Slow websites lose customers and rankings. What Google's Core Web Vitals measure, the targets to hit, and the quick fixes that make most Kenyan business sites faster.
Most Kenyans browse on phones, often on mobile data. If your website takes several seconds to show anything, many visitors leave before they see your phone number. Speed is also one of the page-experience signals Google considers, so slow sites tend to struggle in search.
What Google measures: Core Web Vitals
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): how fast the main content appears. Aim for 2.5 seconds or less.
- Interaction to Next Paint (INP): how quickly the page responds when someone taps. Aim for 200 milliseconds or less.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): how much the page jumps around while loading. Aim for 0.1 or less.
How to check your site in two minutes
- Open PageSpeed Insights (pagespeed.web.dev) and enter your address.
- Look at the mobile tab first; that is what most customers use.
- Note the three Core Web Vitals and the top suggestions.
The usual culprits
- Huge images uploaded straight from a camera or phone.
- Too many plugins on WordPress, each adding scripts.
- Page builders and sliders that load heavy code on every page.
- Cheap, overloaded hosting far from your visitors.
- Several fonts and tracking scripts loaded before the content.
Quick wins
- Resize and compress images, and use modern formats such as WebP.
- Remove plugins and scripts you do not need.
- Use caching and a CDN.
- Reserve space for images and embeds so the layout does not jump.
- Put your phone and WhatsApp buttons where they load first.
Fast by design
Every website Bepents Tech Services builds is designed for speed from the start: lean code, optimised images, caching, structured data and Search Console setup, so you are found and customers can reach you in a tap. Send us your link and we will tell you what is slowing it down.