The usual causes are oversized images, too many or heavy plugins, no caching, slow hosting and a heavy theme. Measure first with Google PageSpeed Insights, then fix the biggest item on the list.
Measure first
Run your homepage and a key page through PageSpeed Insights. Note the Largest Contentful Paint (loading), Interaction to Next Paint (responsiveness) and Cumulative Layout Shift (stability). Save the numbers to compare after each fix.
The nine checks
In rough order of impact:
- Compress and resize images; use modern formats such as WebP
- Turn on page caching
- Remove unused plugins and replace heavy ones
- Check your hosting: slow server response limits everything else
- Use a lightweight theme and avoid page builders where you can
- Load fonts locally and limit font weights
- Delay or remove third-party scripts you do not need
- Clean the database: old revisions, spam, transients
- Use a CDN if visitors come from far away
When to ask for help
If the numbers stay poor after the easy fixes, or the site is also hacked or outdated, a measured audit is quicker than trial and error. We share before-and-after measurements.
Questions we hear a lot
What is a good PageSpeed score?
Focus on the Core Web Vitals, not only the score. Google considers a Largest Contentful Paint under 2.5 seconds good.
Will more plugins make my site slower?
Not always, but every plugin adds code. What matters is how well each one is built, so audit them instead of just counting.