Does page speed affect rankings?

It's one of many factors Google considers, and it matters most when competing pages are otherwise similar. Faster pages also tend to keep more visitors, which is often the bigger gain.

Can you speed up a WordPress site?

Often, yes, by tackling images, plugins, scripts and hosting. If the site is held back by its theme or too many plugins, I'll tell you honestly whether a rebuild would serve you better.

How soon will I see a difference?

Lab tests show the change straight away. Google's field data is based on the last 28 days of visits, so it takes a few weeks to catch up.

SEO

Core Web Vitals and Page Speed Improvements

Slow pages lose visitors and can lose rankings. I measure how your pages load for real visitors, find what's slowing them down and fix it in the code: images, scripts, fonts and hosting.

Request a speed check

Core Web Vitals

Google's thresholds, example page

Largest Contentful Paint
How quickly the main content appears.
Good: up to 2.5sNeeds workPoor: over 4s
Interaction to Next Paint
How quickly the page responds to a tap or click.
Good: up to 200msNeeds workPoor: over 500ms
Cumulative Layout Shift
How much the page jumps around as it loads.
Good: up to 0.1Needs workPoor: over 0.25

What you can expect from page speed work

Measured on real visits

Google's field data from real visitors, alongside lab tests, so fixes target what people actually experience.

Faster loading (LCP)

The main image or heading on each page made to appear sooner, by resizing images, preloading key files and trimming what loads first.

Quicker responses (INP)

Heavy scripts found and reduced, so buttons, menus and forms respond straight away when someone taps them.

Steadier layouts (CLS)

Space reserved for images, adverts and fonts, so the page doesn't jump about while it loads.

Fixes in the code

Changes made at the source, such as images, scripts, fonts and caching, rather than another plugin layered on top.

Before and after

Scores recorded before any changes and checked again afterwards, explained in plain English.

How a page speed project works

Step 1
Measure
I record your current Core Web Vitals from Google's data and test your key pages on phone and desktop.
Step 2
Find the causes
I trace each slow score back to the images, scripts, fonts or server settings causing it.
Step 3
Fix
I make the changes in order of impact, testing each one so nothing else on the site breaks.
Step 4
Confirm
I retest the pages and watch Google's field data, which takes a few weeks to fully reflect the changes.

Common questions

They're three measures Google uses for page experience: how quickly the main content appears (LCP), how quickly the page responds to a tap or click (INP) and how much the layout moves while loading (CLS).