Guide
Why is my website so slow?
Facts checked Oct 9, 2026
A slow website is usually big photos or a slow server. Find out which in two minutes, then fix the part that's yours.
Which one is it?
Open the page on your phone, on cellular data rather than Wi-Fi, and watch it load.
- A blank screen for a while, then the page
- The server is slow to answer. See If the server is slow.
- The words appear quickly, the photos fill in slowly
- The photos are too big. See Shrink your photos.
- Slow only on your own Wi-Fi or computer
- It may be your connection, not the site. Is my website down for everyone or just me? shows how to tell.
- Slow since a change
- A new plugin, theme, chat box, video or social media feed. Undo it, or ask your web person to look at that first.
Shrink your photos
This is the fix you can do yourself, on any website. A photo straight from a phone or camera is far bigger than a page needs.
- Find the heavy ones. Picture Check lists photos that slow a page, with their size, and offers a smaller copy of each.
- Make a smaller copy. Shrink a photo does it in your browser. One builder's help pages recommend 2,500 pixels wide and 500 KB or less; a photo shown small on the page can be much smaller.
- Swap it on the page. Upload the small copy, put it where the big one was, and copy over its alt text (what alt text is).
- Go easy on video backgrounds and big slideshows. Each one loads on every visit, even for people who never watch it.
If the server is slow
- On a website builder (you pay monthly and edit the site in your browser), the builder runs the server and you can't change it. What you control is what's on the page: photos, videos, and embedded extras such as maps, feeds and chat boxes.
- On your own hosting (WordPress, Drupal and others), ask your web person or host about:
- Caching: keeping ready-made copies of pages so the server doesn't build each one from scratch. WordPress's own guide calls it the biggest benefit for the smallest hassle.
- Unused plugins: switch off and delete them; each one adds work.
- Updates: WordPress, the theme and plugins kept up to date.
- The hosting plan: a cheap shared plan can be slow when the server is busy. A better plan can make a big difference.
How fast is fast enough?
Google's guidance is that the main thing on a page should appear within 2.5 seconds, for at least 3 in 4 visits. Phones on cellular data are slower than your office, so test there.
Site health times how long your home page takes to answer our server in the Netherlands, and flags it if that's slow. It times the first answer, not every photo, so pair it with Picture Check.
Send this to your web person
Not sure what to say? Copy this into an email, add your website's address, and send it.
Hi, Our website, [your website address], is slow to load, especially [on phones / on the home page / since the date]. PageKiwi's Site health says the home page took [the time] to answer, and Picture Check found [the number] heavy photos. Could you look at: - caching, so pages don't have to be built from scratch each time - plugins or add-ons we no longer use - whether our hosting plan is the bottleneck - anything added recently that loads on every page (videos, feeds, chat) I can replace the big photos myself. Please tell me what you change. Thanks