The site that times itself
On the home page of this site, bottom left, there is a small line: “This page appeared in 0.9 s in your browser”. The number changes on every visit, because the visitor’s own browser measures it.
Why it is there
To me speed is an important indicator, and that line is both proof and a promise for anyone thinking of working with me. If my site loads fast, theirs can too. And if their current site takes a long time to load, we already know where the first win is.
How it is measured
It is not a figure typed by hand. A small script listens to the browser and keeps the moment the largest element on screen was painted, what Google calls Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). It reads it a moment after the page finishes loading and writes it in your language. If the browser does not offer that measurement, it uses the moment the document was ready.
The line’s space is reserved from the start, so when it appears nothing on the page moves.
What sits behind the number
Many small optimisations in scripts, images and code. Part of the audit I did with the help of artificial intelligence tools, which went through the site page by page and suggested improvements that I then applied and measured. The most important ones:
- Photos in WebP and at the size of each screen. The About page alone went from 13 MB to 320 KB on desktop.
- Less JavaScript: the entrance animations work without scripts, there are fewer interactive components and an animation library that was no longer needed is gone.
- Fonts hosted on the site’s own server, with the headline font loaded before the rest.
Measured with Lighthouse on six pages of the site, before and after those changes, in October 2026:
| Measure (average of six pages) | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile performance | 79 | 97 |
| Mobile LCP | 8.61 s | 2.42 s |
| Total weight on desktop | 3.8 MB | 239 KB |
These are lab figures, measured in a controlled setting rather than with real visits. That is why I like the line on the home page so much: it shows the measurement of your visit, with your connection and your device.
When the number comes out high
Sometimes the network is slow and the line shows more than usual. It does not worry me: it is an exception caused by the connection, and on the next visit the browser already has much of the site stored and loads faster.
And on client sites?
I do not add it by default. I would only use it if a client asks for it and it really serves their goals. Every business cares about a site loading fast; only some need the number on the home page.
Why my case studies only carry sourced figures is explained in Sourced figures or none at all.