Performance · · 5 min read
We tested 25 Devon websites on mobile. These were the results.
We picked 25 local service businesses from across Devon: ten in Exeter and three each in Plymouth, Torquay, Barnstaple, Newton Abbot and Exmouth. Then we opened their websites the way most of their customers do, on a phone. Not a new flagship phone on fast wifi, but the mid-range phone on a slower 4G connection that Google itself uses to test mobile sites.
One of the 25 sites no longer exists: its domain doesn't resolve. These are the results for the other 24.
Not one site loaded “fast”
Google judges loading speed by how long the main content takes to appear, and counts 2.5 seconds or less as good. None of the 24 sites managed it. The typical site took 7 seconds, and 18 of the 24 took more than four, which Google classes as poor.
| On a phone | Sites |
|---|---|
| Main content in 2.5 seconds or less (good) | 0 of 24 |
| Main content after more than 4 seconds (poor) | 18 of 24 |
| Time until anything appears (typical site) | 3.8 seconds |
| Lighthouse performance score 90+ | 2 of 24 |
| Page jumps around while loading | 5 of 24 |
Seven seconds doesn't sound like much until you're the one holding the phone. Most people give up well before that and tap the next result instead. You never find out they were there.
Could you actually use it?
Speed is only half of it. We also checked whether each site works with a thumb:
| Check | Sites that pass |
|---|---|
| Text big enough to read without zooming | 23 of 24 |
| Buttons and links big enough to tap | 19 of 24 |
| Phone number one tap away (tap-to-call link) | 17 of 22 |
| Text contrast readable | 6 of 24 |
| Set up for mobile screens (viewport) | 23 of 24 |
The good news: almost every site is built for a phone screen now, with readable text. The problems are in the details.
- Five sites have no tap-to-call link. For a plumber or a roofer, the phone call is the whole point of the visit. Making someone copy a number out by hand is a lost job waiting to happen.
- Five have buttons or links too small or too close together to tap reliably. That's the mis-tap that opens the wrong page.
- Only six passed the contrast check. Pale grey text on white, or text over a photo, is hard to read on a phone screen outdoors.
Why phones are so much slower
On Lighthouse's desktop test, 15 of the 20 sites we could test that way showed their main content within 2.5 seconds. The phone exposes what the desktop hides. The typical homepage weighed 2.3 MB, and six weighed more than 3 MB, mostly in images. That's fine on fibre and slow on a 4G signal in a Dartmoor lane. If you've only ever checked your site on your office computer, you haven't seen what most of your customers see.
For what “fast” means and how to check your own site, see why website speed matters.
Try this on your own site
- Turn off wifi and open your site on your phone. Count the seconds.
- Tap your phone number. Does it start a call?
- Stand outside and read your homepage. Can you?
If any of those fail, book a free 15-minute consultationand we'll show you what we'd fix first. Prefer it in writing? Our free audit covers the same ground.
How we did it
On 5 October 2026 we took ten Exeter businesses from our study of 50 Exeter websites (the top-ranked one in each of ten categories) and 15 from Google Maps searches in five other Devon towns, using the same rules: a local postcode, the business's own website, and no national chains. Each homepage was tested once with Lighthouse 12's default mobile settings, which emulate a mid-range phone on a slow 4G connection, the same engine behind Google's PageSpeed Insights. Single runs vary by a few points, so treat individual scores as approximate. We publish results only in aggregate, and no business is named.
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