You’ve probably done it yourself. You tap a link, the page sits there loading, and after a few seconds you hit back and try the next result. Website speed matters because your customers do exactly the same thing.
The good news is that most slow small business sites are slow for a handful of common reasons, and many of them can be fixed without starting again.
Why a slow site costs you work
People rarely complain about a slow website. They just leave. You never see the enquiry you missed, so the problem is easy to overlook.
A few reasons slow sites hurt small businesses in particular:
- Most visitors are on phones, often on mobile data or patchy reception. A page that feels fine on your office computer can crawl on a phone in a car park in Ballina.
- People are often in a hurry. Someone looking for a plumber or a café wants an answer now, not after a loading screen.
- First impressions stick. A sluggish site can make a good business look out of date.
- Google pays attention to page experience, including how quickly pages load, as one of many things it considers.
Speed affects the people who do stay, too. A slow contact page or booking form is frustrating, and a customer who gives up halfway through a form is just as lost as one who never arrived.
How to check your website speed
Start simply. Open your site on your own phone, away from the office wifi, and notice how long it takes before you can actually read and tap things. Try your homepage, a service page and your contact page.
For more detail, Google Search Console includes a report on how your pages perform for real visitors, and it’s free to set up. It’s a useful way to see whether Google thinks your pages are slow on mobile.
Online speed test tools give scores, but don’t chase a perfect number. What matters is whether a real person on a phone can use your site without waiting.
What to fix first
When website speed is a problem, these are the usual suspects, roughly in the order we’d look at them.
1. Oversized images
This is one of the most common causes. A photo straight off a phone or camera can be many times bigger than it needs to be. Put a dozen of those on a homepage and the page becomes heavy, especially on mobile.
The fix is to resize and compress images before they go on the site, and to use modern image formats where possible. Good photos and a fast site aren’t opposites. The images just need preparing properly.
2. Too many plugins
WordPress plugins are handy, but each one can add code that loads on every page. Over the years, sites collect plugins for features nobody uses any more. Removing the extras, or replacing several small plugins with one well-built one, often helps.
3. Heavy themes and page builders
Some themes try to do everything, with sliders, animations and a long list of fonts. All of that has to load. A leaner, custom-built design usually loads faster because it only includes what your site actually needs.
4. Slow or overloaded hosting
If your server is slow to respond, everything else waits. Budget hosting often means sharing resources with many other sites. Where the server sits matters too: Australian hosting keeps your site close to local visitors. Our article on cheap versus managed hosting explains what you’re actually paying for.
5. Outdated software
Old versions of WordPress, plugins and server software can be slower as well as less secure. Keeping things up to date is good housekeeping for both reasons.
6. Too many extras on each page
Embedded social media feeds, chat widgets, videos, pop-ups and tracking scripts all add weight. Each one may be useful on its own, but together they can slow a page down noticeably.
Go through your main pages and ask whether each extra earns its place. Often a simple link to your Instagram or a single photo does the same job as a full embedded feed, without the wait.
Website speed and DIY sites
Plenty of people build their own site and do a good job of it. Speed is one area where DIY sites often struggle, though, usually through no fault of the owner. Templates are designed to look impressive in a demo, not to load quickly on a phone, and website builders don’t always give you much control over what loads behind the scenes.
If your DIY site is fast enough and bringing in work, there’s no need to change it. If it’s slow and you’ve tried the obvious fixes, the platform may be the problem rather than anything you’ve done. We explain more in why DIY websites struggle on Google.
How we approach speed
Every Inversit website is a custom WordPress build, mobile-responsive and set up with on-page SEO foundations. Because we design and build the site ourselves, we can keep it lean, prepare images properly and avoid loading things the site doesn’t need.
Bella, our photographer and graphic designer, can also photograph your business, team and products, so your site uses real photos instead of stock.
We’ve worked on speed for local businesses before. JS Henderson, a North Coast builder in the Alstonville area, came to us for a faster website. When a site also sits on our managed Australian hosting, the same small team looks after both the build and the server, so there’s no back and forth between suppliers.
Custom WordPress websites start from $1,595 + GST. You can see more on our custom web design page.
Is your website slower than it should be?
Our free website health check reviews your site’s performance, design and SEO, and gives you practical improvements in plain English. It takes about 30 minutes and there’s no obligation. Call 02 6610 9202 or get in touch online.
