Visitors leave slow websites, and search engines rank them lower. The good news: most business sites can become noticeably faster without a redesign.
Measure first
Test your main pages with a speed tool such as Google PageSpeed Insights, on mobile. Note the largest image, the time to first byte and the total page weight. Our free website analysis tool also checks speed, SEO and security in one report.
Images: the biggest win
- Resize images to the size they are shown at; a 4000-pixel photo in a 400-pixel box wastes bandwidth.
- Use modern formats such as WebP.
- Lazy-load images below the fold.
Server and caching
- Choose hosting with fast storage and enough CPU for your traffic.
- Turn on page caching, so pages are not rebuilt for every visitor. On WordPress, a well-configured caching plugin does this.
- Use a recent PHP version; newer versions are significantly faster.
Fewer, lighter scripts
Every chat widget, tracking pixel and slider adds weight. Remove plugins and scripts you no longer use, and load the rest after the main content.
Fonts
Limit yourself to one or two font families and the weights you actually use. Each extra weight is another download.
A CDN when visitors are far away
If your visitors are spread across countries, a CDN serves static files from locations close to them. For a local audience, good hosting near your visitors matters more.
Keep checking
Speed drifts as content and plugins are added. Re-test after big changes and every few months.
How IDX helps
IDX hosting runs on NVMe storage with free SSL, and our engineers can review a slow site and suggest fixes. See time to first byte explained for the server side of speed.
IDX on digital infrastructure
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