Client snapshot
Client: AJD Digital Solutions — our own website (we took our own medicine)
Industry: Digital marketing & web development
Engagement: Full site rebuild + performance optimization + accessibility remediation
The problem
Before we ask any client to trust us with their website, we should be able to point at our own. In May 2026 our site was failing the very tests we use to audit prospects. Google PageSpeed Insights scored it 26 on mobile — deep in the red. The largest content on a phone screen took 8.9 seconds to appear. The layout visibly shifted while loading (CLS 0.182), and the main thread was blocked for over a second (1,150 ms) before a visitor could even tap a button.
State before the rebuild (benchmarked May 20, 2026):
Mobile: Performance 26 · Accessibility 88 · Best Practices 73 · SEO 100
FCP 4.5s · LCP 8.9s · TBT 1,150 ms · CLS 0.182 · Speed Index 9.4s
Desktop: Performance 55 · Accessibility 87 · Best Practices 73 · SEO 100
FCP 0.9s · LCP 1.6s · TBT 1,910 ms · CLS 0.007 · Speed Index 3.6s
The approach
- Full rebuild on a lean Elementor stack — the old build was archived to a benchmark subdomain and the site was rebuilt page by page, keeping only what earned its place.
- Server-level caching with LiteSpeed Cache — page cache at the server (not PHP), CSS/JS optimization, lazy-loading, and image optimization handled in one tightly-configured layer instead of a pile of overlapping plugins.
- Main-thread cleanup — render-blocking and third-party JavaScript trimmed and deferred. Total Blocking Time fell from 1,150 ms to 13 ms on mobile — a 99% reduction.
- Zero layout shift by design — explicit dimensions on every image and embed. CLS went from 0.182 to a flat 0.
- Accessibility remediation pass — a site-wide contrast and semantics sweep raised the mobile accessibility score from 88 to 97.
- Best-practices cleanup — console errors, deprecated APIs and insecure requests eliminated: 73 → 100 on both form factors.
The outcomes
Re-tested June 11, 2026 on the live site:
PageSpeed Insights (mobile): 26 → 93
PageSpeed Insights (desktop): 55 → 94
Best Practices: 73 → 100 (mobile and desktop)
Accessibility (mobile): 88 → 97
SEO: 100 → 100 (held)
Mobile metrics:
Largest Contentful Paint: 8.9s → 2.7s (–70%)
First Contentful Paint: 4.5s → 1.3s (–71%)
Total Blocking Time: 1,150 ms → 13 ms (–99%)
Cumulative Layout Shift: 0.182 → 0
Speed Index: 9.4s → 5.0s
Desktop metrics:
Largest Contentful Paint: 1.6s → 0.6s
First Contentful Paint: 0.9s → 0.3s
Total Blocking Time: 1,910 ms → 110 ms (–94%)
Cumulative Layout Shift: 0.007 → 0
Speed Index: 3.6s → 2.1s
Independent snapshot
Numbers above are from Google PageSpeed Insights. We also ran the rebuilt site through AUDXY, an independent 60-point site audit covering humans, search, AI-readiness and infrastructure:
Why this matters for you
Google uses Core Web Vitals as a ranking signal, and visitors abandon slow pages long before they convert. The same playbook we ran on our own site — lean rebuild, server-level caching, main-thread cleanup, zero layout shift — is exactly what we run for clients.
Want to know where your site stands? Schedule a free discovery call →
Related services: Website Development · SEO & Site Optimization · Website Maintenance & Care Plans
