Short answer
Measure first, then fix the biggest thing. For most small sites the order is: compress the images, turn on caching, remove unused plugins. Those three account for the majority of real-world slowness.
Change one thing at a time and re-test. A batch of five changes tells you the site got faster but not which change did it — and one of them may have made things worse.
Learn more
- Why is my website slow?A methodical way to find why a website is slow — server response, page weight, third-party scripts or distance — and what to fix first.
- How to measure website speed properlyWhich speed metrics matter — TTFB, LCP, INP, CLS — how to test fairly, and how to read results without chasing a perfect score.
- How to optimise images for a faster websiteResize, compress and convert images to WebP or AVIF, use lazy loading and responsive images, and stop oversized photos slowing your site.
- What is caching? Page, browser, object and CDN caching explainedThe different layers of website caching, what each speeds up, and which ones matter most for a site on shared hosting.
Step-by-step
- Find out why a website is slowIntermediate · 40 min · 7 steps
- Speed up a slow WordPress siteAdvanced · 60 min · 9 steps