Why is my website so slow? The 7 usual causes
A slow website loses people before they read a word, and it's worst on phones, where most of your visitors are. The good news: the causes are predictable, and most are fixed in hours, not weeks.
Why your website is slow
- Oversized images. The most common cause by far. A photo straight from a phone or camera can be 5 MB or more, when a web version of the same photo looks identical at a tenth of the size.
- Too many plugins, apps and scripts. Every chat widget, slider, social feed, tracking tag and plugin adds code that each visitor has to download. Unused ones still slow the page.
- No caching. Without caching, your server builds each page from scratch for every visitor. With it, a ready-made copy is sent instantly.
- A heavy theme or page builder. Some themes and drag-and-drop builders load large amounts of code on every page, whether the page uses it or not.
- Outdated server software. WordPress sites running an old version of PHP, the language WordPress is written in, are noticeably slower and less secure than on a current version. Outdated software is also how most sites get hacked; see how to fix a hacked or outdated WordPress site.
- Slow or overloaded hosting. The cheapest shared hosting plans put many sites on one server. If the server takes a long time to respond before anything loads, hosting is part of the problem.
- Embedded videos, maps and fonts. A YouTube video or Google Map on the homepage can add several megabytes before the visitor even presses play.
Test your own site in 2 minutes
- Go to pagespeed.web.dev, Google's free speed test, enter your homepage address and press Analyze.
- Look at the Mobile results, not Desktop. That's what most of your customers experience.
- Find Largest Contentful Paint. It's how long the main content takes to appear. Under 2.5 seconds is good; over 4 seconds is poor.
- Scroll to the suggestions. If you see “Properly size images” or “Serve images in next-gen formats”, cause 1 is part of your problem. “Reduce unused JavaScript” usually points to causes 2 and 4.
- Then open the site on your own phone, on mobile data, and time it. That's the real test.
On WordPress? Slow pages and a slow dashboard usually point to the server: hosting, PHP version or a plugin doing heavy work in the background. Slow pages with a fast dashboard usually point to images and front-end scripts.
What a slow website costs you
People on phones are impatient. When a page takes several seconds to show anything, many tap Back and choose the next result, and you never see them in your inbox or on your phone. A slow site also makes every other investment work harder: ads, Google listings and word of mouth all send people to a page that loses some of them before it loads.
How I fix it
I measure first, fix the causes that matter most, and measure again so you can see the difference in seconds, not promises.
Measure
I test your key pages on a phone connection and record the load time and Google's speed scores, so there's a clear before.
Fix the heavy stuff
I resize and compress images, switch them to modern formats, and load images further down the page only when they're needed.
Cut what you don't need
I remove unused plugins and scripts, turn on caching, and update the server's PHP version where it's out of date. Everything is done on a copy first.
Measure again
You get a before-and-after report with the new load times. Check it on your own phone, then pay.
Full Tune-Up · $997
Speed improvements are part of the Full Tune-Up, which also covers updates, backups and security hardening. If your site only needs its images fixed, the findings list will price it as a Quick Fix at $497 instead.
The fix-first guarantee
You pay only after you've checked the work and you're happy with it. If anything I fixed breaks within 30 days, I fix it again at no charge.
Questions owners ask
Does website speed affect my Google ranking?
Yes, it's one of the signals Google uses. It rarely matters as much as having useful pages, but a slow site loses visitors whatever its ranking, so it's worth fixing either way. For the other reasons a site can be missing from search, see why a website doesn't show up on Google.
My site is fast on my computer. Why do customers say it's slow?
Your computer has a fast connection and has probably visited your site before, so much of it is already saved. A customer on a phone, on mobile data, visiting for the first time downloads everything. Always test on a phone.
Do I need better hosting?
Sometimes, but it's usually not the first fix. Oversized images and too many plugins are far more common. I only recommend a hosting change when the test shows the server itself is slow to respond.
Is my Wix or Squarespace site slow because of the platform?
Partly. You can't control the platform's own code, but images, embedded videos and add-on apps still make a big difference, and those can be fixed. If the platform is the real limit, I'll say so honestly, and explain what moving off Wix or Squarespace involves.
What score should I aim for on PageSpeed Insights?
Scores in the green, 90 or above, are excellent, but the number that matters to customers is how quickly the page appears on their phone. I aim for the main content to show within about 2.5 seconds, which is Google's own guideline for a good experience.
Melissa Charles
Founder of Charles Web Works, with a background as a Sr. Software Engineer, an M.S. in AI and machine learning and a bachelor's in accounting. I fix small business websites for one flat price, and you pay after you've checked the work.
Often found together
Get a free findings list for your site
Tell me your website address. I'll check it for this problem and everything else that's costing you customers, then email you a plain-English list and a flat price, usually within one business day. No sales call.