Insights
How can I make my small business website load faster on a phone?
Why small business websites are slow on phones, how to measure it with Google's free test, the fixes that work, and when a rebuild is the quicker answer.
To make a small business website load faster on a phone, measure it with Google's free PageSpeed Insights test, then remove what slows it down: heavy add-ons and plugins, photos that are too big, and code the page doesn't need. If the site is built on a heavy page builder, rebuilding it as plain, fast pages is often quicker than fixing it piece by piece.
Why speed on a phone matters
Most people find a local business on their phone, often on a weak signal. A slow page loses them before they see what you do.
A study by Deloitte for Google, Milliseconds make millions, found that a mobile site 0.1 seconds faster increased conversion rates by 8.4% for retail sites and 10.1% for travel sites. That was a large study of big brands, but the direction holds for any business: faster pages keep more visitors.
Step 1: measure it
Go to PageSpeed Insights, paste in your homepage address and look at the Mobile result. Google scores pages out of 100: "A score of 90 or above is considered good. 50 to 89 is a score that needs improvement, and below 50 is considered poor."
The score moves a little between runs, so test three times and take the middle one.
Then look at the three measures Google calls Core Web Vitals:
- Largest Contentful Paint: how long the main content takes to appear. Good is 2.5 seconds or less.
- Interaction to Next Paint: how quickly the page reacts when someone taps. Good is 200 milliseconds or less.
- Cumulative Layout Shift: how much the page jumps about while it loads. Good is 0.1 or less.
Step 2: find what slows it down
On most small business sites, three things do the damage:
- Add-ons and plugins. Every slider, pop-up, chat widget and social feed loads its own code. On a phone, the page freezes until they finish.
- Photos that are too big. A photo straight off a camera can weigh more than the rest of the page put together.
- Page builder code. Drag-and-drop builders produce far more code than the page needs, and the phone has to read all of it.
PageSpeed Insights lists these under "Diagnostics", with an estimate of the time each one costs.
Step 3: fix it, or rebuild it
Some fixes are quick: resize and compress your photos, remove add-ons you don't use, and turn off anything that loads on every page but appears on one.
If the score is still poor after that, the problem is usually the way the site is built. Fixing a heavy site piece by piece can take longer, and cost more, than rebuilding it as plain, fast pages.
That is what happened with Mr Bloor's beard oil page. It took 4.4 seconds to load on a phone and scored 40 on Google's test. After our rebuild, it loads in 2.1 seconds and scores 98.
Source: Google PageSpeed Insights, October 2026
Rebuilt to be fast
Our website rebuild keeps your brand, can make it look better, and makes every page fast on a phone. It comes with a speed guarantee: we test your homepage with Google's PageSpeed Insights mobile test when we start and again at launch, taking the middle of three runs, and if the new homepage scores lower, you don't pay. It is £1k all inclusive for up to 20 pages.
[See the website rebuild](/website-rebuild/), or [request a call back](/website-rebuild/#callback) and we will tell you what is slowing your site down.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check my website speed on a phone?
Use Google's free PageSpeed Insights at pagespeed.web.dev and read the Mobile result. Test three times and take the middle score.
What is a good PageSpeed score?
Google calls 90 or above good, 50 to 89 needs improvement, and below 50 poor.
Why is my website slow on mobile but fine on my computer?
Phones have slower processors and often weaker connections. Code from add-ons and page builders that a computer handles easily can freeze a phone for seconds.
Is it cheaper to fix a slow website or rebuild it?
Quick fixes like resizing photos cost little. If the site is still slow after them, a rebuild is often quicker and cheaper than fixing a heavy build piece by piece.