Why Your Website Feels Slow (and How to Fix It)

Have you ever visited a site that looked visually impressive but still felt sluggish?

Even if your website looks amazing, visitors will quickly leave if it doesn’t perform well. A slow site is frustrating, damaging to your brand’s credibility, and detrimental to SEO.

Here’s how to fix it.

What Does Slow Mean, Exactly?

Today, speed isn’t just about loading times. Google and your visitors care about how quickly your website feels ready and usable:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Time it takes for your main content to display clearly.
• First Input Delay (FID): How quickly your site reacts to user actions.
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): How much your content shifts unexpectedly during loading.

Poor performance in these metrics usually means visitors notice a slow website experience.

Tip: Check your site performance using Google’s PageSpeed Insights.

Common Reasons Your Website Is Slow (and How to Fix Them)

Here are the most common performance bottlenecks and practical fixes:

1. Heavy Images

Large, uncompressed images significantly slow down page loading times.

Solution: Use next-generation formats like .avif or .webp, compress your images properly, and deliver responsive images tailored for each device (Astro’s built-in <Image /> component simplifies this).

2. Bloated Scripts and Plugins

If your website uses drag-and-drop builders or many plugins, you’re probably loading excessive JavaScript.

Solution: Remove unnecessary scripts and plugins, or consider migrating to a lightweight static site generator like Astro.

3. Poor Hosting Choices

Shared hosting often means shared performance issues.

Solution: Invest in modern hosting providers like Netlify or DigitalOcean which come with built-in CDN functionality.

4. Slow External Embeds

Third-party content such as embedded videos or social media widgets often loads slowly and impacts your site’s speed negatively.

Solution: Lazy-load external embeds or show static placeholders that only load the full content when clicked.

5. Lack of Caching and Minification

Without caching or code optimisation, your site loads slowly every single visit.

Solution: Implement caching headers, minify your CSS and JavaScript files, and enable gzip or Brotli compression for quicker content delivery.

How Slow Websites Hurt SEO

Google explicitly includes page speed and Core Web Vitals in its search algorithms. Slow-loading sites rank lower and generate fewer conversions.

Remember, fast websites create trust, improve user experience, and generate more leads.

How Mapletree Studio Makes Websites Faster

At Mapletree, we build each site by hand for exceptional performance. We avoid unnecessary code, heavy plugins, and bulky frameworks.

Our tech stack includes:

• Astro for quick-loading, static-generated sites
• Tailwind CSS for clean, minimal stylesheets
• Optimised .avif images with responsive loading
• CDN delivery for excellent speed across the UK and beyond

Ready to Boost Your Website’s Speed?

If your website feels slow, we can help you identify issues and provide practical solutions. Whether it’s a full rebuild or a quick performance tune-up, we’re here to help.

Contact us for a free performance audit.

Or check out Why Minimal Websites Convert Better to learn more about the advantages of simple, lightweight design.