Why is my website slow? A checklist before you ask us
A slow website is frustrating, but most slowdowns have one of a few common causes, and a surprising number are quick to fix. This guide walks through the usual suspects and tells you what to include when you open a ticket.
The most common causes
- Large images and files. Photos straight from a camera or phone can be several megabytes each, and a page with ten of them will load slowly even on a fast connection.
- Too many plugins or heavy themes. Every plugin adds work for your site to do. A handful of good plugins is better than dozens of rarely used ones.
- No caching. Caching stores a ready-made copy of your pages so visitors do not have to wait for them to be rebuilt every time.
- Outdated software. Old versions of your website software, theme, and plugins are slower and less secure.
- External resources. Videos, fonts, maps, and ads loaded from third-party services can slow your page down when those services are slow.
- Your connection or device. Sometimes the site is fine and the problem is the network you are testing from, an old device, or a full browser cache.
Quick checks you can do yourself
- Test on a different device and network (for example, a phone on mobile data instead of your office Wi-Fi). If it is fast there, the site is probably fine and the issue is your connection.
- Try a different browser, or clear your browser cache.
- Ask a couple of customers or colleagues in other locations to load the site. If only you see the problem, it is usually local.
- Check how big your images are. Anything over a few hundred kilobytes on a normal web page is worth compressing.
- Check your resource usage in cPanel. Our guide shows how: How to Check Resource Usage. If your account is hitting its limits, that explains the slowness.
- If you run WordPress, try turning off recently added plugins one at a time and testing the site after each one. A single badly behaved plugin can slow everything down.
About large files and video
If your site streams video or hosts very large files such as catalogues or high-resolution galleries, hosting them on a normal website plan will make the site slow for everyone. Services like YouTube, Vimeo, or a file delivery service are designed for this and will actually make your site feel faster.
What to include when you open a ticket
The fastest way for us to help:
- The exact URL that is slow
- Whether it is the whole site or just some pages
- When it started, and whether it is always slow or just at certain times
- Whether the problem happens for you only, or for other people too
- A screenshot of any error message you see
- The result of an online speed test (for example Pingdom or GTmetrix) if you can run one
- Your cPanel resource usage reading if you have checked it
How we help
We check your account's resource usage, server logs, and error logs, look at the site configuration and plugins, and confirm whether the problem is on the server or somewhere else. If a plugin or configuration issue is the cause, we will show you exactly what to fix. If the site has simply outgrown its plan, we will explain your options.
For immediate "site down" situations, see our My site is down guide first.
