Way back in June of 2021, Google rolled out an update that forever changed the way sites were ranked organically. Dubbed the Core Web Vitals update, Google began judging how high a site should appear in search results not just by how well its content matched user queries, but by the actual user experience of the site. Suddenly, how fast your pages loaded mattered just as much (if not more in some cases) as what you put on those pages.
Simple sites that were functional, but not graphically appealing, were beginning to edge out flashier sites that were heavier on the tech stack. It was a major shakeup that saw many online businesses that had overtuned their sites with catchy animations and striking large graphics to rethink their marketing strategy.
Over the years, Core Web Vitals and page speed would be refined several times to more adequately reflect the average user experience as a ranking factor, but organic digital marketing would never be the same. The type of interactions users have once they land on your site matters. In fact, it matters so much, that even if you have the most comprehensive and helpful content in the world, if it loads a few seconds slower than a moderately helpful piece of content, the ranking powers that be could easily decide it should never see the light of day. And with the introduction of AI and agentic search into the mix, the importance of page speed has crept into every conceivable corner of a website.
In this article, the digital marketing experts at SteadyRain have taken a comprehensive look at Core Web Vitals and page speed and distilled down what you need to know for your organic marketing efforts in 2026. Read on to discover why page speed should be your number one optimization priority for the new year.
What is Page Speed?
Page speed can refer to a couple of on-page metrics that measure user interactivity:
- How fast your webpage loads
- How quickly your webpage responds to input
Both are extremely important to optimize for in 2026. They can be measured in many different ways, but one of the most common benchmarks is Google’s Core Web Vitals (CWV). The three main measurements within CWV are Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Interaction to Next Paint (INP), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
Largest Contentful Paint is a metric that measures how long it takes the largest element on your webpage to load. This is generally used as a benchmark for how long your page takes to load, as the largest element is usually the most resource-intensive and takes the longest to load. Google states that your LCP value should be less than 2,500 microseconds. Anything over 4,000 microseconds is considered extremely poor performance.
Interaction to Next Paint (INP)
Interaction to Next Paint is a measurement of how much time elapses between a user clicking or interacting with your page and your page sending a response to that input. For example, it can be used to measure the time between a user clicking on a form and the user being able to type text into the form. Google recommends INP values be no more than 200 microseconds, with a value of over 500 microseconds indicating serious speed issues on the page.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
Cumulative Layout Shift is a measurement of how well the elements of your page stay “in place” after they’ve loaded. This metric is a little bit different from other page speed metrics in that it’s more concerned with direct user experience on the page than speed, but can also indicate problems with asset loading indirectly. Ideally, you want your CLS value to be as close to 0 as possible, with values up to 0.1 considered okay. Anything beyond 0.25 indicates your page assets tend to “jump around” after loading, pushing text, images, and other elements up or down the page, and giving users a headache who are trying to consume your content.
Why is Page Speed So Important for Organic Search?
Google has used page speed for years now as a prominent ranking factor within organic search. So in reality, this has been an important part of digital marketing for a while. However, the debut of agentic search engines like ChatGPT’s platform and Perplexity’s Comet web browser has accelerated these trends. AI search is all about gathering and collating as much information as quickly as possible to deliver a succinct and accurate synopsis to the end user.
Users don’t like to wait around for AI to dig around and get back to them on their search queries. Most have been conditioned by Google and Bing to expect instant results to their queries, after all. As a result, AI search engines have begun to favor speedy sites the most, granting fast-loading pages citations and extra visibility in search. In fact, recent research has shown that as Largest Contentful Paint and Cumulative Layout Shift values increase, AI citations fall sharply, indicating page speed is being used as a primary ranking factor for surfacing content within AI engines.
In other words, if you want your website and your brand to get seen in 2026, you need to ensure your pages load fast and offer a good user experience.
How Do You Optimize Your Pages for Speed?
While each website and each page is unique in its needs to reach peak potential speed, there are several culprits that tend to cause most page speed issues:
- Large image files
- Older generation image files
- Too much JavaScript
- Too much CSS
- Legacy JavaScript or CSS
- Unused JavaScript or CSS
- Third-party code
Large Image Files
Big, uncompressed images are still one of the fastest ways to tank a performance report. When a hero image or gallery weighs several megabytes, the browser must download and decode all that data before it can paint anything meaningful on screen. That extra weight slows Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and hurts mobile users on weaker connections the most.
How to Fix It:
- Resize images to the largest real size they need to appear, instead of uploading 4000px wide assets for a 1200px layout.
- Compress aggressively with a balance of quality and size, especially for hero images and banners.
- Use responsive images (srcset, sizes) so small screens get appropriately small files.
- Pair image optimization with a CDN so assets load from an edge location close to the user.
Older Generation Image Files
Traditional formats like unoptimized JPEG and PNG still work technically, but they are rarely the most efficient choice in 2026. These formats often require more bytes to achieve the same visual quality as modern formats, which slows down download times, increases data usage, and hurts LCP and overall load time.
How to Fix It:
- Convert high traffic images to modern formats like WebP and AVIF where browser support is strong.
- Keep fallback formats only when analytics show they are needed for specific legacy browsers.
- Bake image conversion into your build or CMS pipeline so new uploads are automatically optimized into next-gen formats.
- Periodically audit the media library and convert older assets in batches as part of routine maintenance
Too Much JavaScript
Every additional kilobyte of JavaScript has to be downloaded, parsed, compiled, and executed on the user’s device. On modern sites with several frameworks, plugins, and tracking snippets, the main thread can get overwhelmed, which slows LCP and degrades Interaction to Next Paint (INP) because the browser is busy running scripts instead of responding to user input.
How to Fix It:
- Audit JavaScript bundles to understand what is actually in them and where it is used.
- Split code so only the JavaScript required for the current page or route is loaded initially, then lazy load everything else.
- Mark noncritical scripts with defer or async so they do not block initial rendering.
- Question every library and plugin and replace heavy dependencies with lighter alternatives or native browser features when possible.
Too Much CSS
CSS can be just as damaging as JavaScript when it grows unchecked. Large, monolithic stylesheets slow down CSS download and parsing, which delays the browser’s ability to render anything, since it must know the styles before it can paint. The result is slower First Contentful Paint (FCP) and LCP, along with layout mistakes if styles arrive late.
How to Fix It:
- Extract critical CSS for above the fold content and inline it in the head so the first render can happen quickly.
- Break global styles into smaller, page or component specific stylesheets that are loaded only where needed.
- Use a CSS architecture or utility system that encourages reuse and helps avoid repetitive, one-off declarations.
- Run tools that identify and remove unused selectors before deployment.
Legacy JavaScript
Old versions of frameworks, polyfills written for browsers nobody uses anymore, and legacy layout techniques all add weight without delivering current value. Legacy code can also limit your ability to leverage newer performance features, such as modern bundlers, tree shaking, or more efficient layout APIs. The result is a codebase that becomes harder to optimize over time and slower to load on modern devices.
How to Fix It:
- Inventory all major libraries and frameworks on the site and plan upgrades to current, supported versions.
- Remove polyfills and hacks that exist only to support obsolete browsers, guided by analytics on actual user agents.
- Refactor layout code to use modern CSS features like flexbox and grid instead of heavy JavaScript layout logic.
- Establish a modernization cadence where front-end dependencies are reviewed and updated on a predictable schedule.
Unused JavaScript or CSS
As sites evolve, it is very common to accumulate code that no longer drives any visible feature. Old components, abandoned experiments, and legacy layouts leave behind scripts and selectors that still ship to the browser, which inflates bundle sizes and wastes parsing and execution time. Even if users never trigger that code, their device still pays the performance cost.
How to Fix It:
- Use coverage tools in browser devtools to identify JavaScript and CSS that never runs or never gets applied.
- Enable tree shaking in your build process, so unused exports in modular JavaScript are automatically removed.
- Use CSS purging tools that scan templates and components, then remove selectors that are never used in production.
- Create governance around components and design systems so retiring a feature includes retiring its related code.
Third-Party Code
Analytics tags, chat widgets, personalization scripts, A/B testing tools, maps, social embeds, and ad platforms all bring their own JavaScript, CSS, and network requests. When these third parties load early, execute on the main thread, or chain additional requests, they can significantly slow LCP and INP, even if your core site code is lean. This is often where “tag bloat” and “GTM bloat” show up in performance audits.
How to Fix It:
- Create an explicit tag and third-party policy that defines what is allowed, how it must be implemented, and when it expires.
- Load nonessential third-party scripts after the main content is rendered, or only when a user interacts with the feature.
- Use a tag manager thoughtfully, not as a dumping ground, and review tags quarterly to remove anything obsolete.
- Prefer server-side or proxy-based integrations where appropriate, so the browser is not making dozens of separate calls.
- Set performance budgets that include third-party code and enforce them during QA before new tools go live.
Win the Site Speed Race with SteadyRain
If you’re still only considering the content that goes on your site when deciding on digital marketing initiatives, you’re already a few years behind the curve. Site speed became a major piece of ranking websites and pages for search as far back as 2021, but AI search has made it a primary concern. AI and agentic search reward sites that are fast-load-focused and provide helpful, comprehensive content. If you want to stay relevant in search in 2026, you need to start considering what you can do to make your website as speedy as possible.
Luckily, you don’t need to do it alone. SteadyRain has decades of experience both identifying what major stumbling blocks are causing website slowdowns and how to fix them. Get in touch with us today, and let’s start planning how to get your website as much visibility as possible in the coming year.
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