Why your website is slow, and what to fix first.
Most slow websites are slow for the same few reasons: images far larger than the screen needs, too much code loading before the page appears, and apps and scripts added over the years that nobody removed. Fix those, in that order, and most sites get fast.
6 min
01
Speed is what a visitor waits for.
A visitor doesn’t measure a site in seconds. They notice whether the page appears, whether they can tap it, and whether it jumps while they read. Google measures the same three things and calls them Core Web Vitals.
The main content should appear within 2.5 seconds, a tap should get a response within 200 milliseconds, and the layout should barely move as the page loads. Google judges these on real visits in Chrome, at the 75th percentile, not on a single test.
02
Start with the images.
The heaviest thing on most pages is a photograph uploaded straight from a camera or a stock library, many times larger than the screen showing it. A phone downloads all of it anyway.
Each image should be sized for the screens it appears on, in a modern format such as WebP or AVIF, and loaded only when it scrolls into view. On image-led sites this one change often does more than everything else combined.
03
Then the code that loads first.
Before a page can appear, the browser has to fetch and run the code the page asks for first. Themes and page builders often ask for far more than the page uses.
Load the code the first screen needs, and defer the rest. Fonts deserve the same care: two families in a few weights are usually enough.
04
Then the apps and scripts nobody removed.
Chat widgets, review pop-ups, old tracking tags and apps from a trial three years ago all add weight, and many keep loading after they stop being used.
List every script on the site and what it is for. Remove what nobody uses, and load the rest after the page appears.
- Tracking tags for tools you no longer use
- Apps installed for a trial and never removed
- Several tools doing the same job
- Widgets that load on every page but are used on one
Remove what nobody uses, and load the rest after the page appears.
05
Hosting and the platform matter less than you think.
A faster server helps, but it rarely fixes a heavy page. The fixes above usually come first, whatever the platform.
Where the platform itself is the limit, moving is worth it. For Abraham Burickson we rebuilt his site so the same homepage walk opens with about 3 MB instead of 126, and works on any phone.
06
Measure, fix, measure again.
Check the page on a phone, fix the heaviest cause, and check again. Our Turbulence check runs Google’s own test on any page and emails you the findings, so you can see where to start.
