Website speed: how to improve loading and why every second matters
Your website loads in six seconds, a competitor's in under two. A visitor on a phone will not wait long. The maths is simple: a slow website loses customers.
Website speed is no longer a technical detail. It is a direct business factor: it affects conversion, Google rankings and how people feel about your business. Yet many small business websites are slow, especially on mobile.
Why speed matters
- People on phones leave pages that take too long to appear.
- Every second of delay lowers the share of visitors who contact you.
- Core Web Vitals are part of how Google evaluates pages.
- A fast website makes every crown spent on advertising work harder.
In other words: a slow website is either not visible on Google, or the customer leaves before it loads. Both cost money.
Core Web Vitals: what Google measures
| Metric | What it measures | Good value |
|---|---|---|
| LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) | Time until the largest element of the page appears | Up to 2.5 s |
| INP (Interaction to Next Paint) | Response time to a click or input | Up to 200 ms |
| CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) | Visual stability while loading, elements jumping around | Up to 0.1 |
You can check them in Google Search Console under Core Web Vitals or in PageSpeed Insights.
How to measure your website speed
All of these tools are free:
- Google PageSpeed Insights (pagespeed.web.dev): the main tool, tests mobile and desktop and shows concrete problems.
- Google Search Console, Core Web Vitals report: real data from real visitors to your website.
- GTmetrix: a detailed waterfall showing what loads and for how long.
- WebPageTest: advanced analysis with different connections and devices.
Start with PageSpeed Insights. Enter the address and test mobile (more important) and desktop. A mobile score under 50 is a serious problem.
10 fixes sorted by impact
High impact
- Compress images and convert them to WebP. Images are usually the heaviest part of a page. Converting JPG or PNG to WebP shrinks them a lot without visible quality loss. Tools: Squoosh (free), or automatically through your hosting or CDN.
- Lazy load images. Images outside the visible area load only when the visitor scrolls. The HTML attribute loading="lazy" is built into modern browsers, no JavaScript needed.
- Good hosting or a CDN. Cheap shared hosting slows down even a well built website. Modern hosting or a CDN speeds up the time to first byte considerably. Cloudflare offers a free CDN for basic use.
- Preconnect to external fonts and scripts. Google Fonts, analytics and ad pixels each add latency. A preconnect link in the head tells the browser to prepare the connection in advance.
Medium impact
- Minify CSS, JavaScript and HTML. Remove whitespace, comments and unnecessary code. WordPress plugins or build tools do it for you.
- Browser caching. Tells the browser to store static files locally instead of downloading them on every visit. Returning visitors load the website much faster.
- Defer or async JavaScript. Scripts that block rendering can load in the background with the defer or async attribute.
- Preload the LCP element. The largest image or text above the fold. A preload link tells the browser to fetch it first.
Lower impact
- Fewer HTTP requests. Every file is one request. Merge CSS files and remove unused scripts such as old heatmaps, old analytics or chat widgets.
- Correct image dimensions. A 4000 pixel photo displayed in a 400 pixel box wastes data. Export images at web size: around 1920 pixels on the longest side for a hero image, around 800 for content images.
The fastest fix that helps almost every time: compress images and convert them to WebP. This single change usually shows the biggest improvement in the score.
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Get a free proposal →WordPress specific problems
WordPress is very popular and without optimisation it tends to be slow. Steps specific to WordPress:
- Caching plugin: WP Rocket (paid), W3 Total Cache or LiteSpeed Cache (free).
- Image optimisation: Imagify, ShortPixel or Smush.
- Remove unnecessary plugins. Each one adds requests and processing. Fewer means faster.
- Change hosting. WordPress on cheap shared hosting is usually slow. Managed WordPress hosting helps a lot.
- Use a lightweight theme. Heavy multipurpose themes with page builders are slow. Lightweight themes like GeneratePress or Astra are fast.
What is a good PageSpeed score
| Score | Rating | Typically |
|---|---|---|
| 90 to 100 | Excellent | Static websites, optimised solutions |
| 70 to 89 | Good | Optimised WordPress, modern framework |
| 50 to 69 | Average | Unoptimised WordPress |
| Under 50 | Poor | Heavy WordPress, no optimisation, old hosting |
If your website scores red on mobile and the fixes above do not help, the problem is usually the foundation itself. A new static website is often cheaper than endless patching. A custom website at Webify starts at CZK 19,990 and is ready within 7 days. Read more in when to redesign a website.
Want a website that brings enquiries?
Tell me in two minutes what you need. I reply within 24 hours with a free homepage design and a fixed price in writing.
Get a free proposal →Frequently asked questions
How can I improve website speed?
The most effective step is compressing images and converting them to WebP. Then lazy loading, good hosting or a CDN, preconnect for fonts and minified CSS and JavaScript. Start by measuring in PageSpeed Insights.
Why does website speed matter?
Slow pages lose visitors before they even load, especially on phones, and Google uses Core Web Vitals when evaluating pages. A slow website therefore costs both visibility and enquiries.
What is a good PageSpeed score?
90 or more on desktop and 70 or more on mobile is a good target. Under 50 on mobile is a serious problem that affects both Google rankings and enquiries.