Website Speed Benchmarks by Industry: How Does Your Site Compare?

You run a Lighthouse test on your website and get a mobile performance score of 42. Is that good? Bad? Average for your industry? Without context, a single number does not tell you much.

After running hundreds of website audits through WL Tech, I have seen clear patterns in how fast (or slow) websites are across different industries. A dentist's website has different speed challenges than an online store, which has different challenges than a restaurant's site. The averages are not the same, and neither are the fixes.

This post breaks down real-world website speed benchmarks by industry so you can see how your site compares to your peers. I will cover what the averages look like, why certain industries struggle more than others, and what target you should aim for regardless of your sector.

If you have not tested your site yet, run a free website audit first so you have your own numbers to compare against the benchmarks below.

What We Are Measuring

Before diving into the numbers, let's quickly cover what metrics matter and what tools we are using.

Lighthouse Performance Score

Google Lighthouse gives a performance score from 0 to 100 based on a simulated page load. The score is a weighted combination of several metrics, with Largest Contentful Paint carrying the most weight. A score of 90+ is fast, 50 to 89 needs work, and below 50 is slow. You can learn more about what these scores mean in our guide on what a good Lighthouse score is.

Core Web Vitals

These are the three metrics Google uses as ranking signals:

• LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): How long until the largest visible element appears. Target: under 2.5 seconds.
• CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): How much the page layout jumps around as it loads. Target: under 0.1.
• INP (Interaction to Next Paint): How quickly the page responds to user input. Target: under 200ms.

Our Core Web Vitals guide covers these in depth if you need a refresher.

Mobile vs Desktop

All benchmarks in this post are mobile scores unless stated otherwise. Mobile is the harder test because it simulates a mid-range phone on a 4G connection. Desktop scores are almost always 20 to 40 points higher. Google uses mobile scores for ranking, so mobile is the number that matters.

Website Speed Benchmarks by Industry

These benchmarks are based on audits I have run on real small business websites across sectors, combined with publicly available data from Google CrUX (Chrome User Experience Report) and HTTP Archive. The numbers represent typical ranges, not outliers.

E-Commerce and Online Stores

| Metric | Typical Range | Target | |--------|--------------|--------| | Mobile Performance | 15 to 45 | 75+ | | LCP | 4.0s to 8.0s | < 2.5s | | CLS | 0.05 to 0.25 | < 0.1 | | INP | 200ms to 500ms | < 200ms | | Average page weight | 4MB to 9MB | < 3MB |

E-commerce sites are consistently the slowest category I audit. The reasons are predictable: large product image galleries, multiple tracking pixels (Google Analytics, Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest), review widgets, and complex checkout flows. Most small online stores I test have mobile performance scores between 15 and 45.

The average online store loads its largest contentful paint in 4 to 8 seconds on mobile. That is well above the 2.5 second threshold Google wants. Shoppers do not wait. Research from Google shows that as page load time goes from 1 second to 5 seconds, the probability of a bounce increases by 90%.

If you run an online store, read our post on website speed for e-commerce and conversion rates for specific fixes that directly affect revenue. The most common wins are image optimization and deferring render-blocking tracking scripts.

Dental and Medical Practices

| Metric | Typical Range | Target | |--------|--------------|--------| | Mobile Performance | 25 to 55 | 75+ | | LCP | 3.0s to 6.0s | < 2.5s | | CLS | 0.05 to 0.15 | < 0.1 | | INP | 150ms to 350ms | < 200ms | | Average page weight | 2.5MB to 6MB | < 2MB |

Dental and medical practice websites are a mixed bag. Some are decent, some are terrible. The common problems are large hero images of smiling patients, booking widget embeds that load synchronously, and CMS platforms that generate bloated HTML.

The booking widget is the biggest offender I see. These third-party tools (Dentrix, NexHealth, Solutionreach, etc.) inject JavaScript into the page head and block rendering. The patient sees a blank screen for several seconds before the page content and booking form appear. A score of 40 to 50 is average for this category.

We have written about why dentists lose patients to slow websites and audited several dental practices, including Bethlehem Town Family Dental and Harborview Dental Studio.

Restaurants and Cafes

| Metric | Typical Range | Target | |--------|--------------|--------| | Mobile Performance | 20 to 50 | 75+ | | LCP | 3.5s to 7.0s | < 2.5s | | CLS | 0.05 to 0.20 | < 0.1 | | INP | 200ms to 400ms | < 200ms | | Average page weight | 3MB to 7MB | < 2.5MB |

Restaurant websites are notoriously slow. The main culprit is almost always images. Food photography is inherently large, and most restaurant sites upload full-resolution photos straight from a camera or phone without resizing or compressing. A single hero image of a pizza can be 4MB.

The second issue is PDF menus. Many restaurant sites embed a PDF menu viewer that loads a heavy JavaScript library to render the PDF in the browser. This is both slow and bad for SEO. The menu should be HTML text, not a PDF widget.

Third-party ordering integrations (Toast, ChowNow, Olo) add render-blocking scripts similar to dental booking widgets. The average mobile score for a small restaurant site is 20 to 50. We cover the specific problems in why restaurants lose customers to slow websites.

Professional Services (Accountants, Solicitors, Law Firms)

| Metric | Typical Range | Target | |--------|--------------|--------| | Mobile Performance | 30 to 60 | 75+ | | LCP | 2.5s to 5.0s | < 2.5s | | CLS | 0.03 to 0.12 | < 0.1 | | INP | 150ms to 300ms | < 200ms | | Average page weight | 2MB to 4MB | < 2MB |

Professional service sites are slightly faster on average than e-commerce or restaurants. They tend to be simpler: fewer images, no product galleries, no booking widgets. But they still have common issues. Many use legacy CMS platforms with bloated themes, large hero videos, or heavy font loads. Accountancy and law firm sites also tend to have a lot of text-heavy pages with poor caching configuration.

The average mobile score is 30 to 60. The biggest wins here are usually enabling browser caching, compressing the few images that do exist, and removing unused CSS from the theme. We have written about why accountants lose clients to slow websites and why solicitors lose clients to slow websites.

Trades and Home Services (Plumbers, Electricians, Builders, Roofers)

| Metric | Typical Range | Target | |--------|--------------|--------| | Mobile Performance | 20 to 50 | 75+ | | LCP | 3.0s to 6.5s | < 2.5s | | CLS | 0.05 to 0.18 | < 0.1 | | INP | 200ms to 400ms | < 200ms | | Average page weight | 2.5MB to 5MB | < 2MB |

Tradespeople websites are often built on budget website builders or low-cost WordPress themes. The common issues are unoptimized project gallery images, no caching, slow budget hosting, and too many plugins. These sites tend to be brochure-style with 5 to 10 pages, so the technical overhead should be minimal. But the lack of basic optimization means they load slowly.

A mobile score of 20 to 50 is typical. The fixes here are straightforward: optimize images, enable caching, and move off the cheapest hosting tier. We have audited trades sites including Glasgow plumbers, Edinburgh electricians, Inverness roofers, and Scottish Borders builders.

Real Estate and Property

| Metric | Typical Range | Target | |--------|--------------|--------| | Mobile Performance | 15 to 40 | 75+ | | LCP | 4.0s to 8.0s | < 2.5s | | CLS | 0.08 to 0.25 | < 0.1 | | INP | 250ms to 500ms | < 200ms | | Average page weight | 4MB to 8MB | < 3MB |

Real estate websites are among the slowest I audit. Property listing pages are image-heavy by nature. Each listing has 10 to 30 photos, and most sites load all of them immediately instead of lazy loading. Map embeds (Google Maps, Mapbox) add significant JavaScript weight. Mortgage calculators and search filters add more.

The CLS issues are common here too. Listing cards shift as images load without explicit dimensions, and map widgets resize after initialization. The average mobile score is 15 to 40, making real estate one of the slowest sectors. See our post on why estate agents lose listings to slow websites for the business impact.

Fitness and Wellness

| Metric | Typical Range | Target | |--------|--------------|--------| | Mobile Performance | 25 to 55 | 75+ | | LCP | 3.0s to 6.0s | < 2.5s | | CLS | 0.05 to 0.15 | < 0.1 | | INP | 180ms to 350ms | < 200ms | | Average page weight | 3MB to 6MB | < 2.5MB |

Gyms, yoga studios, and personal trainers have websites that sit between restaurants and professional services in speed. The common issues are large class schedule images (instead of HTML tables), embedded booking or class management widgets (Mindbody, Zen Planner), and hero videos of people working out. The average mobile score is 25 to 55. We audited Riverside Fitness Studio as an example.

The Number You Should Actually Aim For

Here is the thing about industry benchmarks: they tell you what is average, not what is good. Average in most industries is slow. Average means your site is failing at least one Core Web Vital. Average means you are losing visitors and potentially search rankings.

The target should be the same regardless of your industry:

• Mobile Lighthouse performance: 75 or higher
• LCP: under 2.5 seconds
• CLS: under 0.1
• INP: under 200ms

If you hit those numbers, you are faster than the majority of websites in your industry. That is a competitive advantage in search results and in user experience. Google does not grade your site relative to your competitors for Core Web Vitals. It uses absolute thresholds. Passing them is passing them, regardless of whether you run a dental practice or an online store.

If you want to understand how long your site should take to load in plain terms, our load time guide covers the thresholds in detail.

Why Your Industry Matters for Fixes (Even If the Target Is the Same)

While the speed target is the same across industries, the fixes that get you there are different. Here is a quick reference for the highest-impact fix by sector:

• E-commerce: Image optimization and deferring tracking scripts. These two fixes alone typically move the score by 20 to 30 points.
• Dental and medical: Lazy load booking widgets or load them after user interaction. Optimize hero images.
• Restaurants: Convert PDF menus to HTML. Compress food photography. These are the two biggest wins.
• Professional services: Enable caching and remove unused CSS from bloated themes. Compress the few images you have.
• Trades: Move off the cheapest hosting tier. Enable caching. Optimize project gallery images.
• Real estate: Lazy load property images. Set explicit dimensions on images and map embeds to fix CLS.
• Fitness: Replace schedule images with HTML. Defer booking widget scripts. Compress hero images.

For a comprehensive approach, our how to improve website speed guide covers all the major fixes organized by impact.

How to Test Where Your Site Stands

You can compare your site to these benchmarks in about 60 seconds:

1. Run your URL through Google PageSpeed Insights for a free Lighthouse report.
2. Or run a free WL Tech audit for a full breakdown including speed, accessibility, SEO, and Core Web Vitals with prioritized fix recommendations.
3. Compare your mobile performance score and Core Web Vitals to the industry ranges above.
4. Check whether you are passing or failing the three Core Web Vitals thresholds.

If your score is in the typical range for your industry, you are average. Average is not good enough. If your score is below the typical range, you are in the bottom tier and losing customers. Either way, the next step is the same: identify your biggest issues and fix them in priority order.

What If You Are Already Fast?

If your site is already passing Core Web Vitals and scoring 75+ on mobile, congratulations. You are ahead of most of your competitors. But speed is not a one-time fix. Sites get slower over time as you add content, install plugins, and accumulate third-party scripts.

Test your site monthly. Test after any major change. And if you want a professional set of eyes on it, our $150 developer report gives you code-level recommendations with a prioritized fix list, or our fix engagements start at $250 if you want us to handle the work.

The Bottom Line

Here is what to take away from these benchmarks:

• Most small business websites are slow. Average mobile performance scores range from 15 to 60 depending on industry.
• E-commerce and real estate are the slowest sectors due to image weight and third-party scripts.
• The target is the same regardless of industry: LCP under 2.5 seconds, CLS under 0.1, INP under 200ms, mobile Lighthouse score of 75+.
• Beating your industry average is a competitive advantage in both search rankings and conversion rates.
• The highest-impact fix varies by industry but image optimization and caching are universally valuable.

Run a free audit on your site today, compare your numbers to the benchmarks above, and start with the fix that will move your score the most. In most industries, that fix is image optimization.