What is a good PageSpeed score?

How to read the score

The big number at the top of a PageSpeed Insights report is the Lighthouse Performance score, a lab test that simulates one page load. It shows green from 90 to 100, orange from 50 to 89 and red below 50. Lighthouse's own documentation says a perfect 100 is extremely challenging to achieve and not expected, and that moving from 99 to 100 takes about as much improvement as moving from 90 to 94.

For context, most of the web sits well below green on phones. The HTTP Archive's 2025 Web Almanac reported median mobile Lighthouse scores of 64 for Wix sites and 41 for WordPress sites.

The score versus Core Web Vitals

PageSpeed Insights shows two kinds of data. Lab data comes from Lighthouse loading your page on a simulated phone with a throttled connection. Field data comes from the Chrome User Experience Report, which records what real Chrome users experienced on your page over the previous 28 days. Google describes Core Web Vitals as metrics that measure real-world experience, and the field data is what decides whether you pass.

Many small business sites do not get enough Chrome visits to show page-level field data. PageSpeed Insights then falls back to data for the whole domain, and if that is also too thin, you only see lab data. In that case, treat the lab score as a diagnostic and test on a real phone as well.

What goes into the Performance score

The score is a weighted blend of five lab metrics. In current Lighthouse versions, Total Blocking Time counts for 30%, Largest Contentful Paint and Cumulative Layout Shift for 25% each, and First Contentful Paint and Speed Index for 10% each.

That weighting explains why heavy JavaScript hurts so much. Blocking time measures how long scripts tie up the phone's processor, and the Almanac found a median of 1,916 milliseconds of it on mobile pages in 2025, up from 1,209 the year before. Chat widgets, page builders, sliders and stacks of tracking tags all add to it.

Why your score changes every time you test

Run the same page three times and you may get three different scores. Lighthouse's documentation lists the usual causes: ads or A/B tests that change between loads, internet routing, the hardware running the test, browser extensions and antivirus software. Mobile and desktop are also scored against separate curves, so a desktop 95 and a mobile 70 can describe the same page.

Treat the score as a range rather than a grade. Test a few times, compare like with like, and judge each fix by the trend instead of a single run.

Does the score affect Google rankings?

Indirectly. Google says Core Web Vitals are used by its ranking systems, but it also says Search always tries to show the most relevant content even when page experience is weaker, and that trying to get a perfect score just for SEO may not be the best use of your time. For a local business, the bigger cost of a slow page is the customer who gives up before it loads.

What to aim for

These targets cover what matters for most service business sites. On a free strategy call, Nick can run your key pages through PageSpeed Insights with you and walk through what is slowing them down.

• Pass the Core Web Vitals assessment in the field data, mobile first.
• Keep Largest Contentful Paint at or under 2.5 seconds, Interaction to Next Paint at or under 200 milliseconds and Cumulative Layout Shift at or under 0.1.
• Get your homepage and main service pages into the green lab range, and fix red scores before anything else.
• Stop paying for the last few points once calls and bookings are healthy.

Keep reading

• Why is my website slow on mobile?
• What is Elementor, and does it slow down websites?
• How do I know if my website is losing customers?
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• SEO from Modern Apex