What a 98 Lighthouse Score Actually Takes

Everybody talks about Lighthouse scores, but almost nobody actually has a high one. Across the sites we have audited at Axion Deep Digital, the average score is 44 out of 100. Not a typo. And these are not abandoned websites. These are real businesses actively spending on ads, running campaigns, and trying to grow. The problem is that most people treat performance like a nice to have. It is not. Google uses Core Web Vitals as a ranking signal, and users feel performance immediately. A slow site does not just rank lower, it converts worse. You end up paying for traffic that leaves before it even engages. We rebuilt our own site with one clear goal. Reach a 98 plus Lighthouse score across all categories on mobile, under real world conditions. Not on a fast laptop, but on a throttled connection the way Google actually tests it. Here is what that actually required. The biggest shift starts with how your site is built. Your framework sets your ceiling. If your stack is heavy or overly dynam