Get in touch
Have a project in mind? Tell us a bit about it.
A slow small business website nearly always comes down to one of four things: hosting that takes too long to start sending the page, photos far bigger than the screen needs, a theme, page builder or pile of plugins loading code on every page, or outside scripts such as chat, review and booking widgets. You can find out which one in about ten minutes with Google’s free PageSpeed Insights, before you pay anyone to fix it.
Type “why is my website so slow” into Google and it suggests “…to load” and “…wordpress” as endings, plus “why is my wix website so slow”. In r/smallbusiness, a thread titled “My site is slow, what can I do about it?” has 50 answers, and the top reply asks how the site was built, where it is hosted and what is on it. Below is the order we work through those same questions on trade and local service sites, with tests you can run yourself.
How do I check how fast my website really is?
Run your homepage and your main service page through PageSpeed Insights and read the Mobile result first. Someone searching for an electrician from a job site or a car park is on a phone, and the mobile test is the harder of the two.
- Go to pagespeed.web.dev, paste the full address of the page and click Analyze.
- Stay on the Mobile tab.
- Open “Discover what your real users are experiencing”. This is field data from real Chrome visitors over the previous 28 days. If the page doesn’t get enough visits, PageSpeed Insights falls back to your whole site, and if the site is too small as well it shows no real-user data at all (About PageSpeed Insights). Most small business sites land here.
- Open “Diagnose performance issues”. This is a lab test: one simulated page load. A score of 90 or more is good, 50 to 89 needs improvement and below 50 is poor. Use this part to find the cause.
- Run it two or three times. The report itself says values are estimated and may vary, so judge the pattern, not a single score.
These are the numbers that matter, with Google’s thresholds. A page counts as good on a metric when at least 75% of visits meet the good mark (web.dev).
| Metric | What it measures | Good | Poor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) | How long until the main thing on screen appears, usually the top photo or headline | 2.5 seconds or less | Over 4 seconds |
| Interaction to Next Paint (INP) | How quickly the page responds when someone taps a button or opens the menu | 200 ms or less | Over 500 ms |
| Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) | How much the page jumps around while it loads | 0.1 or less | Over 0.25 |
| Time to First Byte (TTFB) | How long the server takes to start sending the page | 0.8 seconds or less | Over 1.8 seconds |
The first three are Google’s Core Web Vitals. TTFB isn’t one of them, and web.dev calls its thresholds a rough guide, but it is the quickest way to tell a hosting problem from a page problem.
What does a real PageSpeed report look like?
Here is our own Websites page, tested on mobile on 3 November 2026. PageSpeed Insights ran it as an emulated Moto G Power on Slow 4G throttling.
| What the report showed | Result | What it tells us |
|---|---|---|
| Real-user data | No Data | Not enough Chrome visits for field data yet, which is normal for a small business page. The lab test is all we have. |
| Performance score | 89 | One point under the good band |
| Largest Contentful Paint | 1.7 s | Inside the 2.5 second mark, so the main content shows quickly |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | 0.121 | Just over 0.1. Something moves while the page loads, and the “Layout shift culprits” insight names it. |
| Total Blocking Time | 210 ms | The browser is busy running scripts for a while after the page appears |
| Top insight | Render-blocking requests, est. savings of 1,490 ms | Style and script files the browser has to download before it can draw the page |
| Diagnostic | Reduce unused JavaScript, est. savings of 209 KiB | Code downloaded on this page that the page doesn’t use |
So our page loads its main content fast, shifts slightly and carries more code than it needs. The fixes are the layout shift and the render-blocking files. Moving hosts would change nothing here, which is why the report comes before any spending.
What is making my website slow?
Whatever PageSpeed Insights flags under “Diagnose performance issues” points to the cause. These are the usual matches on small business sites.
| What the report flags | Usual cause | Who fixes it |
|---|---|---|
| Slow TTFB, or a large first slice in “LCP breakdown” | Overloaded shared hosting, no page caching, an old PHP version | Your host or developer |
| Slow LCP with a photo as the LCP element | A hero photo uploaded straight from a phone or stock site at full size, or a slider at the top of the page | You can resize it; a developer can set its loading priority |
| “Render-blocking requests” or “Reduce unused JavaScript” | A page builder, theme or plugins loading their files on every page | Developer |
| “3rd parties” | Chat, review, booking or map widgets and several tracking tags | You decide what stays; a developer removes or delays the rest |
| “Layout shift culprits” | Images with no set size, cookie banners, fonts that swap late | Developer |
| “Use efficient cache lifetimes” | The server tells browsers to download files again on every visit | Host or developer |
If your site gets traffic but few enquiries, speed is one of several things to check. Our guide on why a website gets traffic but no leads covers the rest.
Is it my hosting or my website?
Look at the time to first byte. If it is over 1.8 seconds, the server is holding everything up and no amount of image work will fix that. If TTFB is fine and the page is still slow, the cause is what the page loads.
Google splits LCP into four parts: the server’s first response, the wait before the main image starts downloading, the download itself and the delay before it is drawn. In a healthy page the first response and the download take most of the time, and the two waits are close to zero (Optimize Largest Contentful Paint). Open the “LCP breakdown” insight in your report to see which part is large on your page.
A quick check you can do yourself: test a plain page such as your privacy policy. If even that page is slow to start, the problem is the hosting or caching. If the plain page is quick and your homepage is slow, the problem is what sits on the homepage.
Why is my WordPress website so slow?
On WordPress it is usually the plugins, missing page caching, unoptimised images or an old PHP version. WordPress’s own handbook says the number of plugins and their performance has “a huge impact” on speed, and that caching can make fairly static pages several hundred times faster (WordPress Optimization handbook). Take a full backup, then check these in wp-admin:
- Go to Tools, then Site Health, open the Info tab and expand Server to see your PHP version. The handbook notes that newer PHP versions usually perform better. Ask your host to test an upgrade on a staging copy first.
- Go to Plugins, then Installed Plugins. Deactivate anything you no longer use, one at a time, and check the site after each.
- Find out what does your page caching. Your host may provide it, or a caching plugin may. Two caching setups running at once tend to conflict, so keep one.
- Go to Media, then Library, and open your homepage photos. The attachment details show each file’s size and pixel dimensions. A photo several thousand pixels wide sitting in a space the width of a phone is a common find.
On Wix or Squarespace you can’t change the server, so your levers are image sizes, the apps and embeds you have added, and how much you put on each page.
Does a slow website hurt my Google rankings?
It can, but less than most owners fear. Google says “Core Web Vitals are used by our ranking systems”, and on the same page that it “always seeks to show the most relevant content, even if the page experience is sub-par” (Understanding page experience in Google Search results).
A fast page that answers the search beats a slow one when both are equally relevant. A fast page that doesn’t answer the search won’t outrank a relevant one. In our experience the bigger cost of a slow site is the visitor who gives up and rings the next plumber on the list.
Search Console’s Core Web Vitals report uses the same real-user data as PageSpeed Insights, so a small site may see “No data available” there too (Core Web Vitals report help). If your site isn’t showing up at all, speed is rarely the reason. Start with why a website doesn’t show on Google.
Does website speed affect my Google Ads?
Yes. You pay for every click, including the people who leave before the page loads. Google’s own advice is to “improve loading speed”, because load speed “can be the difference between someone bouncing or buying” (5 ways to use Quality Score).
Landing page experience is one of the parts of Quality Score, which Google defines as how relevant and useful your landing page is to people who click your ad (About Quality Score). The Landing pages tab in Google Ads also gives a mobile speed score from 1 to 10, where 1 is very slow (mobile page speed score). If your ads go to a slow homepage, read landing page or website for Google Ads before rebuilding anything.
Why is my website fast for me but slow for customers?
Your browser has already stored most of your site’s files, you are probably on office broadband, and if you are logged in to WordPress you may be seeing pages that skip the cache. A new customer on a mid-range phone with patchy signal gets none of that.
PageSpeed Insights tries to recreate that: our report above ran as an emulated Moto G Power on Slow 4G throttling. For a rough real-world check, open your site in a private window on your phone with Wi-Fi turned off.
What can I fix myself, and what needs a developer?
You can do the image and clutter work yourself. Server, code and layout fixes need your host or a developer.
| Fix | Who | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Resize and compress the top photo on each main page | You | Export it at roughly the size it shows on screen. Don’t lazy-load it: Google’s LCP guide says lazy loading the main image delays it. |
| Remove plugins, widgets and tags you don’t use | You, after a backup | Check which tags your ad accounts rely on for conversion tracking before removing any. |
| Turn on page caching | Host or developer | One caching layer only |
| Upgrade PHP | Host | Test on a staging copy first |
| Cut render-blocking files and unused code | Developer | Retest each page type after changes, since one fix can break a form |
| Fix layout shift | Developer | Set image sizes and reserve space for banners |
| Move to better hosting | Developer or host | Only if TTFB stays poor after caching is on |
| Rebuild the site | Developer | Last resort, when the theme or builder itself is the bottleneck. See what a small business website costs. |
When you hand it over, click Copy Link at the top of your PageSpeed report and send that link with three questions: which item on this report will you fix first, how will you check that forms and call buttons still work afterwards, and what should the report show when you are done.
Common mistakes when speeding up a website
- Chasing a perfect 100. The score comes from one simulated load. A page that passes the Core Web Vitals on mobile is in good shape, and 90 or above already counts as good.
- Lazy-loading the main photo at the top of the page. It makes LCP worse, so exclude that image from any lazy-load setting.
- Installing two or three speed plugins at once. Their caching and file-combining features overlap and often break layouts or forms. Pick one and configure it properly.
- Testing only on desktop over office Wi-Fi. That is the best case, and your customers mostly aren’t seeing it.
- Deleting the chat widget that brings in enquiries because a report flagged it. Check how many leads it produces first. Delaying it until after the page loads is often enough.
- Making changes on the live site with no backup. A broken contact form costs more than a slow one.
If the report points at the build itself, our websites service builds pages for trades and local service businesses that load quickly on a phone and are laid out to turn visits into calls and quote requests.
FAQ
How fast should my website load?
Aim for the main content to appear within 2.5 seconds on mobile, which is Google’s good mark for Largest Contentful Paint. The page should also respond to a tap within 200 ms and barely move while it loads.
Will a new website fix a slow website?
Only if the slowness comes from the build. If your time to first byte is poor because of the hosting, a new design on the same hosting will be slow too. Check TTFB before you commission a rebuild.
Does a chat widget slow down my website?
It can. Every outside script adds downloads and work for the phone. The “3rd parties” insight in PageSpeed Insights shows how much each one costs, so you can weigh that against the enquiries it brings in.
Why did my website suddenly get slow?
Something changed: a plugin or theme update, a new large photo, your host limiting resources, a spike in traffic including bots, or occasionally a hack running hidden scripts. If the slowdown came with strange redirects or pages you didn’t create, read what to do if your website was hacked.
Why does PageSpeed Insights give a different score every time?
The lab score comes from a single simulated page load, so network and server conditions shift it from run to run. Test two or three times and look for the items that keep appearing.
Sources: 1. About PageSpeed Insights (Google for Developers). 2. How the Core Web Vitals metrics thresholds were defined (web.dev). 3. Time to First Byte (web.dev). 4. Optimize Largest Contentful Paint (web.dev). 5. Optimization, Advanced Administration Handbook (WordPress.org). 6. Understanding page experience in Google Search results (Google Search Central). 7. Core Web Vitals report (Search Console Help). 8. 5 ways to use Quality Score to improve your performance (Google Ads Help). 9. About Quality Score for Search campaigns (Google Ads Help). 10. Updates to mobile page speed score on the Landing Pages tab (Google Ads Help).
