The usual causes
| Cause | How it slows the page | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Oversized images | Photos many times larger than the screen needs | Resize, compress and use WebP or AVIF |
| Too many scripts | Chat, tracking and widgets compete with your content | Remove, delay or load them after the first screen |
| Heavy themes and builders | Code for features the page never uses | A lean theme or a custom build |
| Slow hosting | The server takes long to send the first byte | Better hosting and a content delivery network |
| Fonts and video | Large files delay the first visible text | Fewer font files and no autoplay video up top |
Find your biggest problem first
Run your homepage and top service page through PageSpeed Insights on mobile. Look at Largest Contentful Paint first, since it measures when the main content shows. The diagnostics below list what delays it. Google's guide to LCP breaks the delay into server time, resource loading and rendering, so you can see which part to fix.
Server time is easy to check. Google's guidance rates 0.8 seconds or less as a good server response. If yours is much slower, no amount of image work will fully fix the page.
Fix the template, not one page
Most slowness lives in the shared template, the theme, header, fonts and scripts that load on every page. One template fix speeds up the whole site.
Good example. A roofer swaps a 4MB hero photo for a 150KB WebP version and delays a chat widget until the page loads. LCP drops from 5 seconds to under 2.
Bad example. The same roofer installs a speed plugin on top of 30 other plugins and wonders why nothing changes.
Prevent it from coming back
Every new widget, tracking tag or plugin adds weight. Ask what each one costs before adding it, and test speed after every change.
Read how images affect website speed. Our web design team builds lean sites from the start and fixes slow ones.