We will be the first to admit it. Keeping a website fast and lean can feel like chasing a moving target. What was best practice last year might now be outdated, and every new plugin, animation or image gallery you add is another chance for your website loading time to slow to a crawl.
If you are wondering how to speed up your website without disappearing down a technical rabbit hole, you are in the right place. Whether you are running a personal blog, an e-commerce site or a complex Umbraco build, here are simple, practical ways to improve site speed, even if you are not a developer.
Why Website Speed Still Matters
Speed affects everything: bounce rate, conversion rates, customer satisfaction, SEO rankings and even brand perception. Google’s data shows that as page load time increases from one second to five seconds, the likelihood of a visitor bouncing jumps by 90%.
In everyday terms, a slow site loses users before they have even seen what you offer. Once they click away, they rarely return.
Google also uses Core Web Vitals as a ranking factor, which means your site’s real world experience, especially on mobile, has a direct impact on your visibility. These metrics are deeply integrated into Google's Infrastructure, so optimising for them directly improves how your site is assessed and ranked.
So what is slowing things down, and how do you fix it?
1. Audit First, Optimise Second
Before you compress images or strip out scripts, you need to know what the real problem is. Otherwise, you risk fixing the wrong thing.
Useful tools include:
- Google PageSpeed Insights
- Google Lighthouse in Chrome DevTools
- Sematext Experience and Sematext Synthetics
- GTmetrix
- Google Analytics for user behaviour insights
These tools give you detailed diagnostics on your most important web pages, showing where the biggest gains can be made.
These highlight key web performance metrics such as:
- Time to First Byte (TTFB)
- First Input Delay
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
- Total Blocking Time
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
- Time to Interactive
If this already feels overwhelming, it is exactly the kind of thing we cover in a Website Health Check. You get plain English explanations and a prioritised plan based on real data.
2. Optimise Your Images Properly
Images are usually the heaviest media files on a page. One oversized JPEG can double your load time. The same goes for video files - uncompressed or auto-playing video can drag your performance down fast.
Here is what you should do:
- Save images as JPEG, PNG or GIF
- Image optimisation before uploading using tools like TinyPNG or Squoosh
- Resize images before uploading instead of relying on your CMS
- Use lazy load so below the fold images load only when needed. Using responsive images ensures that users on different devices get the most appropriate version without bloating load times.
For Umbraco sites:
- Umbraco automatically caches media, which speeds up delivery
- We use CropUp for dynamic cropping, meaning you can upload one image and Umbraco generates the correct sizes for each use case. For example, the same image can be cropped appropriately for a blog list thumbnail, a full blog header or a homepage hero without manually creating multiple versions
- If you need a very specific crop, create it before upload so assets stay clean and consistent
Setting proper image dimensions also helps reduce layout shifts, which improves PageSpeed score.
3. Remove Unused Code and Third Party Scripts
Modern websites collect scripts quickly: carousels, chat widgets, JavaScript libraries, tracking pixels and old experiments that never got removed. Every script adds extra work for the browser.
Things worth trimming include:
- Unused CSS and JavaScript
- Outdated plugins
- Tracking codes you no longer use
- Animation libraries included only for small visual effects
- Render-blocking JavaScript that delays first paint
Removing even one legacy script can make a noticeable difference. We have seen situations where removing a single outdated external file cut content load time in half.
Aligning your front-end with current web standards also helps ensure your site renders consistently across browsers and devices.
4. Choose Hosting That Supports You
Great website performance starts with a great hosting provider. If your server is slow to respond, your site will be too.
Sometimes, even switching to a faster DNS provider like Google Public DNS can improve lookup times and reduce latency.
Look for hosting that offers:
- SSD or NVMe storage
- UK based servers or data centres where possible
- Solid support for .NET and Umbraco
- Load balancing capabilities if traffic spikes are common
A few Umbraco specifics:
- Umbraco uses server side caching by storing a structured representation of content in memory called the Published Content Cache. This improves response times significantly
- At Gecko, we enable Gzip compression on our server infrastructure. This reduces file sizes and speeds up delivery
If your site is on overcrowded shared server, even the best optimisation work may not fix website performance issues.
5. Reduce the Number of HTTP Requests
Every file your site loads means another request to the server. The more requests, the slower the load.
Quick wins include:
- Combining CSS and JavaScript files where reasonable
- Using inline CSS for critical styles to speed up first render
- Switching icon fonts to SVGs
- Removing duplicate or unused resources
Clean folder structures and consistent naming help avoid accidental duplication. Most users will not notice tiny visual differences, but they will notice delays.
6. Cache Everything You Can
Browser cache stores files closer to users so your server does not need to generate everything from scratch each time.
Useful types of caching include:
- Browser HTTP caching files locally on the user’s device
- Server caching reduces the load on the application
- CDN caching stores assets on edge servers around the world, which is especially effective for static files like CSS, JavaScript, and images.
When configured correctly, caching can:
- Reduce server load
- Improve response times
- Create a smoother browsing experience
If you use Cloudflare, the dashboard provides good visibility into caching behaviour and simple controls for adjusting your setup.
For Umbraco sites, make sure output caching is active. If you use any cache related packages, keep them updated. Misconfigured caching can sometimes make website performance worse, not better.
Common Questions We Get About Site Speed
Aim for under 3 seconds. Google recommends under 2.5 seconds for LCP.
Yes. Google’s indexing is mobile first, so slow mobile performance hurts search engine rankings.
Real-world page speed matters most. Strong Lighthouse scores are helpful, but user experience comes first - it's what ultimately drives customer satisfaction.
Not always. Many improvements are content based. Others, like lazy loading or script deferral, need development input.
Bringing It All Together
Website speed is not a one time job. Ongoing speed optimisation is key to keeping performance high as content and functionality grow. As your site grows, new content, plugins and scripts accumulate. Web Performance naturally drifts unless you stay on top of it.
That is where a Website Health Check really helps. We take a close look at what is working, what is not and what is quietly slowing things down behind the scenes.
If you are not sure where to start, just drop us a message. We will talk you through it. No jargon, just honest advice.