Neil Patel recently sent out a high-impact email with the subject line: "1 second = big drop." Inside, he makes a compelling argument for website performance, citing studies that show a sharp decline in organic rankings and conversion rates once a site takes longer than 3 seconds to load. For digital marketers, the message was clear: obsess over speed, or get left behind.
Here's the email:
But there was a problem.
The very website promoting this lightning-fast ideology—Neil Patel's own agency, NP Digital—doesn’t pass Google's Core Web Vitals assessment. In fact, according to the June 25, 2025 desktop PageSpeed Insights report, npdigital.com fails to meet the minimum thresholds for user experience. The Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) clocks in at 3.1 seconds. The Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) score is 0.17. And the Core Web Vitals status? Failed.
Let’s unpack this ironic contradiction, why even top-tier marketing sites fall short, and how you can use this insight to gain an edge.
According to Google PageSpeed Insights, NP Digital's desktop performance falls short in several key areas. The Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)—a metric that measures how quickly the largest visible content loads—hits 3.1 seconds. This exceeds Google’s recommended threshold of 2.5 seconds, suggesting that the site feels sluggish to users.
This contradiction raises eyebrows, especially because the email uses authoritative language and bold visual storytelling to emphasize the damage slow sites cause. The included NP Digital study graph shows organic rankings dropping from 100 to 57 between the 1-3 second mark.
Yet their site sits just past that red line.
Of course, the point isn’t to single out Neil Patel. It’s to underscore a broader truth: even the best-known marketing brands are vulnerable to technical debt, performance decay, and the weight of heavy scripts and design bloat.
There are several reasons why even prominent, content-rich marketing websites fall short on performance metrics. For starters, many of these pages are bloated with design elements like hero sliders, animation libraries, and interactive widgets that make the page visually appealing but slow to load.
Add to that the stack of conversion tools—CRMs, A/B testing scripts, tag managers, behavioral analytics, and session replay tools—and the site becomes even heavier. All these tools might be great for insights and engagement, but they come at a cost to page speed.
Then there’s the issue of misaligned priorities. In many marketing-driven organizations, the focus leans heavily on content and conversions, sometimes at the expense of technical hygiene. It’s not uncommon to see performance take a backseat to branding, messaging, or lead capture initiatives.
Finally, reliance on third-party services can sabotage optimization efforts. Sites designed to track and measure everything often get bogged down by external scripts and assets they can't directly control or speed up.
The uncomfortable truth? NP Digital can afford to run a sub-optimized site because their domain authority, backlinks, and brand presence are massive. Google gives them some leniency because they’ve built such a strong reputation and backlink profile.
Most businesses don’t have that luxury.
If you're a mid-market SaaS firm or professional services provider, your technical performance is your first impression. Unlike industry giants, you can’t rely on brand recognition to overcome slow load times or user frustration. A slow LCP or high CLS can result in lost opportunities:
You may lose visibility in AI-generated results and platforms like Google Discover.
Your conversion rates can drop significantly—up to 40% after the 3-second mark, as NP Digital’s own graph illustrates.
Bounce rates may spike, as users quickly abandon sluggish or unstable pages.
If you're seeing similar issues in your Core Web Vitals, it's not too late to turn things around. Start by addressing your LCP. Compressing large hero images and deferring third-party scripts can significantly improve load time. You can also use font-display: swap to ensure text loads without delay.
To address CLS, make sure every image and embedded element on your page has defined dimensions. This simple change helps prevent unexpected layout shifts. Preloading fonts is another way to maintain visual stability as your page loads.
Establish a performance budget. Decide on acceptable page weight and script execution time, and stick to it. Treat performance like a design requirement, not an afterthought.
Lastly, use Real User Monitoring (RUM) tools like SpeedCurve or Raygun to track real-world performance over time. These tools provide visibility into how your site performs under actual user conditions, allowing you to catch problems early and improve iteratively.
Neil Patel’s warning about website speed is well-founded. Performance is not a luxury—it is a baseline expectation for any professional services firm seeking market growth. As demonstrated, even established agencies can fall short of the technical standards they advocate. This is not an indictment but a reality: as sites expand and operational complexity increases, technical fundamentals often become the first casualty.
However, most organizations do not have the insulation of a strong existing brand to compensate for lapses in performance. For B2B teams and growth-oriented businesses, website speed and stability directly influence lead generation, deal flow, and overall revenue. The ability to execute—delivering reliable Core Web Vitals, fast load times, and stable user experiences—is not optional; it’s a lever for competitive differentiation and market access.
At SmithDigital, we recognize that technical performance is where opportunity and risk intersect. A streamlined site architecture, strict adherence to performance budgets, and continuous real-user optimization separate high-performing firms from the rest of the market. If you are unsure how your website ranks against current industry benchmarks, or if you are committed to transforming speed into a measurable business asset, our team is ready to help. We prioritize outcome-driven improvements—ensuring your website accelerates growth, supports your pipeline, and delivers tangible business value.
Connect with SmithDigital to learn how our expertise in technical optimization and digital demand generation can make your website an active driver of revenue, not a barrier.