I help small businesses with their websites, so I'll be honest: it was a bit embarrassing to run my own site through Google's speed test and see it score 63 out of 100 on mobile. That's the orange "needs improvement" zone.
So I fixed it. In one afternoon, my site went from 63 to 97, without changing how it looks on desktop. Here's exactly what was slowing it down and what I did, so you can check your own site too.
Why mobile speed matters
Lots of people find small businesses on their phones, often on slower connections. If your page takes six seconds to show anything, many of them won't wait. Google also looks at the mobile version of your site when deciding where to rank it.
What was slowing my site down
- A sneaky redirect. Links to www.virtuallykeri.co.uk were bouncing to virtuallykeri.co.uk, adding over a second before anything loaded.
- A heavy hero image. The big photo at the top of my homepage was the slowest thing to appear on phones.
- Files blocking the page. Shop styles and Google Fonts had to load before the page could show anything at all.
- Oversized images. My headshot was much bigger than phones actually need.
What I did
- Backed up the whole site first. Always. That way any change can be undone.
- Tuned my caching plugin (WP Rocket). I turned on removing unused CSS, preloading fonts, self-hosting Google Fonts and adding missing image sizes.
- Gave my homepage a lighter hero on phones. On mobile only, the big background photo is now a pink-to-purple brand gradient. Desktop visitors still see the photo.
- Skipped the redirect. Linking to the main address (virtuallykeri.co.uk) instead of the www version avoids the delay.
- Re-tested and checked. I ran Google's test again and checked the page still looked right on a phone.
The results
My mobile score jumped from 63 to 97, right into Google's green "good" zone. The main content now appears three times faster.
| Google PageSpeed (mobile) | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Performance score | 63 | 97 |
| Main content visible (Largest Contentful Paint) | 6.3s | 2.1s |
| First thing on screen (First Contentful Paint) | 4.1s | 1.3s |
| Page looks complete (Speed Index) | 5.9s | 2.6s |
Google's target for main content is under 2.5 seconds, so 2.1 seconds is a comfortable pass. (Scores do wobble a little between tests, so don't panic if you see a few points' difference.)
How to check your own website
Go to Google PageSpeed Insights, type in your website address and look at the Mobile score. Green (90+) is great, orange (50–89) needs some work, and red means visitors are probably leaving before your page loads.
Most small business websites have the same few problems: heavy images, too many files loading at once, or a redirect nobody knew about. The good news is they're usually fixable without redesigning anything.
Want me to check yours?
I offer a free Speed & Google Check. I'll test your website and send you 2–3 plain-English fixes. If you'd like me to sort them for you, I'll back up your site first and make sure it still looks exactly how you love it. Get in touch here.