I conducted a study on the homepage performance of the Estonian E‑Commerce Association’s member websites using the Google PageSpeed Insights tool. The data was collected and analyzed at two points in time: January 2023 and July 2025. The measurements focused on mobile performance over a 4G network. The results show a clear positive trend, which is great news for both online store owners and their customers.
A historical snapshot: January 2023
In January 2023, the state of performance among Estonian e‑commerce websites was rather bleak. I analyzed 446 member websites, and the results were as follows:
- Good performance: only 1.8% of websites
- Performance needed improvement: 23.1% of websites
- Poor performance: as many as 75.1% of websites
This showed that most Estonian online stores were offering mobile users a slow and potentially frustrating experience, which in turn negatively affected their visibility in search engines.
Significant progress: July 2025
In just two and a half years, the situation has improved remarkably! By July 2025, the results were significantly more optimistic:
- Good performance: increased to 4.9%
- Performance needed improvement: increased significantly to 63.8%
- Poor performance: dropped significantly to 31.3%
This is an impressive shift! The share of websites that needed performance improvements has nearly tripled, indicating that a significantly larger portion of online stores have started paying attention to their technical health. The reduction of poor‑performing sites by more than half is also a very encouraging sign.
Why is page performance important from an SEO perspective?
Page loading speed and overall performance are critical SEO factors, especially in mobile environments. Here are the main reasons:
- User experience (UX): A fast website provides a better user experience. When a page loads slowly, users tend to leave quickly and move on to a competitor. Google and other search engines prefer websites that deliver a strong user experience because it directly affects the satisfaction of their own users.
- Google ranking factor: Google has repeatedly confirmed that page speed is an important ranking factor, especially since the introduction of Core Web Vitals. Slower pages may drop lower in search results, even if their content is relevant.
- Mobile indexing: Since Google increasingly indexes websites based on their mobile versions (mobile‑first indexing), mobile performance has become even more critical. Poor performance on mobile means your site may not appear in search results at all, or it may rank very low.
- Conversion rates: As mentioned in our earlier article Latest SEO Studies: What Do the Numbers Tell Us?, even a delay of just a few seconds in loading speed can significantly reduce conversion rates (such as completed purchases or submitted contact forms). This has a direct impact on your business results.
What does this tell us — and what should happen next?
The improvement in the performance of homepage loading speeds among Estonian e‑commerce websites shows that businesses are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of site speed and user experience. This marks a positive step toward greater digital maturity.
Although the improvement is significant, there is still a long way to go. A large share of websites (over 30%) still fall into the “poor” performance category, and nearly two‑thirds still require improvement. This means that many Estonian online stores still have substantial potential to improve their SEO and business results simply by optimizing their website performance.
Conclusion: Keep investing in the technical optimization of your website! This is not just about “pleasing” search engines — it is first and foremost about delivering a better user experience, which ultimately leads to more satisfied customers and greater success for your online store.