# Website Speed and Google Rankings > LCP under 2.5s, INP under 200ms, CLS under 0.1 – the three numbers Google measures, why agency sites fail them, and the free 2-minute test. - Author: Yurii Skyba, Skyba Tech (https://skyba.tech) - Published: 2026-07-21 - Category: tecnologia - Reading time: 5 min - HTML version: https://skyba.tech/en/blog/website-speed-google-ranking --- Google has told us, in writing, that **website speed affects rankings**. What it hasn't done is explain it in words a business owner can act on – the official documentation reads like a physics paper. So here's the translation: the three numbers Google actually measures, the thresholds that count as passing, why most agency-built sites fail them, and how to test yours in the next two minutes without installing anything. ## The three numbers, in plain words Google's "Core Web Vitals" sound intimidating and measure mundane things: - **LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)** – how long until the main content is visible. The bar: **under 2.5 seconds**. This is the one that correlates with people giving up. - **INP (Interaction to Next Paint)** – when a visitor taps something, how fast the page reacts. Bar: **under 200 milliseconds**. Fails when a page is busy running scripts. - **CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift)** – does the page jump around while loading (you aim at a button, it moves, you tap an ad). Bar: **under 0.1**. Pure annoyance metric. Pass all three and speed stops being your problem. Fail them and you're paying twice: a ranking handicap in Google, and – the bigger invoice – visitors who leave before the page finishes. On mobile connections, every extra second of load time measurably increases abandonment; that's not a Google penalty, that's human patience. ## Why most agency sites fail this Not incompetence – economics. The standard agency stack (WordPress + page-builder theme + 20–30 plugins) is fast to *build with* and slow to *load*: typical pages ship 400–800 KB of JavaScript across dozens of files, and every plugin adds its slice. The build is profitable at €800; the loading time is your problem, not theirs, and it arrives after the invoice is paid. You can rescue such a site up to a point – caching, image compression, plugin diets – and sometimes that's genuinely enough. The architectural fix is different: sites compiled to static pages (that's our approach – the full comparison is in [WordPress vs Next.js](/en/blog/wordpress-vs-nextjs-small-business)) start life inside the thresholds instead of dieting toward them. ## Test your site in 2 minutes, free 1. Open **pagespeed.web.dev** (Google's own tool – no signup). 2. Enter your URL, wait ~30 seconds. 3. Read the **mobile** result first – it's the one Google weighs and the one that's usually worse. Look for the three metrics above and whether they're green. Two readings matter: the "field data" up top (real visitors, if your site has enough traffic) beats the "lab score" below it. And don't chase the 100/100 vanity score – a 95 and a 88 are functionally identical. What matters is green thresholds on mobile, nothing else. While you're there, run your two strongest competitors. Nothing motivates a speed budget like seeing who's already faster. ## What actually moves the needle (in order) If your test came back orange or red, the fixes rank like this – first ones give the most seconds per euro: - **Images.** The #1 culprit on small-business sites: a 4 MB hero photo doing the job of a 150 KB one. Modern formats and correct sizing routinely halve load time on their own. - **Script weight.** Every plugin, tracker, chat widget and slider ships JavaScript. Audit ruthlessly: each one should justify its milliseconds. (A lean site has a pleasant side effect: no tracking scripts, no cookie banner.) - **Hosting and caching.** A €3 shared host with no caching adds a flat second to everything. Cheap fix, instant result. - **Fonts.** Three font families in five weights is a wardrobe, not a design system. One family, two weights, properly loaded. What we build ships inside the thresholds by construction – that's a property of the [fixed-price packages](/en#pricing), not an upsell. ## When speed is NOT your problem Honesty corner: if your site already passes all three thresholds on mobile, further speed work is procrastination with a technical accent – spend the effort on your offer or your Google Business Profile instead. And speed never rescues weak fundamentals: a 0.9-second page with confusing prices and stock photos converts exactly as badly, just faster. Speed removes a handicap; it doesn't create a reason to buy. ## Frequently asked questions ### How much does speed actually affect my Google position? It's a real ranking signal, but a moderate one – content relevance and local factors weigh more. Think of it as a tiebreaker among comparable competitors, plus a multiplier on everything else: faster pages get crawled more, bounce less and convert better, which feeds back into rankings. Passing the thresholds is the goal; obsessing beyond them isn't. ### My PageSpeed score is 60. Is that a disaster? The 0–100 score is a lab estimate – check the three thresholds instead. A "60" that passes LCP/INP/CLS in field data is fine; a "90" that fails LCP for real visitors isn't. Mobile field data is the truth; everything else is simulation. ### Can you speed up my existing site without rebuilding it? Sometimes – image optimization, caching and script cleanup can move a WordPress site from 4 seconds to ~2.5. Whether that's smarter than rebuilding depends on how far you are from the bar and what maintenance costs you're carrying; send us your PageSpeed link on WhatsApp and we'll tell you which side of the line you're on, no charge. ## The short version Three numbers decide whether speed is your problem: LCP under 2.5 s, INP under 200 ms, CLS under 0.1 – checked free at pagespeed.web.dev, mobile tab, field data first. Most agency sites fail because of image bloat and plugin JavaScript; fixes rank images → scripts → hosting → fonts. Pass the bars and move on with your life. Fail them and fix it once, properly – our [pricing](/en#pricing) includes the thresholds by construction, and the honest diagnosis of your current site costs one WhatsApp message.