Why Is My Website Slow? 7 Fixes for Small Businesses

Why is my website slow? For most small businesses, it comes down to a handful of things: images that are far too big, too many plugins, cheap or overloaded hosting, no caching, a heavy theme, and extra scripts like chat widgets and pop-ups.

The good news is that most of these can be fixed without starting again. In fact, a few of them you can fix yourself this afternoon.

Speed matters because people don’t wait. If your site takes too long to load on a phone, many visitors leave before they see what you offer. Google also measures speed, so a slow site can cost you both customers and search traffic.

I’m Jay, a freelance web developer in Melbourne, and speeding up slow websites is a big part of my work. Here are the seven fixes I start with.

First, check how slow your website really is#

Before you change anything, measure it. That way, you’ll know which fixes actually helped.

Run your homepage through my free website speed test. It uses Google’s PageSpeed test and shows your mobile and desktop scores in under a minute. Always look at the mobile score first, because that’s how most people will see your site.

Here’s what the main numbers mean:

What it measures	Name in the report	Google’s target
Overall speed score	Performance	90–100 is good; 50–89 needs work; under 50 is poor
How long until the main content appears	Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)	Under 2.5 seconds
How quickly the page reacts when someone taps	Interaction to Next Paint (INP)	Under 200 milliseconds
How much things jump around while loading	Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)	Under 0.1

Don’t worry about getting a perfect 100. Instead, aim to get out of the red and into the green on the things your customers notice.

7 ways to fix a slow website#

1. Shrink your images#

This is the most common cause I see. A photo straight from a phone or camera can be several megabytes, yet it only needs to be a fraction of that on a website. As a result, one oversized hero image can slow down the whole page.

How to fix it:

• Resize photos to the size they actually appear on screen. For most full-width images, about 1,600 to 2,000 pixels wide is plenty.
• Save them as WebP, which is usually much smaller than JPG or PNG at the same quality.
• Use an image plugin (such as the image tools in LiteSpeed Cache, or a plugin like ShortPixel) to compress the images already on your site.
• Let images further down the page load only when someone scrolls to them. This is called lazy loading, and WordPress does it by default for most images.

2. Remove plugins you don’t need#

Every plugin adds code, and some add a lot. Over the years, many sites collect plugins that nobody uses any more: an old slider, a backup tool that’s been replaced, a social feed from a campaign that ended.

How to fix it:

• Go to Plugins in WordPress and list what each one does.
• Deactivate anything you no longer use, then check the site still works, and delete it.
• Where two plugins do the same job, keep the better one.

3. Turn on caching#

Without caching, your server builds every page from scratch for every visitor. With caching, it saves a ready-made copy and serves that instead, which is much faster.

How to fix it:

• If your host runs LiteSpeed servers (Hostinger does), install and turn on the free LiteSpeed Cache plugin.
• On other hosts, ask your host which caching plugin they recommend, or whether they handle caching on the server.
• Use only one caching plugin. Two at once often cause problems.

4. Check your hosting#

Cheap shared hosting puts your site on a server with many others. When that server is busy, your site slows down, and no plugin can fix that.

How to fix it:

• Look at the “server response time” in your speed test. If it’s slow even on a simple page, your hosting is likely the bottleneck.
• Choose a server location close to your customers. For Australian businesses, that means an Australian or nearby data centre.
• If your site has outgrown its plan, moving to a better plan often costs only a few dollars more a month.

5. Use a lighter theme and page builder setup#

Some themes and page builders load a lot of code on every page, whether that page needs it or not. Add a few add-on packs for extra widgets, and the page gets heavier still.

How to fix it:

• Remove page-builder add-ons you don’t use.
• Turn on your page builder’s own performance settings. Elementor, for example, has options that load less code.
• If your theme is old or bloated, a lighter, well-coded theme can make a big difference.

Used well, a page builder can still be fast. The problems usually come from piling extras on top.

6. Cut back on extra scripts and widgets#

Chat widgets, pop-ups, cookie banners, social media feeds, booking widgets, embedded videos and several tracking codes all load extra files from other companies’ servers. Each one adds a little delay, and together they add up.

How to fix it:

• List every third-party tool on your site and ask whether it’s earning its place.
• Remove tracking codes you no longer look at.
• Replace embedded videos with a thumbnail that loads the video only when someone clicks play.
• Load chat widgets after the page has finished loading, if your chat tool allows it.

7. Keep PHP and WordPress up to date#

Old software is slower and less secure. Newer PHP versions generally run WordPress faster, and updates to WordPress, your theme and plugins often include speed improvements too.

How to fix it:

• Check your PHP version in your hosting dashboard. If it’s older than PHP 8.3, plan an upgrade.
• Back up your site, then update WordPress, your theme and plugins regularly.
• Read my guide on whether your WordPress website is safe for the steps to upgrade PHP without breaking anything.

Which fixes can you do yourself?#

If you’re comfortable in WordPress, you can usually do fixes 1, 2, 3 and 7 yourself. For the rest, it’s usually quicker and safer to get a developer to help.

Fix	Can I do it myself?	Typical time
1. Shrink your images	Yes	1–2 hours
2. Remove unused plugins	Yes, after a backup	30 minutes
3. Turn on caching	Yes, with care	30 minutes
4. Check your hosting	Partly: ask your host	1 hour, plus moving if needed
5. Lighter theme or page builder setup	Developer recommended	A few hours to a few days
6. Cut extra scripts	Partly	1–2 hours
7. Update PHP and WordPress	Yes, after a backup	1 hour

Whatever you change, test your site afterwards: the homepage, contact form and any checkout or booking pages. Then run the speed test again to see what improved.

When it’s better to rebuild than fix#

Sometimes a site is slow because of how it was built in the first place. In that case, you can keep patching it, but it will never be truly fast.

A rebuild is often the better choice when:

• your mobile score stays in the red even after the fixes above
• the site depends on an old theme or plugins that are no longer updated
• every small change breaks something else
• you were already planning a new design

A rebuild doesn’t mean losing your Google rankings. Done properly, your pages and content move across, and your old page addresses redirect to the new ones. If you’re weighing it up, my guide to website costs in Melbourne shows what a rebuild typically costs.

Want me to look at your website?#

Start by running the free website speed test. Then, if your score is in the orange or red and you’d rather not fix it yourself, message me on Fiverr with your website address.

I’ll tell you what’s slowing it down and what it would take to fix it. Messages, orders and payments are all handled securely on Fiverr.

I’m a freelance web developer in Melbourne, and I speed up and rebuild websites for businesses across Australia and around the world.

Common questions#

Why is my website slow on my phone but fine on my computer?#

Phones usually have slower processors and connections than computers, so heavy pages hit them hardest. That’s why the mobile score in a speed test is usually lower, and why it matters most.

What is a good website speed score?#

In Google’s PageSpeed test, 90 to 100 is good, 50 to 89 needs improvement, and under 50 is poor. Most importantly, aim for your main content to appear within 2.5 seconds.

Does a slow website affect my Google ranking?#

Yes, but it’s not the biggest factor. Google uses speed and other page experience signals in its rankings, yet relevant, helpful content still comes first. Even so, a faster site keeps more visitors, which matters just as much.

Will a caching plugin fix everything?#

No. Caching helps a lot, but it can’t fix huge images, slow hosting or a heavy theme. That’s why it’s one of seven fixes, not the only one.

Why did my website get slower over time?#

Usually because things were added bit by bit: new plugins, bigger images, extra tracking codes and widgets. Meanwhile, a site that isn’t updated misses out on the speed improvements in newer versions of PHP, WordPress and plugins. A yearly clean-up keeps it fast.

Sources#

• Understanding Core Web Vitals and Google search results, Google Search Central, updated December 2025
• Understanding page experience in Google Search results, Google Search Central, updated September 2026
• How Lighthouse calculates your overall Performance score, Chrome for Developers