This article helps you understand page speed fundamentals for your Access Volcanic website. You'll learn what affects loading times, why speed matters for attracting candidates, and discover free tools to measure your site's performance.

Page speed measures how quickly your website loads and becomes interactive for visitors. It includes several factors like how fast your main content appears, how quickly buttons respond when clicked, and whether content jumps around while loading.

For recruitment websites, page speed can directly impact whether candidates stay to browse your jobs or leave to find opportunities elsewhere.

Faster websites consistently outperform slower ones in attracting and engaging job candidates. Research shows that speed improvements can translate to more candidates completing applications and engaging with your opportunities.

In recruitment, candidate behaviour differs from typical web traffic. While many candidates use their phones to browse jobs, many complete their applications via desktop especially for long forms that take longer to finish.

While the typical recruitment journey above holds true for most professional roles, there are notable differences depending on industry and application style:

Google uses three Core Web Vitals to measure website performance. These metrics directly influence search rankings and user experience.

LCP measures when your main content becomes visible to visitors. Google's threshold for good performance is 2.5 seconds or less.

INP measures how quickly your website responds when someone clicks buttons or navigates between pages. Good performance requires 200 milliseconds or less.

CLS prevents frustrating experiences where content moves around while loading. Good performance requires a maximum score of 0.1.

Most websites struggle with mobile performance: Only 43% meet Google's standards, compared to 54% on desktop. This means many candidates experience slow, unresponsive career pages on the devices they use most for job searching.

What this means for you: Mobile optimisation creates a clear competitive advantage. While most recruitment sites provide poor mobile experiences, improving yours helps you stand out to jobseekers.

Several free tools help you understand your website's performance and identify areas for improvement.

Based on industry studies:

These benchmarks come from successful websites that rank well in Google, showing that perfect scores aren't necessary for good search performance.

Rather than pursuing perfect test scores, prioritise making your website feel fast for users. If candidates can browse your jobs and complete applications effectively, you're meeting performance requirements.

Use your browser's developer tools to check how your site looks on different screen sizes and devices.

Now that you understand page speed fundamentals and testing tools, you're ready to take action. Access Volcanic offers comprehensive support to help optimise your website's performance.

For step-by-step instructions on optimising your website's performance, see our Improve page speed guide.

This practical guide covers image optimisation, content strategy changes, using Design Studio for mobile testing, and when to request professional support.

Contact your support team through the Digital Assistant in your admin area: It can help you make immediate site improvements, guide you through optimisation options, and connect you with professional support for technical optimisations and performance improvements.

Q1: What's a realistic page speed score for my recruitment website?

Q2: Which page speed tool should I use?

Q3: Why do different tools show different scores?

Q4: Should I be concerned about mobile performance if most applications happen on desktop?

Q5: How often should I test my page speed?

Q6: Can Access Volcanic help improve my page speed?

Q7: Will some tool suggestions not apply to my website?

Q8: How does page speed affect my search rankings?