The short answer: under 3 seconds. That's the threshold where you keep most visitors and avoid a Google ranking penalty. But the real answer depends on who's visiting, how they're connected, and what your competitors are doing.
What Google expects
Google uses a set of metrics called Core Web Vitals to judge your site's speed. The headline number is Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) — how long until the main content on your page is visible.
- Good: Under 2.5 seconds
- Needs improvement: 2.5 – 4.0 seconds
- Poor: Over 4.0 seconds
Google has confirmed that Core Web Vitals are a ranking factor. This means a site that loads in 2 seconds can outrank an identical site that loads in 5 seconds. It's not the biggest ranking factor, but when you're competing with similar businesses, it can be the tiebreaker.
What visitors expect
Visitor patience is shorter than most business owners realize:
- 1 second: Visitors feel like the site is responsive and snappy
- 2-3 seconds: Most visitors stay, but engagement starts dropping
- 3-5 seconds: You've lost a significant chunk. Bounce rates increase by 32% between 1 and 3 seconds
- 5+ seconds: Over half your mobile visitors have already left
These aren't hypothetical. Google studied millions of mobile page loads and found that the probability of bounce increases 90% as page load time goes from 1 to 5 seconds. Every second counts.
Mobile vs. desktop
Your mobile load time is almost always slower than desktop — typically 2-3x slower. This matters because over 60% of web traffic is mobile. A site that loads in 1.5 seconds on your office computer might take 4-5 seconds on someone's phone over a cellular connection.
Always test your speed on mobile, not just desktop. Google's mobile-first indexing means they rank your site based on the mobile version, not the desktop version.
Benchmarks by industry
Average load times vary by industry, so "good" is partly relative to your competitors:
- E-commerce: Average 3.5s, target under 2s (every second directly costs sales)
- Local services: Average 4.2s, target under 3s (people search on phones, often on the go)
- B2B / Professional services: Average 3.8s, target under 3s
- Content / Blog: Average 3.2s, target under 2.5s
If you're faster than your direct competitors, you have an advantage. If you're slower, you're losing customers to them — even if your product or service is better.
What slows you down the most
The biggest time killers for most small business websites are oversized images, too many scripts, and slow hosting. Our website speed guide breaks down the 5 most common causes and how to fix each one.
The fastest wins usually come from image optimization and removing unused scripts. These can shave 1-3 seconds off your load time without touching your design or content.
How fast is your site? Run an Antileak scan and get your actual load time measured, plus a full breakdown of what's slowing you down. Your health score includes speed as a core component.
The bottom line
Aim for under 3 seconds on mobile. If you can get under 2 seconds, you're in excellent shape. If you're above 5 seconds, speed is the single most impactful thing you can improve for your business. The size of your pages is usually the first thing to look at.