Page speed

Why page speed matters

Visitors expect pages to load in under three seconds on mobile. Longer waits dramatically increase bounce rates—people leave before seeing your content. Every additional second reduces conversions by double digits.

Google uses speed as a ranking factor through Core Web Vitals. Slow sites rank lower. Fast sites earn better positions, more traffic, and higher conversions. Speed isn't optional—it's fundamental to success.

Key performance metrics

Time to First Byte (TTFB): How quickly your server responds. Edge hosting reduces TTFB from 500ms+ to under 100ms by serving from nearby locations.

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): When the main content becomes visible. Good LCP is under 2.5 seconds. This reflects perceived speed—how quickly pages feel ready.

Total Blocking Time: How long the page stays unresponsive to user input. Heavy JavaScript creates blocking time. Fast sites remain interactive immediately.

Common speed killers

Unoptimised images are the #1 culprit. Massive hero images, oversized thumbnails, and wrong formats add seconds to load times. Image optimisation typically provides the biggest speed gains.

Excessive JavaScript slows parsing, execution, and interactivity. Frameworks shipping hundreds of KB to render simple content sacrifice speed for developer convenience. Astro's zero-JS approach eliminates this overhead.

Slow servers or distant hosting create latency. If your server is in the US and visitors are in the UK, physical distance adds 100-200ms before content even begins transferring. Edge distribution solves this.

Achieving fast page speed

Static generation via Astro produces plain HTML that loads instantly. No server processing, no database queries, no render delays. Just fast HTML served from the edge.

Combined with Cloudflare Pages global distribution, optimised images, and minimal JavaScript, Fernside sites typically achieve sub-1-second load times worldwide.

Testing page speed

PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse, and WebPageTest measure performance. Focus on Core Web Vitals scores—these directly impact rankings and user experience. Test on actual devices and slow connections, not just fast office WiFi.