How fast should my website be?

A good experience, by Google’s Core Web Vitals thresholds, means an LCP of 2.5 seconds or less, an INP of 200 milliseconds or less and a CLS of 0.1 or less, for most real visits. Those are targets to work towards, not numbers anyone can promise for every site.

Why is my website so slow?

Usually because of a combination of oversized images, heavy plugins or themes, missing caching, slow hosting or database queries, and third-party scripts. A speed test shows which of these costs the most time on your pages, and that is where to start.

Why is my website suddenly slow?

Something changed. Typical triggers are a new plugin or tracking script, a theme or PHP update, a growing database, a traffic spike on shared hosting, or a host that moved your site to a busier server. Note when it started and what changed around that date.

Will a faster site rank higher in Google?

Slightly, at most. Core Web Vitals are one of many signals Google uses, and speed rarely beats relevant content. A slow site does lose visitors and sales, so it is worth fixing for your users first.

Why is my PageSpeed score different every time I test?

Lab tests depend on test server load, network conditions and third-party scripts that vary per run. Look at the trend over several runs and at the field data in Search Console rather than at one score.

Is buying faster hosting enough?

Sometimes, especially when the time to first byte is high. But heavy images, scripts and plugins stay just as heavy on a faster server, so we usually look at both.

Can you guarantee a PageSpeed score of 100?

No, and be wary of anyone who does. We measure, fix what slows the site down and show you the before and after figures. What is achievable depends on your theme, plugins, hosting and the third-party tools you need.

Do you also speed up web shops and Laravel sites?

Yes. For WooCommerce and other shops we also look at cart and checkout requests, and for Laravel and custom PHP sites at slow queries, caching, queues and configuration. Web shops start from €450 excl. VAT, other speed problems from €295, always quoted in advance.

Slow website

Slow website: why it loads slowly and how to speed it up

The short answer

Visitors leave pages that stall, and shoppers abandon slow carts. We find what is slowing your site, fix the biggest delays first and quote a fixed price before touching anything.

Get it fixed

Backup before every change
Fixed price before we start
Remote, anywhere in the world
Free first diagnosis

A slow website rarely has one culprit, which is why guessing and installing yet another speed plugin often disappoints. PageSpeed Insights shows where the time goes: LCP is how fast the main content appears, INP is how quickly the page reacts to a tap or click, and CLS is how much the layout jumps while loading. How much faster your site can get depends on how it is built and hosted, so we measure before and after and report the real numbers.

Sound familiar?

Signs of a slow website

Pages take several seconds before anything useful appears, especially on mobile
PageSpeed Insights or Search Console reports poor or “needs improvement” Core Web Vitals
The admin area or checkout feels sluggish, even with few visitors
The site became slower over time, or after a new plugin, theme or tracking script
Content jumps around while the page loads, or buttons react late to a tap

Causes

What makes a website slow?

Oversized images and media

Photos uploaded straight from a camera or phone, images not served in modern formats such as WebP or AVIF, no lazy loading below the fold, and autoplay videos make every page heavy.

Heavy plugins, themes and page builders

Each plugin can add its own CSS, JavaScript and database queries on every page. Multipurpose themes and page builders often load far more code than a page actually uses.

No caching

Without page caching, the server rebuilds each page with PHP and database queries for every visitor. Missing object caching, OPcache or browser caching headers add to the load.

Slow hosting, old PHP or a strained database

Overloaded shared hosting, an outdated PHP version, slow queries on columns without an index, and bloated tables such as autoloaded WordPress options, revisions or old sessions all slow down the time to first byte.

Too many third-party scripts

Chat widgets, tracking tags, ad scripts, embedded maps, fonts and social feeds each load from another server and can block the page or delay interaction.

No CDN and render-blocking assets

Visitors far from your server wait longer without a CDN, and large CSS and JavaScript files in the head of the page stop the browser from showing content until they are loaded.

Try it yourself

Speeding up a slow website yourself

If you manage the site yourself, start with these checks. Measure before you change anything, so you can see what helps.

1 Run your key pages through PageSpeed Insights and WebPageTest, on mobile as well as desktop. Note LCP, INP, CLS and the time to first byte as your baseline.
2 Check the Core Web Vitals report in Google Search Console. It shows field data from real visitors, which can differ from a single lab test.
3 Look at the largest files in the test results. Images of several megabytes should be resized and compressed, or converted to WebP or AVIF.
4 On a staging copy, or at a quiet moment with a backup, disable plugins one by one and measure again. Remove tracking tags, widgets and embeds you no longer use at the same time.
5 In your hosting panel, check which PHP version the site runs on. Moving to a currently supported version is often faster, but test compatibility first.
6 Turn on page caching through your host or a single caching plugin, and do not run two caching plugins at the same time.

Our approach

How we make a slow website fast

1

You tell us which pages are slow

Use the short form or chat with us and name the pages that matter most. We reply with the access we need.
2

We back up and measure

We take a full copy of the files and database first, then record a baseline of load times and Core Web Vitals on your key pages.
3

We find the bottlenecks and quote

We look at server response, database queries, plugins, images and scripts, list what costs the most time and send you a fixed price.
4

We optimise, retest and report

After your OK we make the changes, test that everything still works, measure again and send a short report with the before and after figures.

What we need

What we need from you

Login for your hosting control panel, or SSH/SFTP access
An admin login for your CMS, such as WordPress, if there is one
Access to Cloudflare or your CDN, if you use one
Which pages matter most to you and when the slowness started

We ask for the least access that does the job. You can create a separate login for us and remove it as soon as we are done.

What we cannot fix

We cannot make slow hosting hardware faster, change limits your hosting plan does not allow, or rewrite commercial plugins or themes owned by someone else. A full redesign or a rebuild of the site is a separate project, not a speed fix. If your hosting itself is the bottleneck, we tell you so, explain the options and can help you move.

Price

Price and what happens next

1

Free diagnosis

We find the cause and tell you what is wrong.
2

Fixed price

You get a price and a time estimate. Nothing starts without your yes.
3

Fixed and reported

We repair it, test it and send a short report.

From €295 excl. VAT

Fixed price, agreed before we start

Is it urgent? Say so in the form or in the chat. We start as soon as we can and give you a realistic time estimate with the quote. If priority work costs extra, you see that in the quote before you agree.

Get it fixed

Questions?

Slow website: frequently asked questions

Also see

Tell us what is wrong

Answer a few short questions. You get a fixed price before we do anything.

On which platform are you experiencing the problem?

Website App Software

Slow website: why it loads slowly and how to speed it up

Signs of a slow website

What makes a website slow?

Oversized images and media

Heavy plugins, themes and page builders

No caching

Slow hosting, old PHP or a strained database

Too many third-party scripts

No CDN and render-blocking assets

Speeding up a slow website yourself

How we make a slow website fast

You tell us which pages are slow

We back up and measure

We find the bottlenecks and quote

We optimise, retest and report

What we need from you

What we cannot fix

Price and what happens next

Free diagnosis

Fixed price

Fixed and reported

Slow website: frequently asked questions

Related problems

Website down

HTTP error 504

Database connection error

Tell us what is wrong