My site is slow
Why your website may be loading slowly and the most effective steps to diagnose and improve its speed.
A slow website frustrates visitors and hurts your search rankings. If pages are taking more than a few seconds to load, something needs attention. This guide walks you through how to diagnose the problem and what we can do to fix it.
Quick summary
Test your speed with a free tool, then rule out your own internet connection. Slow sites are usually caused by large unoptimized images, too many plugins, or a hosting plan that isn't keeping up with traffic. Share your speed test results with us and we'll identify the biggest wins.
Step 1 — Rule out your own connection
Before assuming the site is slow, check that the issue isn't on your end.
Ask someone else to load the site. A colleague on a different network, or someone in a different city.
Try loading a well-known fast website (like google.com). If that's also slow, your internet connection is the issue, not the site.
Restart your router if your internet seems slow in general.
Step 2 — Measure the speed with a free tool
You need data, not guesswork. These tools give you an objective speed score.
Go to pagespeed.web.dev — Google's free page speed tool.
Enter your site URL and click Analyze.
Note the scores for both Mobile and Desktop. Scores above 70 are acceptable; above 90 is excellent; below 50 needs attention.
Take a screenshot of the results and send it to us. This tells us exactly where the bottlenecks are.
Scores look lower than expected?
Mobile scores are almost always lower than desktop — that's normal. What matters is the trend over time and the specific issues flagged.
Common causes of slow sites
Understanding what's slowing your site helps you have a productive conversation with us.
| Cause | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Large images | Photos not resized or compressed for the web. The single biggest factor. |
| Too many plugins | Every active plugin adds code that slows page loading. |
| No caching | Without caching, every visitor loads the site from scratch. |
| Slow hosting | Budget or shared hosting can't handle traffic spikes. |
| No CDN | Without a CDN, visitors far from the server get slow loads. |
| External scripts | Trackers, chat widgets, and ad scripts add loading time. |
| Unoptimized theme | Some themes are built with far more code than necessary. |
Step 3 — Check for obvious image problems
Images are the most common cause of slow sites — and also the easiest to fix.
Open your homepage in a browser.
Right-click on any large image and choose "Open image in new tab."
Look at the image's file size in the browser tab title or address bar. Images on a web page should generally be under 200 KB. If you see images over 1 MB, they're almost certainly slowing your site.
Don't replace images yourself
If you're not sure how to compress and re-upload images correctly, contact us. Replacing images incorrectly can remove them from other pages.
Step 4 — Check for recent changes
Did you recently:
- Add a new section or widget to a page?
- Install a new plugin?
- Embed a video or map?
- Change your theme?
Any of these can add loading time. Note what changed and when, and include it when you contact us.
What to send us
- Your site URL
- A screenshot of your PageSpeed score (see Step 2)
- Which pages feel slowest
- Any recent changes that coincide with the slowdown
- Your hosting provider (if you know it)
Common questions
Related guides
- Why website speed matters
- Images & page speed
- Caching explained
- Site speed & SEO
- Info to gather before contacting support
Need a hand?