How to compare your website speed with competitors

Key takeaways

Comparing your website speed with competitors is free and takes under an hour, because the same public tools work on any address. Compare like with like: the same type of page, on mobile, using real-visitor data where it exists. The result matters most when customers choose between you from the same search results. A faster rival there gets seen first and waited for less.

• Any public page can be tested in PageSpeed Insights, including a competitor's.
• Compare the same page type: service page with service page, not homepage with homepage.
• Use field data where it exists. Lab scores vary too much to rank on.
• Being slower matters most when buyers compare you side by side.

Why compare speed with competitors?

Speed is relative in the moments that count. A customer searching for a local service opens two or three results. Whichever page shows its offer first gets read first, and a rival's slow page is your opportunity. Search engines, too, are choosing between similar pages, and page experience helps separate them.

A comparison also gives a director a number that means something. 'Our pages take twice as long as the two firms above us' is easier to act on than a score in isolation.

• How website speed affects customer experience and conversions
• How to compare your website with competitors

How do you run a fair comparison?

Pick the competitors who appear beside you in search for your main service, and test the pages customers land on.

• 1. Search for your main service and note the top three rivals.
• 2. Take the page each one ranks with, not their homepage.
• 3. Run each through PageSpeed Insights on the mobile tab.
• 4. Record the Core Web Vitals assessment and LCP, INP and CLS.
• 5. Open each page on your phone over mobile data and note how it feels.
• 6. Repeat for a second service or product.

• How to test website speed the way customers feel it
• Lab data vs field data: which speed numbers to believe

Which numbers should you compare?

Compare field data first: whether each site passes Core Web Vitals for real mobile visitors, and the three figures behind that. This comes from the Chrome User Experience Report and reflects 28 days of real visits.

Where a competitor has no field data, use the lab results with caution. Run each test three times and compare ranges, not single scores. Then add what no tool reports: how long before you could read the offer, and how many taps it took to reach a phone number.

• Core Web Vitals for business websites
• Why do website speed tests give different results?

What does a gap mean?

A gap means different things depending on its size and direction.

• You fail and they pass: a real disadvantage. Fix it.
• Both pass, they are slightly faster: no meaningful difference to customers.
• Both fail: an opening. The first to fix it stands out.
• You pass and they fail: protect the lead and compete on content.

• Does website speed affect SEO and Google rankings?

When should you ignore the comparison?

Ignore it when the competitor is a different kind of business. A national chain with a development team will have faster pages than a five-person firm, and customers are not choosing on that. Ignore small differences once both sites pass. And do not copy a rival's stripped-back page if your customers need more information to decide.

Speed is one factor in the comparison a buyer makes. Clarity, proof and price visibility often count for more.

• What is a good PageSpeed Insights score for a business?

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see in local service markets: the three firms at the top of the results all have slow mobile pages, each assuming theirs is normal. Customers put up with it because there is no alternative.

The first firm to get its service pages showing the offer within a couple of seconds becomes the easy choice on a phone. Across client work at Global Bridge Labs (GBL), we have seen a 2.4x enquiry rate from conversion changes like these.

• See client work
• Website Design & Development for UK businesses

Competitor speed checklist

• Identify three competitors from your main search results.
• Test their ranking pages on mobile.
• Record pass or fail and the three Core Web Vitals.
• Open each on your own phone and time the first screen.
• Classify the gap and decide whether to act.
• Repeat every six months.

• A website speed report directors will actually read
• The website speed scorecard: score your site in an hour

Next step

You do not need to be the fastest site on the internet. You need to be quicker than the two or three firms a customer compares you with. We will show you where you stand.