The honest bands
Speed work is engineering, and Indian senior rates apply (₹1,700–₹2,900/hour). Packaged honestly:
| Scope | Band (INR) | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Speed audit (find the killers) | ₹28,000 – ₹85,000 | Prioritized list with expected wins |
| Standard optimization pass | ₹68,000 – ₹2,83,000 | Images, caching, code, fonts, CWV into green |
| Heavy rescue (bloated builds, page builders) | ₹1,70,000 – ₹5,65,000+ | Structural fixes on neglected sites |
Full context: the performance service page and the Core Web Vitals page.
What actually moves Core Web Vitals
- Images: right-sized, modern formats, lazy-loaded below the fold, hero images eager. The single biggest win on most Indian sites.
- Third-party scripts: chat widgets, trackers, pixel soup. Each is a render tax; audit and delete.
- Hosting reality: ₹2,000/year shared hosting cannot serve a ₹3,00,000 store fast. Infrastructure is part of the speed budget, see the hosting guide.
- Fonts and render-blocking CSS: subsetting, preloading, inlining critical styles.
- Code: plugin/plugin/plugin stacks on WordPress are the usual culprit.
The conversion math that pays for it
Industry-standard conversion impact of speed is measurable and repeated across studies: every second of mobile load time costs conversions, and the effect compounds with ad spend. The honest framing: if your site makes ₹2,00,000/month online and speed work lifts conversion 15%, the ₹1,50,000 optimization pays back in weeks. If your site makes nothing online, fix the offer and the funnel first, then speed, see the lost-leads audit.
Red flags in speed-optimization quotes
- "100/100 PageSpeed score guaranteed." Lab scores are synthetic; field data (real users) is what Google ranks on, and nobody honest guarantees a number there.
- One-price-fits-all without an audit. The killers differ per site.
- No before/after measurement plan. Speed work without field-data verification is theater.
Start with the audit
Get the audit scoped with your real field data, or run the cost calculator first if the site itself needs rebuilding rather than tuning.