What you’ll need
- A speed testing tool
- DirectAdmin access
Slow sites are either slow to build pages or heavy to download. Measuring separates the two in minutes. Why is my website slow?
Steps
Step 1: Test three pages
Record TTFB and page size for your home page and two others, logged out. How to measure website speed properly
Step 2: Decide which problem you have
TTFB above about a second → server-side (steps 3–5). TTFB fine but LCP slow or pages over a few MB → front-end (step 6).
Step 3: Check for caching
Dynamic sites need page caching. WordPress: Caching WordPress on shared hosting
Step 4: Check the access log for load
Look for floods of requests from bots or to login pages around slow periods. Brute-force login attacks: how to recognise and stop them
Step 5: Check for resource limits
508 errors or slowness only at busy times point to limits. “508 Resource Limit Is Reached” and slowdowns under load
Step 6: Reduce page weight
In developer tools’ Network tab, sort by size. Optimise the largest images and remove heavy third-party scripts. How to optimise images for a faster website
Step 7: Re-test
Repeat step 1 and compare.
Check it worked
You’ve identified whether the site was slow to build or slow to download, fixed the largest cause, and re-measured an improvement.
If something goes wrong
| What happens | What to do |
|---|---|
| Faster in tests, slow for real visitors far away | Consider Cloudflare. Using Cloudflare with Traxio hosting |