Visitors decide within seconds whether a site is worth their time, and search engines factor speed and stability into rankings. The good news is that most performance problems come from a short list of causes.
Images and media
- Serve modern formats such as WebP or AVIF, sized for each screen.
- Lazy-load images and video below the fold.
- Reserve space for media so the layout does not jump while loading.
Code and third parties
- Remove unused JavaScript and CSS, and split bundles by page.
- Audit tracking scripts, chat widgets and embeds — each one has a cost.
- Prefer static or server-rendered pages for content that rarely changes.
Hosting and delivery
- Use a CDN so pages are served close to your visitors.
- Enable compression and long-lived caching for static assets.
- Monitor real-user metrics, not just lab scores, after every release.
Performance is a feature your visitors notice even when they cannot name it.
Work through the list in order of impact, measure before and after each change, and build performance budgets into your release process so improvements stick.
