Why website speed matters for local businesses (and how to fix a slow site)
Why it matters
- Homeowners in a hurry leave slow pages.
- Ad clicks you paid for are wasted if the page doesn’t load.
- Google’s page experience signals include Core Web Vitals.
How to test
- Run your homepage and a service page through PageSpeed Insights, on mobile.
- Check Core Web Vitals in Search Console for real-user data.
- Open your site on your own phone on mobile data, not Wi-Fi.
The usual culprits
- Huge photos straight off a camera.
- Sliders and auto-playing video at the top.
- Too many plugins, chat widgets and tracking scripts.
- Cheap shared hosting.
- Heavy page-builder themes.
Fixes, cheapest first
- Compress and resize images; use modern formats.
- Remove unused plugins and scripts.
- Replace the slider with one strong image.
- Better hosting with a CDN.
- A lighter rebuild if the theme itself is the problem.
Is your site slowing you down?
We build fast sites for home-service businesses. A free audit includes a mobile speed check. See our web design service.
Sources
- Web Vitals, web.dev
- Understanding page experience in Google Search results, Google Search Central
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