SEOApril 20, 2026· 5 min read

Core Web Vitals: the speed Google turns into clients

A site one second slower means fewer enquiries and lower Google rankings. We explain Core Web Vitals in plain language and show how speed converts into sales.

Google has been repeating the same thing for years: fast sites win. Core Web Vitals is how it measures that - three numbers that decide your search ranking and whether a client even waits for your offer to load.

The three numbers you need to know

What speed does to sales

Google's and Deloitte's research agree: a 0.1s speed improvement lifts conversion by ~8%, and every second of delay can cost double-digit abandonment. Premium clients are even less patient - a slow site undermines brand credibility before they read the first sentence.

Speed isn't a technical feature. It's the first impression, a ranking signal and a conversion lever in one.

Why templates lose this race

WordPress themes and site builders load dozens of scripts “just in case” - carousels, animation libraries, trackers. That ballast can't be switched off without breaking the site. That's why a typical template scores 40–60 in PageSpeed, while sites written from scratch hit 100/100 - like our Nordhaus build, loading in 0.4s across three continents.

How to check your site in 30 seconds

Go to pagespeed.web.dev, enter your address and look at the mobile score - that's the one that counts. Below 70? You're losing rankings and clients every day. That audit is where we start every project - and we show it to the client before and after launch.

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