What a slow site actually costs you
Most speed advice is framed around Google. That framing undersells it. Core Web Vitals are a real but modest ranking signal; the conversion effect is larger and it applies whether or not Google is watching.
The useful question is not 'is my site fast enough for Google' but 'how many enquiries am I losing to the wait', and that is measurable rather than theoretical.
How to measure your own number
Do not rely on published industry averages — they vary enormously by sector and traffic mix. Use your own analytics.
Segment your sessions by page load time. Most analytics tools can do this, and GA4 exposes Core Web Vitals if configured. Compare conversion rate for fast sessions against slow ones on the same pages.
The comparison is imperfect, because slow sessions correlate with older devices and worse connections, which correlate with other things. But if your fast-session conversion rate is meaningfully higher, that gap is the size of the prize, and it is your number rather than a statistic from someone else's site.
Where the loss actually happens
Not evenly. It concentrates in three places:
- Mobile on cellular. Where most local search happens and where slow sites are slowest. If you serve a market where mid-range Android on a mobile network is typical, this is most of your traffic.
- Paid traffic landing pages. You paid for that click. A slow page means paying for a visitor who left before seeing anything — the most expensive form of slowness there is.
- Checkout and forms. Late-funnel abandonment costs the most because those visitors had already decided.
Working out whether a fix pays
Take your monthly enquiries, your close rate and your average job value. Work out what a modest improvement in conversion — say a fifth better — would be worth in a year. Compare against the cost of the fix.
For a business with meaningful traffic and a reasonable job value, speed work usually pays back quickly. For a site with fifty visits a month, it does not, and the money belongs in getting traffic first. Both of those are real answers and it is worth knowing which one you are before spending.
If your site gets very little traffic, speed is not your problem. Do not spend on performance work before you have anyone to lose. Visibility first, then conversion.
Common questions
How much does site speed affect conversion rate?
It varies by sector, device mix and how slow the site currently is, so published averages are not reliable for your case. Measure it yourself: segment sessions by load time in analytics and compare conversion between fast and slow sessions on the same pages.
Is speed more important for SEO or conversion?
Conversion, clearly. Core Web Vitals are a confirmed but modest ranking signal. The effect on whether visitors stay and complete a form is larger and applies regardless of how you got the traffic.
What load time should I aim for?
Use Core Web Vitals rather than a single number: LCP under 2.5 seconds, INP under 200 milliseconds, CLS under 0.1 — measured on real mobile visits. They correspond reasonably well to whether the experience feels acceptable.
Should I fix speed before running ads?
Yes, if you are sending paid traffic to the slow pages. You are paying per click for visitors who leave before the page renders. Fixing the landing page first makes every rupee or dollar of ad spend afterwards work harder.
Want us to look at your site?
We will tell you whether the problem is hosting, plugins, architecture or something else entirely — including when the answer is that you should not rebuild and should spend the money on traffic instead. No charge for the assessment.
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- Choosing hosting: what actually affects your site's speed