Why Your Website Is Slow (And How to Fix It in One Weekend)

Slow websites bleed revenue. 53% of mobile users leave if page takes 3+ seconds. Most performance fixes cost nothing.

Diagnosis first

Run PageSpeed Insights (pagespeed.web.dev) for your site. Note mobile score and specific issues.

Top 7 free fixes (80% of problems)

1. Compress images: Use TinyPNG or Squoosh. Most sites have 50%+ image weight they don't need.
2. Enable caching: Browser caching via hosting panel or plugins. Free.
3. Remove unused plugins/scripts: Every plugin slows your site. Audit and remove aggressively.
4. Lazy-load images: Only load images when scrolled into view. Free plugin or native HTML.
5. Use a CDN: Cloudflare's free tier solves many speed issues in one step.
6. Minimize CSS/JS: Minification reduces file size 20-30%. Free tools.
7. Hosting upgrade: Cheap shared hosting is often the root cause. ₹500/month host upgrade can solve everything.

Paid fixes worth considering

• Better hosting: ₹2,000-5,000/month
• Image CDN: ₹1,000/month
• Performance plugin suite: ₹5,000-15,000 one-time

Nuclear option

If WordPress with 30+ plugins, sometimes starting fresh is faster than fixing. Next.js or a clean WordPress install outperforms a bloated legacy site.

Ongoing monitoring

Set up monitoring (free tools: UptimeRobot, Pingdom) to catch performance regressions after deployments.