Page Speed
How fast your page loads — measured by multiple metrics and directly affecting rankings.
Page speed is how quickly a page becomes visible and usable. What matters for ranking is field data from real visits rather than a lab score, which is why a perfect Lighthouse result can coexist with failing Core Web Vitals. The usual causes of slowness are heavy images, blocking scripts and a slow server response.
Definition
Page speed refers to how quickly a web page loads and becomes interactive. It is measured by multiple metrics: Time to First Byte (TTFB), First Contentful Paint (FCP), Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), and Time to Interactive (TTI).
Google PageSpeed Insights provides both lab data (simulated) and field data (real users via CrUX) with scores from 0-100.
Why It Matters
Page speed is a confirmed ranking factor. Amazon found that every 100ms of latency cost them 1% in sales. For every 1 second delay in page load, conversions drop 7%. Speed is not just SEO — it is revenue.
Example
A WordPress site scores 35/100 on PageSpeed Insights. After image optimization, caching, code minification, and CDN setup, it scores 92/100. Organic traffic increases 23% in the following month.
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