5 Simple Ways To Optimise Your Website Speed and Core Web Vitals

To optimise your website speed, start with five fixes: compress your images, cut unnecessary plugins and scripts, turn on caching, remove needless redirects and make sure your server compresses files. Then check your Core Web Vitals in Google's free tools to confirm the changes worked. Most small business sites can make real progress in an afternoon, without rebuilding anything.

Why website speed matters

A slow website costs you twice. Visitors give up before the page appears, and the ones who stay find it frustrating to use. That hits your enquiries and your ad spend, because you pay for every click whether the page loads or not.

Speed also plays a part in search. Google says that Core Web Vitals are used by its ranking systems, although relevance comes first: it "always seeks to show the most relevant content, even if the page experience is sub-par." In other words, a fast site won't rank on speed alone, but when your content is as good as a competitor's, a better experience helps.

There's room for most sites to improve. The HTTP Archive's 2025 Web Almanac found that only 48% of websites passed all three Core Web Vitals on mobile, and 56% on desktop.

Core Web Vitals explained (2026)

Core Web Vitals are Google's three measures of real-world page experience: how quickly the main content loads, how quickly the page responds when someone taps or clicks, and how stable the layout is while it loads.

Metric	What it measures	Good	Needs improvement	Poor
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)	Loading: when the main image or text block appears	2.5 seconds or less	Up to 4 seconds	Over 4 seconds
Interaction to Next Paint (INP)	Responsiveness: how quickly the page reacts to taps, clicks and key presses	200 ms or less	Up to 500 ms	Over 500 ms
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)	Visual stability: how much content jumps around as the page loads	0.1 or less	Up to 0.25	Over 0.25

Thresholds are from Google's web.dev guides to LCP, INP and CLS. A page passes when at least 75% of real visits meet the "good" mark, measured separately for mobile and desktop.

INP replaced FID in 2024

If you read about Core Web Vitals when they launched in 2021, you'll remember First Input Delay (FID). Google replaced FID with INP on 12 March 2024. FID only measured the delay before the first interaction. INP looks at interactions across the whole visit, so it's a tougher and more realistic test. Heavy JavaScript, chat widgets and tracking tags are the usual culprits when INP is poor.

How to test your website speed

These free tools will show you where you stand.

• PageSpeed Insights by Google. It shows both lab data and field data: a simulated test run by Lighthouse, plus real-user results from the Chrome User Experience Report over the previous 28 days. If your site has enough traffic, the field data is what counts.
• Google Search Console's Core Web Vitals report. It groups your pages into good, needs improvement and poor, so you can see which templates need work.
• GTmetrix. Free to start, and useful for seeing exactly which files load and in what order.

Test your homepage plus your most important service or landing pages, on mobile first. Note the scores so you can compare after each fix.

5 ways to optimise your website speed

1. Optimise your images

Large images are the most common reason a small business site is slow, and usually the easiest to fix.

• Resize before you upload. A photo straight off a phone is often far wider than your page needs.
• Use modern formats. MDN recommends WebP or AVIF, which generally compress better than JPEG and PNG.
• Compress. A free tool like Squoosh lets you compare quality and file size side by side in your browser.
• Don't lazy-load your hero image. Lazy loading is great for images further down the page, but your main image above the fold is usually the LCP element and should load first.
• Set image width and height. This reserves space on the page, so content doesn't jump when the image arrives. It's one of the simplest ways to fix CLS.

2. Cut plugins, scripts and tracking tags

Every plugin, widget and tag adds code the browser has to download and run. Too much of it is the main reason for a poor INP score.

• Deactivate plugins you no longer use, then delete them.
• Run a speed test after removing each suspect plugin to see which ones cost the most.
• Review your tracking tags. Old pixels from campaigns you stopped years ago still load on every page.
• Question every third-party widget, such as chat tools, pop-ups and social feeds. Keep the ones that bring in enquiries.

3. Turn on caching and use a CDN

Caching stores ready-made copies of your pages, so the server doesn't rebuild each page for every visitor. A content delivery network (CDN) keeps copies of your files on servers closer to your visitors. Google's top recommendations for Core Web Vitals include using a CDN to cut server response time. How you set this up depends on your platform: many hosts include caching and a CDN, so ask yours what's available before installing another plugin.

4. Avoid unnecessary redirects

Each redirect adds another round trip before the page can start loading. One redirect from an old URL is fine. Chains of three or four (for example, http to https to www to a new page) slow things down. Use a crawler or your SEO plugin to find redirect chains, then point links straight at the final URL.

5. Make sure your server compresses files

Text compression shrinks your HTML, CSS and JavaScript before they're sent, a bit like zipping a file. Most modern hosts switch it on by default, but not all. If PageSpeed Insights flags it, ask your host to enable it. While you're there, ask about your hosting plan: if your server is slow to respond, no amount of front-end tweaking will fully fix it.

Core Web Vitals advice that still holds

When Core Web Vitals first rolled out, the advice was to put users first rather than chase rankings. That hasn't changed. Make sure your site runs on HTTPS, works properly on a phone and doesn't hide content behind intrusive pop-ups. Fix the experience for people, and the scores tend to follow.

Your speed checklist for this week

1. Run your top five pages through PageSpeed Insights on mobile and note the results.
2. Compress and resize the ten largest images on your site.
3. Remove one unused plugin and one old tracking tag.
4. Ask your host about caching, a CDN and text compression.
5. Check Search Console's Core Web Vitals report again in a month, once new field data has come in.

Speed is one part of a website that converts. If your site is fast but enquiries are still slow, my guide to fixing a website that isn't generating leads is the next step, and these essential elements of small business web design cover the rest.

Frequently asked questions

What are the three Core Web Vitals?

Largest Contentful Paint (loading), Interaction to Next Paint (responsiveness) and Cumulative Layout Shift (visual stability). Good scores are 2.5 seconds or less, 200 milliseconds or less, and 0.1 or less.

What replaced First Input Delay?

Interaction to Next Paint (INP) replaced First Input Delay as a Core Web Vital on 12 March 2024. It measures responsiveness across the whole visit, not just the first interaction.

Does website speed affect Google rankings?

Yes, Core Web Vitals are used by Google's ranking systems, but relevance and content quality come first. Treat speed as something that helps good content win, and as a direct boost to conversions.

If you'd like a website that's built fast from the start, have a look at my website design service, or book a free call and I'll look at your current speed results with you.