How fast are home service businesses websites?
59 home service businesses websites in the US and UK, measured on a phone in October 2026. The median scores 64 out of 100, 12% reach Google's good band, and the main image or heading takes 5.9 s to appear on the typical site.
What the typical home service website looks like on a phone
Medians, so half the sites do better and half do worse. One run per site, Google PageSpeed Insights, mobile.
- 64/100Median PageSpeed scoreNeeds improvement in Google's bands
- 12%Score 90 or aboveGoogle's good band; 15% score under 50
- 5.9 sMedian largest element timeGoogle's target is 2.5 s; 12% of sites meet it
- 1.9 MBMedian page weightDownloaded before the homepage settles; 79 requests
Our own homepage, measured the same way the same day: 100 out of 100, largest element in 1.5 s, 329 KB downloaded.
Check your websiteWhere 59 home service businesses websites land
Each bar is ten points of the PageSpeed score. A site in the right-hand bar loads about as fast as a phone allows.
- US64median score, 29 sites14% good · largest element 5.7 s
- UK65median score, 30 sites10% good · largest element 6.8 s
- 12%pass Core Web Vitals with real visitorsChrome has real-user data for 16 of the 59 sites; 62% fail outright
What the slow sites have in common
The share of the 59 sites where Google's test flags each fault. Most slow sites have three or more.
Styles and scripts that block the first paint
46% of sitesTheme and plugin stylesheets and scripts that the browser must download before it can draw anything, so the visitor looks at a blank screen.
Large amounts of unused JavaScript
46% of sitesScripts loaded on every page that the page never uses: page builders, sliders and plugins left switched on.
Files served without browser caching
36% of sitesImages and scripts served without caching instructions, so a returning visitor downloads everything again.
Oversized or uncompressed images
27% of sitesPhotos uploaded straight from a camera or a stock library, often 2 to 5 MB each, and sent at full size to a phone screen a tenth as wide.
Heavy third-party scripts (chat widgets, trackers, embeds)
24% of sitesChat widgets, booking embeds, review carousels and tracking tags, each loading its own scripts and taking more than a second of the phone's processing time.
The slowest site in this group scores 21, shows its main content after 25.4 s and downloads 8.4 MB on a phone (custom build, US). It is not named here; its owner is welcome to run the free check.
What these websites are built on
WordPress runs 56% of the sites we measured, with a median score of 66. Custom or unidentified builds follows at 22%, median 69. The platform matters less than how it is set up: the fastest and slowest sites in this sample often run the same one.
| Platform | Sites | Share | Median score |
|---|---|---|---|
| WordPress | 33 | 56% | 66 |
| Other or custom | 13 | 22% | 69 |
| Wix | 6 | 10% | 55 |
| Could not be read | 4 | 7% | 80 |
The home service businesses websites that got it right
Public measurements of public websites, named so others can learn from them.
- 1Emergency Sheffield Plumberemergencysheffieldplumber.co.uk
- Score
- 100
- Largest element
- 0.6 s
- Platform
- Custom
- Country
- UK
- 2John's Plumbing & Drain Servicesjohnsplumber.com
- Score
- 100
- Largest element
- 0.8 s
- Platform
- Not read
- Country
- US
- 3Connect + Plumbing and Heating Ltdconnectph.co.uk
- Score
- 99
- Largest element
- 1.4 s
- Platform
- WordPress
- Country
- UK
- 4Chicago Sewer Expertschicagosewerexperts.com
- Score
- 99
- Largest element
- 1.6 s
- Platform
- Not read
- Country
- US
- 5Plumber Philaplumberphila.com
- Score
- 97
- Largest element
- 1.4 s
- Platform
- WordPress
- Country
- US
Measured October 2026 on a phone connection with Google PageSpeed Insights. Run one of these sites? Email hello@meshpros.com for a small badge that links here.
The difference is in the build, not the budget
The fastest sites in this report and our own homepage share three habits. None of them costs more than doing it the slow way.
Images sized for a phone
Every photo is saved at the size it is shown, in a modern format, and the main image is sent first. This alone moves most sites out of the poor band.
Nothing blocks the first paint
Styles the first screen needs are built into the page; scripts, widgets and tracking tags load after it. The visitor sees the page while the rest arrives.
A fast server with caching
The page starts arriving in well under half a second and repeat visits come from cache. Hosting that cannot do this is the one thing worth paying more for.
Our homepage was built this way and scores 100 on the same test, with the main image in 1.5 s. Every site we build and every site on a care plan is held to the same measurements.
How this report was made
How were the websites chosen?
We searched Google Maps for home service businesses businesses in ten US and ten UK cities, kept the business's own website (not Facebook pages, directories or booking platforms), removed national chains, and measured the first 30 per country in a random order. 236 websites in all across four industries.
How were they measured?
Each homepage was tested once with Google PageSpeed Insights on its mobile setting in October 2026: a mid-range phone on a slow 4G connection, the test Google uses for its own speed advice. Scores move a few points between runs; the medians and shares in this report are stable, a single site's figure is not.
What do the scores mean?
PageSpeed gives a page 0 to 100. Google calls 90 and above good, 50 to 89 needs improvement, and under 50 poor. The largest element time is how long the main image or heading takes to appear; Google's target is 2.5 seconds.
Why does this matter for a home service businesses business?
Most visitors arrive on a phone, often from a map listing or an advert. Every second before the page shows costs some of them, and Google uses the same measurements when it ranks pages. A slow site pays for its traffic twice.
Can I see my own website's score?
Yes. The free check at meshpros.com/website-speed-check/ measures any website the same way and compares it with its industry. It takes about 30 seconds and nothing is stored about you.
How often is the report updated?
Every quarter, with the previous figures kept so the change is visible. This edition was measured in October 2026.
Want your home service website in the good band?
Run the free check first. If the fixes are more than a quick job, we take them on under a care plan or a fixed-price project, and we show the before and after on the same test.