Performance
Why your website is slow: seven common causes
Most slow sites have the same handful of problems. Check these before rebuilding anything.
Mohd Aibad · · 5 min read
Before you commit to a rebuild, look for the usual suspects. Most slow sites are slow for reasons that are quick to fix.
- Images saved at far larger sizes than they are displayed.
- Too many third-party scripts: chat widgets, trackers, heatmaps and old tags.
- A heavy theme or page builder loading code for features you do not use.
- No caching, or a cheap server with a slow response time.
- Web fonts loaded in many weights when two would do.
- Autoplay video above the fold.
- Large JavaScript bundles shipped to every page.
How to find yours
Run PageSpeed Insights and read the list of opportunities, then open the browser’s network tab and sort by size. The biggest files are almost always where the time goes.