Web1 min read
By Revanth Chary
A slow website costs you twice. Visitors leave, and search engines take note. The good news is that most speed problems come from a short list of causes.
Oversized images
This is the most common problem by far. A photo straight from a camera can be far larger than the screen showing it. Resize images, serve modern formats such as WebP and load them only when they are needed.
Too much JavaScript
Every plugin, slider and tracking script adds work for the browser, and that work is felt most on mid-range phones. Remove anything you are not actively using.
Fonts that arrive late
Web fonts can cause text to pop in or shift. Host them yourself, load only the weights you use and reserve the space they need.
Slow servers
A page that is built fresh for every visitor has to wait on the server each time. Pre-building pages and caching them close to your visitors removes most of that delay.
Where to begin
- Run your homepage through PageSpeed Insights
- Fix the largest images first
- Remove one script you do not need
- Test again on a real phone
Speed is not a one-off project, but those four steps usually deliver the biggest gains for the least effort.