Why is my website so slow?
On most small business websites it's one of three things, and the biggest is usually a photo. Measure it first, then follow your website builder's own advice.
Most small business websites are slow because of photos uploaded far bigger than they're shown, too many add-ons (apps, plugins, chat widgets and tracking code), or a heavy theme on slow hosting. Google says images are often the biggest part of a page, so start there.
Free, no sign-up, about a minute. It times the page, weighs it, and lists every image over 300 KB, along with links, your certificate and your domain.
Two free tests, two different answers.
Our free check
Loads your page from our servers and shows how long it took, how big it is in total and which images are heavy. We call a page slow over 3 seconds, or 1.8 seconds before it starts arriving, and heavy over 4 MB.
Google PageSpeed Insights
Shows Google's Core Web Vitals. A page is good when its main content appears within 2.5 seconds, it responds to a tap within 200 milliseconds, and nothing jumps around as it loads.
Most common first.
Images too big
A photo straight from a phone or camera is often several megabytes, shown at a fraction of that size.
Too many add-ons
Every app, plugin, chat widget, review badge and tracking tag adds its own code. Some keep loading after you stop using them.
Heavy design
Videos and animations at the top of the page, and lots of fonts. Each one loads before visitors see anything.
Slow hosting
Mostly for WordPress on cheap hosting: the server takes a long time to start sending the page at all.
Each builder's own advice.
Squarespace
Upload images about 2,500 pixels wide, and aim for 500 KB or less each. Squarespace resizes them for each screen, but it starts from the file you upload.
Wix
- Keep videos and animations further down the page, not at the top.
- Use three or four fonts at most, and avoid custom fonts.
- Use AVIF images rather than PNG, unless you need a see-through background.
- Only add third-party code where you really need it.
Shopify
- Review your installed apps and remove any you don't need. Uninstalling an app doesn't always remove its code from your theme, so check with the app's developer.
- Use a current Shopify theme, and don't stack up more sections than a page needs.
- Check what your tag manager loads.
WordPress
- Add a caching plugin, which serves pages as ready-made files.
- Deactivate and delete plugins you don't need.
- Choose a lightweight theme, and compress your images.
- Ask your host to run a current version of PHP.
Any website
Resize photos before you upload them, and use WebP or AVIF where your builder accepts them. Images further down the page can load only when visitors scroll to them, but the main image at the top should load straight away.
About website speed
How fast should my website be?
Google counts a page as good when its main content appears within 2.5 seconds for most visitors. Our free check calls a page slow when it takes over 3 seconds to load, or over 1.8 seconds before it starts arriving.
Is it my website or my internet?
Run the free check: it loads your page from our servers, not your connection. If it's fast there but slow for you, the problem is your connection or device.
Why is my website slow on mobile?
Phones often have slower connections and slower processors, so large images and lots of scripts hurt more. A photo sized for a big screen still has to download in full on a phone.
Does speed affect my Google ranking?
Google uses page experience, including Core Web Vitals, in its ranking, but it still favours the most relevant page. A slow page mostly costs you visitors who give up waiting.
Checked on 4 November 2026 against Google (Core Web Vitals, PageSpeed Insights, images), Squarespace, Wix, Shopify and WordPress.org.