How to increase the speed of your website

Website speed isn’t sorcery. It’s mostly common sense—with a little technical cleanup and a lot of restraint.

A faster site doesn’t just win points with Google. It keeps real people from bailing before your homepage finishes loading. And the good news? You don’t need a computer science degree to fix it. You just need to stop doing what seems fancy and focus on what actually works.

Most of the slow sites we see aren’t broken—they’re just bloated. Bloated with 3MB hero images, discount hosting, plugin overload, and yes, that carousel with 14 slides uploaded directly from your smartphone.

Here’s what actually helps, based on what we’ve seen work for real clients, real sites, and real marketing results.

1. Get better hosting (like… now)

If your hosting bill is less than a couple of gas station coffees, that’s not a deal—it’s a problem.

Cheap hosting means slower server response times, more outages, and tech support that consists of copy-pasting unhelpful articles at you. If you’re spending time or money on SEO, ads, or design, don’t put it all on a bargain-bin foundation.

Aim for reliable managed WordPress hosting in the $20–$30/month range. For small businesses and nonprofits, that’s the sweet spot for performance and peace of mind.

2. Stop hoarding plugins 

WordPress users, listen up: plugins are not Pokémon. You don’t have to collect them all.

Every plugin adds weight—scripts, styles, database calls—and some are downright messy. We recommend auditing your plugin list every quarter. If you don’t know what something does or haven’t used it recently, it probably doesn’t need to be there.

Keep the essentials (like caching or security). Ditch the rest. Your site will load faster. Your dashboard will look cleaner. And your future self will thank you.

3. Resize your images before uploading

No one needs a 4,000-pixel-wide photo of your conference room.

Uploading massive images and letting your website “shrink” them visually doesn’t reduce the file size. Your site still loads the whole thing—wasting bandwidth and attention spans.

Before you upload, crop or scale your image to something reasonable (usually 1200px or less wide for most layouts) and compress it to under 300KB when possible. TinyPNG, Squoosh, or even Canva will do the trick.

Don’t let your homepage get taken down by a giant JPEG of a handshake.

4. Choose the right file format (it matters)

File formats aren’t just alphabet soup—they make a real difference in load time.

Here’s a quick overview of JPG versus PNG versus WebP:

• JPG – Best for photos and gradients
• PNG – Best for logos, icons, or images with transparency
• WebP – Usually the best of both worlds, if your platform supports it

WebP files are getting more popular because they compress beautifully. If you’re prepping images manually, export a few versions and pick the smallest one that still looks crisp.

And remember: you’re not printing a billboard. Shrink it.

5. Don’t panic about your speed score

A PageSpeed score of 53 isn’t a personal failure.

Tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix are helpful—but they’re not gospel. They’re diagnostics. And some of what they flag might be things you chose on purpose (like embedding  a YouTube video or loading a web font).

Use them to spot general issues—but focus more on how your site actually feels to use.

If your pages load quickly, scroll smoothly, and work well on mobile, you’re probably in better shape than you think.

6. CDNs are not a magic fix

Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) can help speed things up, especially if your visitors come from multiple regions. But they’re not a band-aid for bad infrastructure.

Think of them like frosting. Nice, but not useful if the cake underneath is crumbling.

If your hosting is slow and your images are oversized, a CDN won’t save you. Fix the core problems first. Then, if you want to squeeze out a little more speed, go ahead and layer on a CDN.

Speed is a choice, not a miracle

There’s no secret setting that magically speeds up your site.

The fast ones are fast because someone made smart, boring decisions—like resizing images, skipping unnecessary plugins, and investing in solid hosting.

If your website is sluggish, don’t overcomplicate it. Start small, fix what you can, and get help if you need it. (Seriously, it’s way less expensive than losing leads.)

Because fast sites don’t just feel better—they perform better. And they don’t have to be perfect. They just have to stop getting in their own way.

Need help making your site faster—or rebuilding it so it’s easier to manage from the start? Let’s talk about your website.