Speed
Website speed optimization and Core Web Vitals
A slow page charges you twice: once for the click you paid for, and again for the visitor who left before the form appeared. We find what makes your pages slow on real phones and fix it at the source.
Why speed is a lead problem
Speed is usually sold as an SEO topic. Core Web Vitals are part of how Google ranks pages and part of technical SEO, but a modest part: relevance still wins. The bigger cost of a slow site sits in your conversion rate and your ad bills.
Every visitor who gives up before the page appears is a click you paid for and a lead you never saw. Google Ads also rates the landing page experience of each ad, and that rating feeds into what you pay per click. It is the first thing we check in PPC management.
Phones on mobile networks feel slowness first. A page that looks fine on the office Wi-Fi can drag on a mid-range Android in a car park. We test there.
The three metrics, and what usually breaks them
| Metric | Good | Usual causes |
|---|---|---|
| LCP: the main content appears | 2.5 s or less | Huge hero images, a slow server, render-blocking fonts and scripts, sliders |
| INP: the page responds | 200 ms or less | Heavy JavaScript: chat widgets, tag managers full of tags, page builders |
| CLS: the layout stays still | 0.1 or less | Images without set dimensions, late banners, web fonts swapping in |
How we work
Start from field data
Search Console and PageSpeed Insights show how real Chrome users experience each group of pages. That is what Google uses, so it is where we start.
Find the cause
Lab traces on a throttled mobile profile show which file, script or image delays each metric.
Fix by impact
The templates that carry the most leads and ad traffic come first: service pages, landing pages, product pages.
Verify on real visits
Field data in Search Console covers a rolling 28-day window, so improvements show gradually. We follow them until they settle.
What we usually fix
Images
Modern formats such as AVIF and WebP, the right size for each screen, priority for the hero image, lazy loading below the fold.
Fonts
Self-hosted, trimmed to the characters you use, preloaded, with a fallback that does not shift the layout.
Third-party scripts
Every tag audited. Dead pixels removed, chat widgets loaded on first interaction, non-essential scripts delayed.
Server and caching
A CDN, proper caching rules and a faster server response, the base every other metric stands on.
JavaScript
Less of it, split by page and deferred. When the stack itself is the problem, see web development.
Layout stability
Space reserved for images, embeds and banners, so nothing jumps while the visitor reads or taps.
What we report
Field LCP, INP and CLS
Per page group, on mobile and desktop, from real visits.
Passing URLs
How many of your URLs Search Console rates as good, and which groups still fail.
Server response time
How long the server takes to start sending each page.
Page weight and requests
What each template loads, before and after, with the scripts that remain and why.
Conversion on fixed pages
Form starts and bookings on the pages we sped up, compared with the period before. Conversion rate optimisation picks up from there.
Frequently asked questions
Will faster pages improve our rankings?
They can help, especially against competitors with similar content. Core Web Vitals are one signal among many, so we do not promise positions. The surer gains are in conversions and in what you pay per ad click.
Why are we green on desktop and red on mobile?
Mobile visitors have slower processors and networks, and Google measures each device type separately. Heavy JavaScript that a laptop handles easily can block a mid-range phone for seconds.
Can you speed up WordPress without rebuilding it?
Often, yes. Caching, images, fonts and a plug-in cleanup go a long way. When a page builder or a heavy theme is the cause, a lean WordPress rebuild is the lasting fix.
How long until Search Console shows the improvement?
Its Core Web Vitals report uses a rolling 28 days of real visits, so expect a gradual change over about a month after the fix goes live, provided the pages get enough traffic.
Do chat widgets slow sites down?
Many do, because they load a lot of JavaScript on every page. We load them when the visitor first interacts, or replace them with a lighter WhatsApp link.
Last updated · By the Napexy team
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