Google wants all websites to be fast—this is something they have been very clear about. Your chances of gaining strong rankings increase if your site loads quickly, both on mobile and desktop. The result is also a more user-friendly website, another factor Google values highly. In the past, during the glory days of dial-up modems, we patiently waited one to two minutes to get online. Today, load times are measured in milliseconds—and users’ patience has decreased in step with increasing speed.
There are a number of measures that can help, depending on what issues your website is facing. In this article, you’ll learn about the most common causes of slow websites and practical ways to fix them.
Troubleshoot your website
Start by finding a suitable tool that can detect weaknesses or overloads. PageSpeed Insights, which we have written about previously, is a popular option. The tool analyzes your domain and benchmarks the results against :contentReference[oaicite:1]{index=1}’s own guidelines and preferences. The report shows whether—and where—your site can be improved. It is an invaluable troubleshooting tool for identifying bottlenecks and issues.
The report can appear very technical and may include unfamiliar terms for those who are not deeply versed in the area. One alternative is to use the tool to identify issues and then pass the report on to specialists for further assistance.
Compress images
Many people fear that small image sizes mean images will look “pixelated,” and therefore choose higher-resolution images for their site. The downside is that larger images take longer to load.
The biggest gains come from compressing images as much as you reasonably can. You can also adjust settings so that images further down the page are not loaded until the visitor starts scrolling.
You can also reduce file size by changing image formats. The majority of images on the web today are in JPEG or PNG formats. Google recommends the WebP format, a relatively new image format that offers near-lossless compression. It is true that a website can become significantly faster with WebP images compared to traditional formats. Even so, we recommend proceeding with caution. Replacing all images with a new format can be complex, and it is far from certain that WebP will be the dominant format of the future.
Adjust your caching
Cache memory stores instructions and data for a short period of time. This data is cached on the computer or server so it can be quickly retrieved when a visitor returns. When a returning visitor arrives, the cache checks whether there are updates to download. If so, those updates are loaded; otherwise, the cached version is served, allowing the site to load faster.
Investigate what caching policy your domain currently has—sometimes there is none at all. This means that even returning visitors have to wait longer because the site loads as if it were their first visit. By setting a cache duration of 30 days, you ensure that visitors who return within that period can access the site quickly and continue reading or shopping.
JavaScript & CSS
Now we move into more technical territory—code. This may not be the easiest way to speed up a site, but it is one of the most common sources of performance issues, which is why it’s important to address it.
JavaScript
JavaScript has long been challenging for Google. It can be difficult for search engines to interpret what JavaScript does, and it also takes time to load. Recently, however, Google released a new crawler said to be better at reading and handling JavaScript, which suggests this area is evolving.
While a site is loading, it may need to pause several times to load different scripts, creating bottlenecks. To resolve this, you can either reduce the amount of JavaScript on the site or modify the code for more efficient loading. This is not something a beginner should attempt alone, but it is a recommended action if your site relies heavily on JavaScript.
Stylesheets – CSS
CSS, or stylesheets, define the layout and design of a website. Browsers will not render content until they have received CSS instructions, as these instructions can change how content is displayed. Load times can suffer due to repeated layout requests and inefficient code loops.
You can defer the browser’s loading of non-critical CSS and prevent it from loading external stylesheets that are not needed immediately. Critical CSS should ideally be inline—placed directly in the code—rather than in an external stylesheet that the browser must download and parse.
As you can see, it’s possible to speed up a website using both simple and more advanced methods. There is plenty of information online about changing file formats and configuring caching.
We recommend turning only to reliable sources if you need help with site code—handled incorrectly, a small issue can quickly become a large one.
Good luck!
