A slow website doesn’t just frustrate visitors; it can impact your search rankings, increase bounce rates, and reduce conversion opportunities.
Page speed is a crucial part of any online strategy. In this blog, we will demonstrate that achieving higher search rankings and better user engagement can come down to shaving milliseconds off of your load times. We’ll also explore NitroPack, a performance optimization solution that seoplus+ can provide to help websites load faster without a complete rebuild.
- Good page speed and Core Web Vitals play a big part in how Google and other search engines rank websites in search results.
- Faster pages increase dwell time and user interactions, which can indirectly boost rankings by improving engagement metrics.
- NitroPack, an app that can be provided to our SEO clients, can be used to improve website speed without rewriting code or changing the design of your site.
What is page speed?
Page speed refers to how quickly a web page loads and becomes usable for visitors. It’s the time it takes for content to appear and for interactive elements (like buttons or forms) to become responsive. While it might sound like a background technical detail, page speed directly shapes how users experience your site and whether they stick around long enough to engage.
How is page speed measured?
Page speed is typically measured using a set of performance metrics, known as Core Web Vitals, that evaluate how quickly content loads and how stable the page is as it appears. Core Web Vitals are a part of Google’s ranking algorithm and directly influence SEO. These metrics include:
- Time to First Byte (TTFB)
- Measures how long it takes the server to respond.
- For best results, TTFB should happen in less than 800 milliseconds.
- First Contentful Paint (FCP)
- Time until the browser starts displaying page content.
- For best results, FCP should occur within 1.8 seconds.
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
- When the largest visible element finishes loading.
- For best results, LCP should happen within 2.5 seconds.
- Interaction to Next Paint (INP)
- How quickly a page responds when a user interacts with it.
- For best results, INP should be below or at 200 milliseconds.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
- Measures how much elements move around during loading.
- For best results, CLS should be less than 100 milliseconds.
These indicators give developers a better understanding of where performance bottlenecks may be affecting the user experience.
What slows down a website?
Several common culprits can negatively impact your site speed:
- Unoptimized images: Large, uncompressed image files can dramatically slow load times, especially on mobile devices.
- Excessive third-party scripts: tracking tools, chatbots, and plugins can pile up and slow your page’s rendering.
- Render-blocking code: JavaScript or CSS that must load before content can appear slows down perceived performance.
- Inefficient hosting: Slow server response time (high TTFB) delays the loading of everything on a website.
- Bloated themes/builders: Websites built using heavy visual builders, such as Elementor, Divi, or WPBakery, can include excessive code and slow down load speeds.
- Lack of caching/CDN use: Without caching and content delivery networks (CDNs), every visitor must load the site from scratch.
How can you measure page speed?
There are several tools online that allow you to test and monitor your page speed. Some tools our web development team uses to review our clients’ websites include:
- Google PageSpeed Insights – Free: Offers a Core Web Vitals-focused audit of your mobile and desktop performance.
- GTmetrix – Free and paid plans available: A comprehensive speed test tool that also includes waterfall breakdowns of loading behaviour.
- NitroPack Performance Dashboard – Paid: If you use NitroPack, it includes integrated performance insights and Core Web Vitals monitoring.
Regularly testing your site helps uncover hidden issues and track performance over time.
Why is fast page speed important?
Page speed affects how users perceive your brand and whether they stay on your site long enough to engage. Research shows that:
- Visitors start abandoning pages that take longer than 3 seconds to load.
- Faster sites often rank higher in Google search results.
- Faster pages increase dwell time and user interactions, which can indirectly boost rankings by improving engagement metrics.
Put simply, a slow website leaves money on the table.
If you’ve ever closed a web page on your computer or an app on your phone because it was taking too long to load, you are the proof that page speed is vital to engagement and success. People can only read your content if the text renders, they can only buy your product if the button is on the screen. Any friction on your site is a deterrent for your users.
The effects of page speed on SEO and user experience
Poor page speed can:
- Increase bounce rates, where users leave before viewing more than one page
- Lower your search engine rankings due to poor Core Web Vitals
- Decrease session duration and engagement, which hurts conversion potential
On the flip side, optimizing for speed has measurable benefits:
- Improved visibility: Your site appears more often in Google results
- Higher engagement: Users spend more time and interact more on your site
- Better UX: Visitors can find what they need faster, especially on mobile
Any small improvements can create meaningful gains across SEO, UX, and business KPIs.
At the end of the day, even the best design or most intuitive user experience can’t make up for slow load times. If your webpage fails to load correctly or in a timely manner, users will bounce and choose a faster option — often your competition.
Case study highlight: Eastcoast Research
Speed wins for SEO & UX on WordPress
Eastcoast Research (ECR) is a full-service market research firm providing both qualitative and quantitative insights to help brands understand consumer behaviour. ECR came to seoplus+ with a performance issue: their WordPress site was hurting their SEO and user experience.
After implementing NitroPack, the site demonstrated strong, measurable improvements across several engagement and visibility metrics, tracked through Google Search Console (GSC) and Google Analytics 4 (GA4):
- 34% growth in average monthly clicks
- 122% increase in average monthly impressions
- 16% decrease in average bounce rate from direct traffic sources
- 35% increase in average direct user session duration
These gains happened without a complete website redesign—just a targeted optimization sprint using the right tool.
Read the full case study to learn more about ECR’s successes.
How do you improve your site speed?
Improving site speed involves optimizing everything from image loading to script execution. But doing it manually can be time-consuming and risky. That’s where tools like NitroPack come in.
What is NitroPack?
NitroPack is an all-in-one performance optimization platform designed to dramatically improve website speed, user experience, and Core Web Vitals—all without requiring deep technical know-how or complex configurations. Features include:
- Advanced caching for faster repeat visits
- Automatic image compression and resizing
- Code minification and deferral (JavaScript and CSS)
- Global CDN integration for faster content delivery
- Core Web Vitals optimization
Why choose NitroPack?
Compared to other tools like WP Rocket or traditional caching plugins, NitroPack stands out because it:
- Combines multiple speed tools into a single platform.
- Requires no development work for setup.
- Delivers consistent, measurable results.
- It is built with SEO best practices in mind.
For Eastcoast Research, switching to NitroPack after limited success with WP Rocket resulted in significant performance and ranking improvements.
Is NitroPack right for you?
NitroPack is especially effective for websites that:
- Have many high-quality images, videos, or graphics.
- Contain hundreds of pages or products.
- Use heavy page builders (e.g. Elementor, Divi, WPBakery).
- Use highly customizable themes (e.g. Oxygen, Brooklyn).
- Use several high-load plugins (e.g. Wordfence, Yoast, WPML, WooCommerce).
- Rely on custom interactivity and embedded third-party tools.
If your site feels bloated or underperforms but you’re not ready for a complete rebuild, NitroPack offers a low-risk, high-reward path forward.
Start optimizing today
At seoplus+, we offer NitroPack integration as part of our SEO services. Our team handles setup, testing, and ongoing tuning to ensure your site performs at its best, without breaking your design, analytics, or existing tools.
Page speed isn’t just about performance. It’s about perception, profitability, and staying competitive in the search results. If your website is dragging, let’s fix that.
Ready to see the difference? Get started with us today.
