How to Tell if Your Website is Actually Working

What it is:

Google's built-in audit tool. It tests your site on performance, accessibility, best practices, and SEO. Gives you a score 0–100.

How to check:

• Open your site in Chrome
• Right-click → Inspect → Lighthouse tab
• Click "Generate report"
• Wait 60 seconds for the score

What to aim for:

90–100	✓ Excellent — Your site is fast and well-built
50–89	~ Okay — Room for improvement. Users might bounce
0–49	✗ Poor — Your site is slow or broken. Fix this urgently

Why it matters:

Lighthouse scores correlate with real user experience. A 90+ score means people won't bounce from slowness. Google also favors fast sites in rankings.

Pro tip:

Test on mobile, not just desktop. Mobile scores are usually lower and more realistic for real-world users on 4G networks.

What it is:

Three specific measurements of how fast your site feels to real users:

• LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): How fast does the main content appear? Target: < 2.5 seconds
• FID (First Input Delay): How fast does the site respond to clicks? Target: < 100ms
• CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): Do things jump around? Target: < 0.1

How to check:

Visit pagespeed.web.dev, enter your URL, and run the test. It shows real user data and lab scores.

Why it matters:

These three metrics are Google's primary ranking factors for 2024+. Poor Core Web Vitals = lower rankings + lower conversions.

Benchmark:

What it is:

Percentage of visitors who land on your site and leave without taking action (clicking a link, filling a form, viewing another page).

How to check:

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) → Reports → Engagement → Bounce rate

What to aim for:

• 40–50%: ✓ Excellent — People like your site
• 50–70%: ~ Average — Typical for most sites
• 70%+: ✗ High — People aren't finding what they want

Why it matters:

High bounce rate means your headline, value proposition, or content doesn't match what people expected. It's a signal your site needs messaging or design work.

Pro tip:

Check bounce rate by page. Your homepage might have 60% bounce, but your "Services" page might have 30%. That tells you which content resonates.

What it is:

How long (in seconds) visitors spend on your site before leaving.

How to check:

GA4 → Reports → Engagement → Pages and screens

What to aim for:

• 2+ minutes: ✓ Good — People are reading
• 30–120 seconds: ~ Okay — Quick skim
• < 30 seconds: ✗ Too fast — They didn't find what they wanted

Why it matters:

Time on page correlates with engagement. Combined with bounce rate, it tells you if content is resonating or not.

What it is:

Percentage of visitors who complete a desired action (fill a form, make a purchase, book a call, sign up for email).

How to check:

GA4 → Admin → Events → Track "form_submit," "purchase," "schedule_call," etc.

What to aim for:

• 2–5%: ✓ Good — For service businesses, 2% is solid
• 1–2%: ~ Average — Most websites sit here
• < 1%: ✗ Low — Your site has a conversion problem

Why it matters:

This is the #1 metric. You can have 10,000 visitors/month, but if your conversion rate is 0.5%, you're getting 50 leads. If you optimize to 2%, you're getting 200 leads from the same traffic.

Pro tip:

Conversion rate is the multiplier. Before you pay for more traffic, optimize your conversion rate first. It's usually cheaper and faster.

What it is:

How much you spend to get one customer or lead.

How to calculate:

Total marketing spend / Number of conversions = CPA

Example: Spent $1,000/month, got 20 leads = $50 CPA

Why it matters:

If your CPA is $50 and each customer is worth $500+, you're winning. If your CPA is $50 and each customer is worth $75, you're losing money.

Pro tip:

Track this monthly. If CPA is rising, your site has a problem (broken links, slower performance, weaker messaging). Fix it before it gets worse.