Technical Foundations · 1.1
Core Web Vitals / Page Load Speed
Put simply, how fast your page loads, how quickly it responds when you click something, and how visually stable it is while loading.
Door speed
A shop with a door that takes ten seconds to creak open loses customers before they even step inside — a slow-loading page does exactly the same thing.
Staff response
A shop where staff take ages to notice you've asked for help feels broken, even if they get there eventually — that's what a page feels like when it's slow to respond to a click or tap.
Stability
Shelves that shift while you're browsing make you grab the wrong thing — a page whose buttons and text jump around while it's loading causes the exact same mis-clicks.
Why this matters
The customer’s side
Someone searching for an agent on their commute, on patchy mobile signal, gives your site a few seconds before giving up entirely and trying the next result. Every extra 100ms of load time costs roughly 1% in lost conversions — real people, genuinely leaving before they've seen a single listing.
The search engine’s side
Confirmed Google ranking factor since 2021
This has been a confirmed Google ranking factor since 2021. Google, Bing, and every major search engine measure this directly and factor it into how they rank you — not a guess, a measured input alongside many others.
See it happen
Same search, two agencies. Watch what happens by the time the slow one finishes loading.
Page’s loaded. Customer browses listings.
Still loading. Customer’s already back on Google, clicking the next result.
How to check yours
Method 1 — PageSpeed Insights
Google's own tool, and the most direct read on how Google itself sees your speed.
- 1.Go to pagespeed.web.dev.
- 2.Type in your website address and press Enter.
- 3.Wait for both the Mobile and Desktop reports to load.
- 4.Note your score for each of the three metrics, and read the “Diagnostics” section — it lists exactly what's slowing you down.
Method 2 — GTmetrix, for a second opinion
a different testing tool with a visual waterfall chart — useful when PageSpeed's diagnostics feel too vague to act on.
- 1.Go to gtmetrix.com and enter your website address.
- 2.Once it finishes, open the “Waterfall” tab.
- 3.Look for the single largest bars — that's almost always one specific image or script worth fixing first.
How to fix what you find
If images are flagged
compress them before re-uploading — drag them into the tool below, download the compressed versions, and swap them in for the originals.
If unused code/plugins are flagged
remove anything you don't actually use. You can use AI to help identify what's safe to remove, speak to your website developer, or — if you know what you're doing — delete the code directly. Be careful not to delete anything important.
If it's server response time itself
either switch to a faster host, or add Cloudflare's free plan on top of whoever you're with now — it adds a speed-boosting layer regardless of who hosts you.
The easiest route
The easiest route: paste your PageSpeed results and diagnostics straight into an AI tool, and ask what needs fixing and how.
After making any changes, re-run PageSpeed to compare the difference.
Keeping on top of it
I'd recommend doing this once a month. Things are always changing on your website — new images, new plugins — and any of it can quietly affect your speed without you noticing. This directly affects your ranking, and left unchecked, it can slowly make your website fall behind.
How Reyse handles this
Done With You
we diagnose the issue, tell you exactly how to fix it, and give you the code to make the change yourself.
Done For You
we do all of this directly, on your behalf, every month — so you never have to spend that 30 minutes yourself.