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It seems as though every website owner is laser-focused on page speed these days. Articles, webinars, and SEO checklists all place site performance at the top of the priority list. Agencies obsess over 0.1-second improvements and developers lose sleep over Lighthouse scores. Yet, if you review the online presence of some of the world’s biggest brands, you’ll notice a surprising trend: their websites often score only moderately well—or even poorly—on speed tests. Vodafone, for example, achieves millions of searches and conversions despite PageSpeed Insights ratings that would send most small business owners into a panic.
So, what’s really going on? If speed is so vital, why do companies like Vodafone seem to get away with less? And why should you, as a site owner, care about optimising speed at all?
Let’s dig into the reality behind the speed obsession.
The Speed Obsession: Where Does It Come From?
1. Google’s SEO Messaging
Google has proclaimed that speed matters. More specifically, performance metrics like Core Web Vitals (including Largest Contentful Paint, Cumulative Layout Shift, and First Input Delay) are now considered (albeit modest) ranking factors. For small business owners, agencies, and anyone fighting for visibility on a crowded web, speed is a rare lever they can pull to try and gain an edge.
2. Conversion Rate Anxiety
Many studies show that faster sites convert better. Even an extra second of delay can lead to measurable drops in sign-ups, sales, and engagement. For businesses that live and die by each visitor’s decision, the stakes feel high—and so the drive for ever-faster websites begins. (A Google study famously found that as page load time increases from 1 to 3 seconds, bounce rates increase by 32%.)
3. Developer and Agency Metrics
Speed scores are visible, standardised, and easy to demonstrate to clients. They’ve become a public badge of quality—a baseline to prove your site “meets best practice”. Sometimes, obsessing over every last millisecond becomes as much about pride as performance.
How Do Big Companies Get Away With Mediocre Speed?
Now, let’s look at the other side: why aren’t the Vodafones of the world sweating every Lighthouse report?
1. Brand Authority and Trust
Large corporations have spent decades building brand recognition, brand authority and trust. Users (and Google’s algorithms) know exactly what they’re looking for. If someone types “Vodafone”, expectations are clear, and speed penalties matter much less against overwhelming brand relevance.
2. Massive Link Profiles
Big businesses accumulate thousands—or millions—of backlinks from news, partners, reviews, and user-generated content. Backlinks remain a foundation of Google’s algorithm, and their authority is hard to beat, even if the site isn’t technically perfect.
3. Depth of Content and Engagement
With extensive content libraries, forums, reviews, and user participation, major brands send powerful signals to Google about engagement and value. This often trumps minor performance shortcomings.
4. Brand Preference in Search
Google aims to serve users what they expect. If most users want Vodafone’s site, Google knows it can’t risk delivering a speedy but irrelevant result just because it scored higher on a technical test.
So, Should the Rest of Us Worry About Speed?
Focus on what really moves the needle—great content, earning links, and building genuine customer value.
The honest answer: yes, but within reason.
- You want every advantage if you’re not a household name with loads of authority.
- Visitors are less patient with unknown brands—fast, seamless sites build trust.
- Mobile users, who make up over 60% of web traffic globally, especially benefit from optimised, lightweight pages.
- It’s a competitive differentiator if your rivals are all in the same ballpark on content and authority.
But here’s the real secret: obsessing over perfect scores is rarely worth it past a certain point. If your site loads comfortably, delivers a great experience, and your speed scores are in the green (or even solid yellow), focus on what really moves the needle—great content, earning links, and building genuine customer value.
Final Thoughts: Speed (and Everything Else) in Perspective
Big brands break the rules because they can. But speed is still a worthwhile pursuit for everyone else—just remember that it’s only one tool in your toolkit. Don’t let yourself be ruled by the Lighthouse report. Instead, strive for balance: good speed, great content, genuine value, and smart marketing.
Chasing every last millisecond won’t save a website if the fundamentals are weak—but a well-rounded approach will always win in the long run. If you want to see how SaneChoice approach performance, check out our ‘You Don’t Have to Break the Bank for a Fast Website’ article.