Website Speed Checklist: Improve Your Core Web Vitals

A fast website keeps visitors from leaving and is part of how Google judges page experience. Most slow sites have the same few problems, and most can be fixed without a redesign.

What Google measures

• LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) — how quickly the main content (often the hero image) appears.
• INP (Interaction to Next Paint) — how quickly the page responds when someone taps or clicks.
• CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) — whether things jump around while the page loads.

You can check all three for free with PageSpeed Insights.

1. Fix your images first

• Resize photos to the size they are shown — a 4000-pixel camera photo is not needed for a 1200-pixel banner.
• Use modern formats like WebP or AVIF.
• Add width and height attributes so the browser reserves space (this fixes CLS).
• Use loading="lazy" for images further down the page, but not for the main hero image.

2. Turn on caching and compression

Ask your host (or check your server settings) for Gzip or Brotli compression and browser caching for images, CSS and JavaScript. On WordPress, a reputable caching plugin does most of this.

3. Remove what you do not use

Every chat widget, slider, tracking pixel and plugin adds weight. Remove unused plugins and load third-party scripts only where they are needed.

4. Be careful with fonts

Use one or two font families, only the weights you need, and font-display: swap so text shows immediately.

5. Check your hosting

If the server itself is slow to respond, no amount of optimisation on the page will fully fix it. A modern PHP version and a server close to your visitors make a real difference.

Want me to look at your site's speed? Get in touch.