, plus the code that rotates them, even if the visitor scrolls straight past.
Too many scripts
Chat widgets, Instagram feeds, video players, map embeds, icon fonts and tracking tags all add code the phone has to run before it responds to a tap.
No caching
Without caching, every request travels to one server, which on WordPress may rebuild the page each time. Visitors far from that server feel it most.
Is your site slow on a phone?
Send me the address. I'll run it through PageSpeed Insights, tell you what is weighing it down and give you the price before I change anything.
How I make a slow site faster
The same test before and after, so you can see the difference for yourself. If you only want the test, ask for a speed check.
Measure on a phone
I test your home page and your busiest product or package page on the mobile setting, save the reports and note what each page downloads.
Resize the images
Every photo is cut to the sizes screens actually show, saved as AVIF or WebP, and given a width and height so the page doesn't jump.
Cut the scripts
Code nobody uses comes out. Maps and videos load when someone taps them, and the rest waits until your text and photos are on screen.
Cache and test again
Files are cached on Cloudflare close to your visitors. Then I run the same tests again and send you both reports.
Test this site yourself
The fairest proof is one you can check without asking me.
This website is built the way I'd like every small business site to be. It has no slider, serves its images as AVIF or WebP at the size each screen needs, keeps its styles inside the page, and runs on Cloudflare Pages close to visitors. Put any page of it through PageSpeed Insights on the mobile setting and you will see what that adds up to.
The same approach works on most sites, whatever they sell. Photos sized for the screen, no code that isn't used, and files cached near the visitor. A heavy WordPress site won't become this light without a rebuild, but it can usually get a great deal faster, and I'll show you the before and after reports either way.
If your site is slow because of the way it was built rather than what is on it, read why is my website slow first. It covers the common causes and the ones you can fix yourself.
Questions about website speed
What is a good PageSpeed score?
Google shows 90 to 100 in green, 50 to 89 in orange and anything lower in red. I won't promise a number, because the mobile score moves by a few points from one run to the next. What matters more is how quickly your main photo and your WhatsApp button appear on a real phone.
Why is my site fast on Wi-Fi but slow on my phone?
Wi-Fi hides a heavy page because it arrives quickly anyway. On mobile data, and on a weak signal in the hills or on a train, every extra megabyte means more waiting. That is why PageSpeed Insights tests the mobile version on a slowed-down connection, and why I start there.
Will a faster site rank higher on Google?
Speed is one signal among many, and it won't lift a page that doesn't answer the search. It does decide how many visitors stay long enough to read your page and send a message. Ranking is the job of SEO as a whole, and speed is one part of it.
Do I need a new website to make mine faster?
Usually not. Oversized photos, unused scripts and missing caching can all be fixed on the site you already have. If a WordPress site sits on a heavy page builder with a long list of plugins, a rebuild can cost less than patching, and I'll tell you if I think so.
Want your site to open quickly on mobile data?
Send me your web address and the page that matters most to your business. I'll test it on a phone setting and tell you what I'd fix first.