Your potential customer clicks through to your website. The screen sits blank. They wait. Still loading. They wait a bit more. Then they’re gone – back to Google to try your competitor instead.
Speed problems lose you customers and hurt your search rankings. Most speed advice is overwhelming and technical. The good news is, you don’t need to be technical to make a difference.
These three fixes work on any platform and you can do them yourself. Focus on what actually moves the needle.
Why website speed matters
People leave slow sites. Research shows that if your site takes longer than three seconds to load, you’ve already lost a chunk of your visitors. Mobile users are even less patient.
Google ranks faster sites higher. Speed is a ranking factor, especially for mobile searches. A slow site means fewer people find you through search.
Speed affects trust and professionalism. A sluggish site makes your business look outdated or unreliable, even if everything else is spot on.
You don’t need the fastest site on the internet – just fast enough that it’s not inconveniencing and frustrating your users. Improving speed can often require some compromise. Sometimes you need to choose between a slower site with more bells and whistles, or a faster site that’s simpler. I’d suggest for 95% of cases, it’s always better to choose speed and simplicity.
Small improvements make big differences. Even just shaving 1 or 2 seconds off your load time can be the difference between someone staying or leaving.
Something really painful is that this can be invisible. Unless you’re taking the time to dig into your site’s analytics and metrics, you don’t know people are leaving because your site is slow. You could be doing all the hard work to get someone to your site, only to lose them due to poor performance.
Test your speed first
Before fixing anything, know where you stand.
Use these three simple testing tools:
- GTmetrix (gtmetrix.com) – Detailed reports with specific recommendations
- PageSpeed Insights (pagespeed.web.dev) – Google’s tool, shows mobile and desktop scores
- Pingdom (tools.pingdom.com) – Simple speed tests from different locations
What to look for: Load time over 3-4 seconds means you’ve got work to do. The tools give you scores and colour-coded results. Red means problems. Yellow means room for improvement. Green means you’re doing well.
Also just browse your own site. If it feels slow for you, it is slow for other users. Test on your phone too—most visitors are mobile. Trust your gut here.
Bookmark these tools and test quarterly. Speed problems creep in over time, so regular testing catches issues before they cost you business.
These tools aren’t perfect, and you’ll often find things you can’t easily fix. But they are your first step in getting a benchmark for just how fast or slow your site is.
Fix 1: Optimise your images (the biggest culprit)
Large images are the number one reason sites load slowly. This is the most common problem I see when auditing client sites.
Business owners upload photos straight from their phone or camera. Those files are massive—often 3-5MB each. Your website doesn’t need that much quality. Visitors can’t see the difference between a 3MB image and a 300KB image on screen, but they can feel the difference in load time.
What “optimised” actually means
Compressed file size without losing visible quality. Right dimensions for how it displays on your site. Appropriate file format.
File size targets
Aim for under 200-300KB per image. Hero images (big banner photos) can be larger, but still under 500KB. Small images and thumbnails should be under 100KB.
Check your current images in those speed test tools – they’ll flag large files. That’s your starting point.
How to fix it (even if you’re not technical)
Option 1 – Before uploading:
Use free compression tools. TinyPNG (tinypng.com), Squoosh (squoosh.app), or Compress JPEG (compressjpeg.com) all work well. Drag and drop your images, download the compressed version, then upload that to your website.
Takes an extra 30 seconds per image but makes a huge difference. This is the best solution here so that you’re only ever uploading appropriately sized, optimised images in the first place.
Option 2 – Automate it:
Most website platforms have image optimisation plugins or built-in tools. WordPress has Smush, ShortPixel, and Imagify. Shopify has built-in image compression. Squarespace does automatic compression.
These compress images as you upload them. Set it up once, forget about it.
If your solution here is plugin based, I’d exercise a bit of caution. These plugins can often be doing a fair bit of background processing, depending on your website platform and set up, this is something that can actually cause performance issues – especially if you’re frequently uploading large number of images.
Option 3 – Fix existing images:
If your site is already slow from old images, those plugins can compress your existing library. One-click bulk optimisation. Can take a while if you have hundreds of images, but it’s automatic.
If there are only a couple of problematic images on your site, you can identify and replace these.
Quick wins
Start with your homepage images – thats what will often have biggest the impact. Then your most visited pages. Don’t worry about every single image at once.
Images aren’t the only media files that slow sites down. If you’re hosting videos directly on your website, that’s another major performance issue. Learn more about why you should use a video host for your website.
Bonus: Enable lazy loading
One more easy image fix: lazy loading. Images below the fold don’t load until visitors scroll down. Saves bandwidth and speeds up initial page load.
Most platforms have this built-in now or as a simple toggle. All the major platforms including WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace and Wix natively support lazy loading, and it should be on by default. There are often plugins or add ons that can improve or give you more control over exactly what content is lazy loaded.
Check your platform’s settings – this can sometimes just needs to be turned on. Combine optimised images with lazy loading for maximum impact.
Another bonus: Remove homepage sliders
Homepage sliders are speed killers. They load multiple large images at once, even though visitors only see one at a time. That fancy rotating banner is costing you customers.
Replace it with a single hero image. Better for speed, better for conversions. Visitors don’t watch sliders anyway – they scroll past or leave before the second slide even appears.
If you need help understanding why sliders hurt your site and what to do instead, read more about why homepage sliders hurt conversions.
Fix 2: Remove what you’re not using
Websites collect digital junk over time. Old plugins you tried once. Features you added and forgot about. Tracking codes from services you stopped using. Each one slows your site down.
What to remove
Plugins and extensions:
Go through your installed plugins. If you haven’t used it in three months, remove it. If you’re not sure what it does, you probably don’t need it. Keep only what you actively use.
Deactivating a plugin is good, but even inactive plugins can cause problems. They still sit in your database and sometimes load files in the background (or just take up storage space – eg backup plugins).
Scripts and tracking codes:
Old Facebook pixels. Analytics from services you cancelled. Chat widgets you don’t monitor. Social media feeds that don’t update. Check your site footer and header for old code snippets that are still running.
Outdated content:
Old promotional banners still loading in the background. Seasonal sliders you’re not using anymore. Embedded content from closed accounts. These still load even if you hid them from view.
How to do this safely
Don’t delete anything if you’re not sure what it is. Deactivate first, test your site, then delete. Take a backup before removing things – your hosting likely has automated backups running, but check.
If something breaks, you can restore or reinstall. But most of the time, nothing breaks. You just discover you didn’t need it.
The minimalist approach
More features equals slower site. Ask “Do I actually use this?” not “Might I use this someday?”
Clean house every quarter. Often fancy features are slowing down your site and actually making your website less effective in terms of what matters – the results it is getting for your business. Keep it lean.
Fix 3: Turn on caching (easier than it sounds)
Caching saves a ready-to-go version of your pages. Instead of rebuilding from scratch each time someone visits, your site serves the saved version. This drastically improves loading time for visitors.
After ensuring you’re using optimised images, caching is usually the single biggest speed boost you can get.
Why you might not have it
Often not enabled by default. Previous developers might not have set it up. You might not know it exists. But modern hosting makes this much easier than it used to be.
How to enable it (platform-specific)
If you have WordPress:
Check if your host offers caching in their control panel – many do now. SiteGround, WP Engine, and Kinsta all have one-click caching built in.
If you’re using cPanel, there might be an option for LightSpeed Cache.
If your host supports, generally caching at the hosting level will be your best option. You can install a caching plugin like W3 Total Cache (free, lots of options), WP Super Cache (also free, simpler) or WP Rocket (paid plugin).
Activate the plugin, use default settings, done. Test your site to make sure nothing broke.
If you have Shopify:
Built-in caching already enabled. Nothing to do here. One less thing to worry about!
If you have Squarespace or Wix:
Automatic caching included. No action needed.
If you have a custom site:
Ask your developer or hosting provider. In many cases, this is something they can simply enable. Worth the quick email or call.
When to get help
If you’re not sure where to find caching settings, something breaks when you enable caching or you’re uncomfortable making changes, get help.
This is the slightly-more-technical option on this list, but still worth doing.
The impact
Caching can reduce load time by 50% or more. Visitors see pages load super quickly (feeling almost instant). Caching also significantly reduces strain on your server. One-time setup for ongoing benefit.
What about hosting and other technical stuff?
Hosting quality matters. Code optimisation matters. Database cleanup matters. But they’re not DIY fixes like the three above.
If you’ve done these three fixes and your site is still slow, then look at hosting quality or technical optimisation. But do the easy stuff first – it solves most speed problems for most websites.
If you’re using WordPress specifically, check out our detailed guide on how to speed up a WordPress website for platform-specific optimisation steps.
Priority order
- Images (do this first, biggest impact)
- Remove unused stuff (quick and free)
- Caching (huge boost, fairly easy)
- Then consider hosting upgrades or technical help
Make this a regular habit
Speed problems creep in over time. New images get uploaded. New plugins get added. Performance degrades gradually.
Create a simple routine. Test your speed quarterly – first day of the season works well. Compress new images before uploading, every time. Review plugins every few months. Keep your site lean.
Speed isn’t a one-time fix. It’s ongoing attention. Twenty minutes every few months prevents a gradual decline in speed and performance you can easily avoid.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good website load time?
Under three seconds is good. Under two seconds is excellent. Over four seconds and you’re losing visitors. Mobile should be similar to desktop – test both.
How much can images really affect my website speed?
Massively. Images are the single biggest factor in most slow websites I audit. One uncompressed photo can add 2-3 seconds to your load time. Fix your images and you’ll often see immediate improvement.
Do I need technical skills to improve website speed?
Not for the three fixes covered here. Image compression uses drag-and-drop tools. Removing unused plugins is just clicking uninstall. Caching is usually a simple toggle or plugin activation. If you can use your website’s admin area, you can do these fixes.
Will improving speed help my SEO ranking?
Yes. Google includes page speed as a ranking factor, especially for mobile searches. Faster sites rank better. Plus, visitors who don’t bounce away because of slow loading means better engagement signals for Google.
How often should I test my website speed?
Every three months minimum. Also test after making major changes, adding new plugins, or uploading lots of content. Set a calendar reminder. Testing takes two minutes and catches problems before they cost you business.
What if I do these fixes and my site is still slow?
Then it’s time to look at hosting quality, caching setup, or code-level optimisation. These require professional help. But do the easy fixes first—they solve most speed problems for most websites.
Your site speed affects whether people stay
You don’t need to be technical to improve your website speed. Start with images and ideally compress them before uploading. Remove what you’re not using. Turn on caching.
These three fixes solve most speed problems. Test your site now, see where you stand. Make this part of your regular website maintenance.
Your visitors will notice the difference. They’ll notice by not leaving.
Not sure what’s slowing down your site? Run a speed test using one of the tools above and send me your results. I’ll take a quick look and tell you the main thing to fix.
