How to Improve Website Speed: 15 Fixes That Make Pages Load Faster
Practical ways to speed up a slow website: image optimisation, caching, lighter JavaScript, better hosting, fonts, and Core Web Vitals, with what to fix first.
Quick answer: compress and resize images, serve modern formats, cache aggressively, remove or defer unnecessary scripts, load fonts efficiently, and use fast hosting close to your visitors. Then measure with real-user Core Web Vitals and fix the slowest pages first.
Speed affects everything: visitors leave slow pages, conversion rates drop, and Google uses page experience signals including Core Web Vitals. The good news is that most slow sites are slow for the same handful of reasons.
First, measure
Use PageSpeed Insights for a quick view, and the Core Web Vitals report in Search Console for real-user data across your site. Focus on three metrics:
- LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): how fast the main content appears.
- INP (Interaction to Next Paint): how quickly the page responds to taps and clicks. It replaced FID as a Core Web Vital in 2024.
- CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): how much the layout jumps while loading.
Images (usually the biggest win)
- Resize images to the size they are displayed. A 4000-pixel photo shown at 800 pixels wastes most of its bytes.
- Use WebP or AVIF instead of large JPEGs and PNGs.
- Lazy-load images below the fold, but never the main hero image.
- Set width and height on images to prevent layout shift.
- Prioritise the hero image so it loads first.
JavaScript and third-party scripts
- Audit third-party tags: chat widgets, trackers, and pixels often cost more than your own code. Remove any you do not use.
- Defer non-critical scripts until after the page is interactive.
- Ship less JavaScript: render on the server where possible and avoid heavy libraries for small features.
Fonts and CSS
- Limit font families and weights, self-host them, and use
font-display: swap. - Remove unused CSS, especially from large UI frameworks.
Server and delivery
- Enable caching for static files and pages that do not change per visitor.
- Use a CDN so files are served from a location close to the visitor.
- Enable compression (Brotli or gzip).
- Upgrade slow hosting. Cheap shared hosting with slow server response caps how fast any page can be.
- Optimise database queries on dynamic sites, adding indexes and caching frequent results.
What to fix first
Start with your highest-traffic and highest-value pages: homepage, top service pages, and product pages. Fix images and third-party scripts first, because they usually deliver the largest improvement for the least effort. For online stores, see Core Web Vitals for e-commerce.
WordPress-specific tips
Reduce plugins, use a lightweight theme, add a caching layer, and keep everything updated. If the site remains slow despite this, a rebuild may be more cost-effective; see Next.js vs WordPress.
Keep it fast
Speed decays as new images, scripts, and features are added. Check Core Web Vitals monthly as part of your maintenance routine.
If your site is slow and you are not sure why, ask for a performance review. Speed is built into every project on the website development service.
