Why is our website slow?
A slow website almost always comes down to one of four things: images that are too heavy, too many add-ons, too much code from others, or hosting that is too weak. Here is how to find which, and what to do about it.
Short answer
A slow website almost always comes down to one of four things. The good news is that three of them can be fixed without rebuilding anything.
| Cause | Common sign | Fixable without a rebuild |
|---|---|---|
| Heavy images | Images appear late | Yes |
| Too many add-ons | The site has grown slower over time | Yes |
| Code from others | The page stalls on chat, map or video | Yes |
| Weak hosting | Slow at certain times of day | Sometimes |
1. The images are too heavy
The most common fault. An image straight from a camera or phone can be twenty times larger than it needs to be. The site looks the same, but the visitor waits.
2. Too many add-ons
Every plugin, theme and widget adds code that has to load. Ten add-ons that each do something small add up to something large.
3. Code from others
Chat boxes, tracking, adverts, maps and embedded videos are fetched from someone else's server. You do not control how fast it is, and each of those services makes the page heavier.
4. The hosting is not enough
Cheap web hosting shares a server with many others. When one of them gets a lot of traffic, your site slows down.
How to find the fault
Google's PageSpeed Insights is free. Enter the address and you get a list of what takes time, sorted by how much it matters. Test the home page and an ordinary inner page, and look at the result for mobile.
When that is not enough
Sometimes the site is built in a way that makes it slow at its core. The signs are that it is sluggish even without images and add-ons, and that every change makes it slower. Then rebuilding usually pays off better than patching.
Making the site load fast is part of what we do when we build websites, and keeping it that way is part of operation and maintenance.