> How to check your website speed with Google's free tools: what LCP, INP and CLS mean, the marks to aim for, and the fixes that usually move each one. - Canonical: https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/how-to-check-your-website-speed/ --- # How to check your website speed, and what the numbers mean Google measures speed with three numbers called Core Web Vitals: how quickly the main content appears, how quickly the page responds to a tap, and how much the layout moves while loading. All three can be read free, for your own site and for a competitor's. Updated 6 October 2026 ## The three numbers Core Web Vitals are Google’s three measures of how a page feels to load and use. - Largest Contentful Paint, or LCP, is the time until the largest thing on screen has appeared, usually the main image or the headline. Good is 2.5 seconds or less. - Interaction to Next Paint, or INP, is the delay between a tap, click or key press and the page visibly responding. Good is 200 milliseconds or less. - Cumulative Layout Shift, or CLS, is how far content jumps about while the page loads. Good is a score of 0.1 or less. Google judges each one at the 75th percentile, which means three visits in four have to meet the mark. ## Check your own site PageSpeed Insights, at pagespeed.web.dev, is Google’s free test. Enter a page address and read the two halves of the result separately. The top half is field data: measurements from real Chrome users over the previous 28 days. It appears only when a page or site has enough visitors, and it is the data Google itself uses. The lower half is a lab test: one simulated visit on a mid-range phone. It gives the score out of 100 and a list of causes. Use it to find what to fix, and use the field data to judge the result. Test the home page, one main service or product page and one article, all on the mobile tab. Different templates behave differently, and Google indexes the mobile version of a site. ## Check a competitor PageSpeed Insights tests any public address, so the same three page types can be run for each competitor. Field data shows what their visitors experience. Where a competitor has none, compare lab results, which are run under the same simulated conditions for everyone. ## Read the whole site in Search Console Search Console’s Core Web Vitals report sorts every page it has data for into good, needs improvement and poor, separately for mobile and desktop. It shows whether a problem belongs to one page or to a template shared by hundreds. ## What usually fixes each number Each number has its usual causes. - LCP: compress the main image and serve it at the size it is shown, in a modern format, and stop scripts and stylesheets from holding up the first paint. Slow hosting shows here too. - INP: cut the JavaScript the page runs, starting with third-party tags such as chat widgets, trackers and embedded tools. - CLS: give every image and embed its width and height, and reserve space for anything that arrives late, such as banners and web fonts. ## When speed is not the problem A page that passes all three and still loses is losing on something else: relevance, content or links. Speed removes a handicap and does not replace the answer. The wider comparison is set out in [why a competitor outranks you, and how to check](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/why-a-competitor-outranks-you/). ## Questions people ask ### What is a good PageSpeed score? The score out of 100 is an estimate from one simulated visit. The figures that matter are the Core Web Vitals from real visitors: main content within 2.5 seconds, a response to input within 200 milliseconds and a layout shift score of 0.1 or less. ### Does website speed affect Google rankings? Google uses Core Web Vitals as one signal among many. Relevance comes first, so a fast page does not outrank a better answer. Between pages that answer equally well, the faster one has the advantage, and a slow page loses visitors before they read it. ### Why is my site fast for me but slow in the test? Your browser has already saved the site's files, and your connection is probably faster than a typical phone's. The test loads the page fresh on a simulated mid-range phone, which is closer to what a new visitor gets. ## Free competitor gap report Speed only means something in comparison. Name up to three competitors and we run their pages and yours through the same tests, then send you who is faster, by how much and what is slowing you down. 1. Speed and technical health, side by side 2. On-page SEO and site structure 3. The content they are found for and you are not 4. Who holds the searches that matter in your market 5. A prioritised list of what to fix first [Request your free report by email](mailto:contact@hadalmedusa.com?subject=Competitor%20gap%20report%3A%20Guide%3A%20How%20to%20check%20your%20website%20speed%2C%20and%20what%20the%20numbers%20mean&body=Website%3A%0D%0A%0D%0AWhere%20you%20compete%20(area%2C%20country%20or%20countries)%3A%0D%0A%0D%0ACompetitors%20to%20compare%20against%20(up%20to%20three)%3A%0D%0A%0D%0AAnything%20else%20we%20should%20know%3A%0D%0A%0D%0A) - **Address** — contact@hadalmedusa.com - **Include** — your site; up to three competitors; where you compete ## More guides - [A website launch checklist for search](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/website-launch-checklist/) - [How to choose a web design company](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/how-to-choose-a-web-design-company/) - [Why a competitor outranks you, and how to check](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/why-a-competitor-outranks-you/) - [All guides](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/) - [New websites: what the service includes](https://hadalmedusa.com/services/website-design/)