Speed & Security
How to Speed Up Your Website
A slow website loses visitors and rankings — most people leave a page that takes more than a few seconds to load. Whatever your site is built on, this guide gives you a practical, ordered checklist to make it fast and pass Core Web Vitals.
Key takeaways
- Measure first with PageSpeed Insights to find the real bottlenecks.
- Optimise images — usually the single biggest cause of slow sites.
- Add caching and compression for a major, easy speed win.
- Reduce scripts and defer non-critical JavaScript.
- Use quality hosting and a CDN.
1. Measure first
Test with Google PageSpeed Insights to see your Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS) and the biggest issues before changing anything. Fix the largest problems first rather than guessing.
2. Optimise your images
- Serve modern formats (WebP or AVIF)
- Set width and height to prevent layout shift (CLS)
- Lazy-load images below the fold
- Resize images to the size actually displayed — don’t load a 4000px photo into a 400px space
3. Cache and compress
Enable page caching, GZIP/Brotli compression and browser caching. A good caching setup is often the single biggest speed win, especially under traffic.
4. Clean up scripts and code
Remove unused scripts and plugins/modules, defer non-critical JavaScript, and reduce render-blocking CSS. Every extra request adds weight — be ruthless about what you really need.
5. Use good hosting and a CDN
Quality hosting reduces server response time (TTFB), and a CDN serves your assets from locations closer to your visitors. Cheap, overloaded hosting can cap how fast your site will ever be.
Speed targets to aim for
| Metric | What it measures | Good |
|---|---|---|
| LCP | Largest Contentful Paint — main content load | Under 2.5s |
| INP | Interaction to Next Paint — responsiveness | Under 200ms |
| CLS | Cumulative Layout Shift — visual stability | Under 0.1 |
Frequently asked questions
- Why is my website slow?
- Usually large unoptimised images, too many scripts, no caching, or slow hosting — often several together.
- Will speeding up my site break it?
- Not if done carefully with a backup first and proper testing. We always work on a safe copy where needed.
- Can you speed up my site for me?
- Yes — it’s our website speed optimization service, with a clear before/after report.
Related reading & services
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