Free WordPress Speed Test
Lab-measured Core Web Vitals in a real browser, plus a prioritized list of what's slowing your site down.
WordPress Scan Results
Get Your Full Audit Report
Your full audit report (PDF) — including in-depth security analysis, performance breakdown by resource type, and mobile-specific diagnostics.
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What We Measure
LCP — Largest Contentful Paint
How long until the biggest thing above the fold renders. Under 2.5s = good.
FCP — First Contentful Paint
When any content first appears. Under 1.8s = good. A low FCP with a high LCP means hero images or fonts are slow.
CLS — Cumulative Layout Shift
How much the page jumps while loading. Under 0.1 = good. High CLS usually means missing image dimensions or injected ads/embeds.
TBT — Total Blocking Time
How long the main thread was blocked by JavaScript. Under 200ms = good. High TBT usually means bloated analytics/chat/heatmap scripts.
Why Your WordPress Site Might Be Slow
The usual suspects, in rough order of impact:
- Plugin bloat — every active plugin adds PHP, JS, and CSS. Most sites have 5-10 plugins they don't need.
- Unoptimized images — a single 3MB hero image can wipe out every other optimization. Modern formats (WebP/AVIF) + correct sizes fix this.
- Render-blocking JavaScript — third-party scripts (chat widgets, A/B test tools, heatmaps) that load synchronously in <head>.
- Slow server / poor caching — TTFB over 600ms means your host or your caching is broken. Object caching + page caching usually solve it.
- Fonts loaded from Google CDN — extra DNS lookup, extra TCP connection. Self-host woff2 and preload them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this Lighthouse or PageSpeed Insights under the hood?
We run Google Lighthouse against your page in a real headless Chromium browser on our server. That's the same engine PageSpeed Insights uses for its lab audit. It is NOT CrUX/field data — those require real user sessions across weeks, which we don't collect.
Is this real-user data or synthetic?
This is lab data — a single measurement from a controlled browser environment. For field data (real Chrome users across your site), you need Google Search Console's Core Web Vitals report or PageSpeed Insights' "Field Data" section on sites with enough traffic.
How often should I test?
Before and after every major change — plugin installs, theme updates, content pushes. Weekly at minimum if you're actively iterating. Monthly for stable sites.
Why does mobile score lower than desktop?
Lighthouse mobile simulates a mid-tier Android on a throttled 4G connection — that's a much harsher environment than desktop broadband. If you care about mobile ranking and conversions, mobile is the score that matters. Most sites are 30-40 points lower on mobile than desktop.
What counts as a "good" score?
Google's thresholds: LCP under 2.5s, INP under 200ms, CLS under 0.1. A Lighthouse score of 90+ is excellent, 50-89 is "needs improvement", below 50 is poor. For WordPress sites on shared hosting with plugins, 70-80 mobile is realistic; 90+ typically requires dedicated optimization.
Do I need to fix everything the report flags?
No. Focus on the items that move Core Web Vitals (LCP, CLS, INP) and render-blocking resources. Some Lighthouse audits flag theoretical improvements that have no real user impact. Our Fix plans prioritize fixes by actual UX impact, not by Lighthouse point count.
Ready to make your site faster?
Full audit or one-time fix — pick what makes sense for your site.
