Huge images
A photo taken with a phone is easily several megabytes. Uploaded as it is, the visitor’s phone has to download the whole file, even if it is shown at postcard size. Five of those on your homepage and the visitor is gone.
Problem: speed
Your website is loading slow. Customers don’t wait. They call someone else.
When your website is loading slow, people tap back before they see what you offer. A slow site loses customers quietly: you get no complaints, just fewer calls.
What a slow website looks like
- On a phone, on mobile data, the page stays blank for several seconds before anything appears.
- Images load piece by piece, from the top down.
- Text jumps when an image or banner loads, and your finger taps the wrong thing.
- Google PageSpeed Insights gives you a red or orange score on mobile.
- The admin area is sluggish too, and every save takes ages.
Where the slowness comes from
Cheap, crowded hosting
On the cheapest plans your site shares a server with hundreds of others. The server takes a long time to respond before it sends the first byte. Whatever else you optimise, a slow server stays slow.
Too many plugins and a heavy page builder
Every plugin adds code, and page builders add extra layers so you can drag blocks around with the mouse. All of that code loads on every visit, even on pages where it does nothing.
No caching, no compression
Without caching, the server builds the page from scratch for every visitor. Without compression, files travel at full size. Both can be switched on, but often nobody did.
Heavy extras
An autoplay video, a slider with five large photos, an embedded Google Map, a chat widget, several fonts and tracking scripts. Each one seems small; together they slow the page right down.
What you can do yourself, step by step
1. Measure properly
Open pagespeed.web.dev, enter your address and look at the mobile score, not desktop. 90 and above is green, 50 to 89 orange, below 50 red. Run it two or three times, as the score varies a little. You can also use the RAGANA speed test.
2. Shrink your images
Before uploading, resize each photo to the width it is actually shown at, usually under 2,000 pixels, and convert it to WebP with a free tool such as Squoosh. In WordPress, an image optimisation plugin can also compress the images you have already uploaded.
3. Turn on caching
Many hosts offer caching in their control panel with one switch. In WordPress, install one caching plugin, not two, because they can conflict. Also check that Gzip or Brotli compression is on.
4. Clean out your plugins
Take a backup first. Then deactivate the plugins you’re unsure about one at a time, and measure again after each. Delete what you don’t use. Update the rest.
5. Lighten your homepage
Replace the autoplay video with an image and a play button. Swap the embedded map for an image that links to Google Maps. Keep two fonts at most and remove widgets nobody uses.
6. Check the server
If PageSpeed says the server responds slowly, the problem isn’t the page. Ask your host which PHP version you are on and whether your plan has enough resources. Sometimes the only real fix is better hosting.
When it’s worth calling a pro
If you have done all of the above and your mobile score is still below 50, or your site is built with a heavy page builder, the cause is in the structure. Speed optimisation for your current site costs €199: audit, images, scripts, caching. The target is 90+ on mobile, and if your site’s technology won’t allow it, I tell you before you pay, not after. Sometimes a new site costs less in the long run than repairs: from €499, with a PageSpeed score of 90+ on mobile and desktop guaranteed in writing.
Website speed test →Fast website, PageSpeed 90+ →Website cost →
Frequently asked questions
What is a good PageSpeed score?
90 to 100 is green, which means good. 50 to 89 needs improvement, below 50 is poor. The mobile score is almost always lower than desktop, because the test simulates an ordinary phone on a slower mobile connection.
Does speed matter to Google?
Yes, but it isn’t everything. Core Web Vitals, which measure loading, response to taps and visual stability, are among the signals Google uses. Useful content still matters more than a few points of score.
My site is fast on my computer. Why?
Because your browser has already stored the files and your connection is good. A new customer on a phone and mobile data downloads everything from scratch. Test the way your customers use it.
Do I need to change hosts?
Not necessarily. Start with images, caching and plugins. If the server still responds slowly after that, then yes, hosting is the problem.
Other common problems
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Written by Raul Gabriel Nagy
Founder of RAGANA Studio, web designer since 2009. I hand-build websites and online shops for businesses in Romania, Hungary, Austria and Germany, and run my own online shop, raganadesign.shop. My story →
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