In This Blog
- Why Website Performance Matters
- Testing Website Performance
- Common Issues That Cause Poor Performance
- Remove Unnecessary JavaScript
- Limit External Scripts
- Manage Image Sizes
- Use a CDN
- Lower Time to First Byte
- Choose an Appropriate Hosting Service
- Reduce HTTP Requests
- Use HTTP/2
- Limit Redirects
- How Emergent Software Can Help
- Final Thoughts
- Frequently Asked Questions
TL;DR
- Users are 32% more likely to bounce when a page takes three or more seconds to load, making performance optimization critical for user retention and conversion.
- Testing Core Web Vitals (Largest Contentful Paint, First Input Delay, and Cumulative Layout Shift) provides a baseline for identifying performance bottlenecks.
- Common performance killers include uncompressed images, excessive JavaScript, too many external scripts, and poor hosting infrastructure.
- Implementing a CDN, optimizing images, and upgrading to HTTP/2 can dramatically reduce load times without requiring major architectural changes.
- Faster websites rank higher in search engines, have lower bounce rates, and deliver better user experiences that directly impact conversion rates.
Why Website Performance Matters
Website performance is one of the most important aspects of any site. The better the performance and speed, the less likely users are to bounce before it's fully loaded. Studies show that users are 32 percent more likely to bounce when it takes three or more seconds for a page to load.
For websites, retaining user attention is paramount. The average user will lose interest in a site that isn't loading after only around three seconds. The longer a website takes to display the information the user needs, the more likely they are to move on somewhere else.
Think about your own behavior. How many times have you waited for a webpage to load, got tired of waiting, and clicked back to Google to pick the next result? That's exactly what's happening to your potential customers when your site performs poorly.
Faster websites have much lower bounce rates and rank higher organically in search engines. This, coupled with an overall better user experience, ensures higher conversion rates overall. Poorly performing websites cost money and hurt brand reputation over time, making performance optimization a business imperative, not just a technical concern.
Testing Website Performance
Before beginning to optimize website performance, it's helpful to get a benchmark of how it's currently performing. There are several free tools available for website performance testing including tools created by Google, Cloudflare, and GTMetrix. Common SEO tools like SEMRush and Ahrefs also have this capability.
Once you've found the right tool for the job, there are three important elements to test first:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) — Measures how fast the biggest element on the webpage loads
- First Input Delay (FID) — Measures the responsiveness of the website to user input
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) — Measures visual stability
Testing these Core Web Vitals elements provides insight on what can and needs to be improved. Improving these Core Web Vitals will improve performance and even cause websites to rank higher on Google as a result.
Some other important areas to benchmark include DNS Lookup Speed, which measures how fast a DNS translates into an IP address, and Time to Interactive, which gauges how fast a user can interact with the web page.
Common Issues That Cause Poor Website Performance
There are several different causes for a website to perform poorly. Some of the most common include:
- Browser compatibility issues
- Images that are too large
- High volume of web traffic
- Slow network connections
- Too many plugins
- Inadequate server resources
- Excessive CSS and JavaScript
While it can be difficult to pinpoint exactly what is causing a website to perform slowly, using the benchmarking tests detailed above can help give developers a place to start looking. In the sections below, we'll explore nine specific ways to address these issues and boost website performance.
1. Remove Unnecessary JavaScript
Using an excessive amount of JavaScript and extra code can significantly lower the performance of a website. When a large amount of code is required to load a website, it's often prioritized over important page content.
This is a common issue with large websites that have code and content added independently of each other over time. What starts as a clean codebase gradually accumulates technical debt as features are added, plugins are installed, and developers change.
Using the web performance tools mentioned above can help identify unnecessary JavaScript so it can be removed to improve page performance. Look for unused libraries, duplicate code, and scripts that could be deferred or loaded asynchronously.
2. Limit External Scripts
Webpage elements loaded from external sources must be fetched each time a user visits a page. This includes chat boxes, call-to-action buttons, plugins, and popups. Depending on the size of the script used to load these elements, this can cause a significant slowdown to performance.
Each external script represents a dependency on a third-party service. If that service is slow to respond, your entire page load suffers. Additionally, external scripts often trigger layout shifts as they load, negatively impacting your Cumulative Layout Shift score.
Limiting the use of these types of scripts on each page will reduce the amount of layout shifting that happens and improve overall performance. Evaluate whether each external script is truly necessary and consider alternatives like hosting scripts locally or consolidating multiple scripts into fewer requests.
3. Manage Image Sizes
Graphics are a necessary element of any high-quality website. That said, if your images haven't been compressed and managed properly, your site will load much slower.
It's common for web developers to lean towards higher resolution graphics to improve the display for end users. However, not everyone using a webpage has a monitor able to display high resolution images, resulting in wasted bandwidth and increasing load times for the entire user base.
Getting familiar with how to use responsive images will make choosing the correct resolution much easier. Responsive images adapt to the resolution of the screen for the end user, ensuring that mobile users don't download desktop-sized images.
Once the correct resolution has been found for all devices, images can be scaled appropriately. Using modern image formats like WebP alongside traditional JPEG and PNG images can improve overall performance. Consider implementing lazy loading so images below the fold only load when users scroll to them.
4. Use a CDN
Many websites outsource the serving of static files to a Content Delivery Network (CDN). A CDN is designed to streamline the delivery of CSS, images, and JavaScript for end users of a website. Since CDNs utilize distributed servers, users load content from a server located closest to them, lowering load times in the process.
Typically, when serving static files on a website's server, load times increase dramatically as users from farther away try to access the files. A user in Australia accessing a server in the United States experiences significantly higher latency than a local user.
There are several different tools that can be used to monitor CDN performance to see if it's making a significant difference. Major CDN providers include Cloudflare, Amazon CloudFront, and Azure CDN, each offering different features and pricing models.
5. Lower Time to First Byte
Time to First Byte (TTFB) refers to the time that it takes for browsers to load the first data byte from a server. While this is primarily a server issue, it's still important to make any improvements necessary as it plays a major role in overall website performance.
On the website side, processing time is the biggest factor that can be influenced. To improve Time to First Byte, a server's application logic can be optimized. Websites using a server framework may be able to find recommendations for improving Time to First Byte in the framework documentation.
Migrating to a faster database or improving server queries can also lower the Time to First Byte. In some cases, a simple server hardware upgrade will make a significant difference. Implementing caching strategies at the application and database level can dramatically reduce TTFB for most requests.
6. Choose an Appropriate Hosting Service
Choosing the right hosting service plan is another major factor in website performance. Websites that use a shared web hosting provider will likely suffer from performance issues over time. Upgrading a website's hosting plan to a stable and high-performing managed service can be an easy way to speed up performance.
There are typically three options for website hosting:
- Shared Hosting — The cheapest option by far but can cause performance problems as you share resources with other websites
- VPS (Virtual Private Server) — Runs faster than shared hosting with dedicated resources in a virtualized environment
- Dedicated Server — The most expensive but offers the best performance with exclusive access to server resources
Before making the decision to switch hosts, it's important to test the website performance to ensure the switch will be beneficial. Sometimes performance issues stem from application-level problems rather than hosting constraints.
7. Reduce HTTP Requests
It's common for websites to require multiple HTTP requests to load page assets like scripts, images, and CSS. The more HTTP requests, the longer the page takes to load. Keeping the number of requests down to a minimum can help improve web performance.
Running a speed test for a website can help determine what HTTP requests take the most time to process and which ones can be removed or consolidated. Techniques like combining CSS files, using CSS sprites for images, and bundling JavaScript modules can significantly reduce the number of requests.
8. Use HTTP/2
HTTP is required for browsers to communicate with remote web servers. All website elements including HTML, images, and stylesheets are transferred using HTTP. If reducing the number of HTTP requests is not viable, then switching to HTTP/2 can help lower some of the overhead.
Depending on the hosting server, HTTP/2 may be available and has many advantages over standard HTTP. The most important being the ability to process multiple files at once on the same connection through multiplexing. This reduces overhead and improves website performance without having to remove elements from the site.
HTTP/2 also includes header compression and server push capabilities that can further enhance performance. Most modern browsers and servers support HTTP/2, making it a straightforward upgrade for many websites.
9. Limit Redirects
A redirect occurs when a user is forwarded to a different webpage automatically. While redirects are an important and necessary aspect of websites, they're often overused. The more redirects a website has, the longer a page takes to load.
Each redirect adds additional round-trip time to the request. A redirect chain — where one redirect leads to another — compounds the problem. It's important to only use redirects when necessary and periodically check pages for any redirects that may be unnecessary.
Common scenarios where redirects can be eliminated include updating internal links to point directly to the final destination, consolidating multiple redirects into a single redirect, and removing temporary redirects that were meant to be short-term solutions but became permanent.
How Emergent Software Can Help
We specialize in website development and performance optimization. Our team has extensive experience identifying and resolving performance bottlenecks in websites of all sizes and complexities. We conduct comprehensive performance audits, implement optimization strategies, and provide ongoing monitoring to ensure your website delivers the fast, reliable experience your users expect. Whether you're building a new website, modernizing an existing one, or troubleshooting performance issues, we bring the technical expertise and practical experience to deliver measurable improvements in load times, Core Web Vitals scores, and overall user experience.
If this sounds familiar, we can help.
Final Thoughts
Website performance optimization is not a one-time project. It's an ongoing discipline that requires regular attention and maintenance. As your website grows, as you add new features, and as user expectations evolve, performance can degrade if not actively managed.
The nine strategies outlined here — removing unnecessary JavaScript, limiting external scripts, managing image sizes, using a CDN, lowering TTFB, choosing appropriate hosting, reducing HTTP requests, upgrading to HTTP/2, and limiting redirects — address the most common performance bottlenecks we see across websites.
The impact of implementing these improvements extends beyond just faster load times. Better performance translates to lower bounce rates, higher conversion rates, improved search engine rankings, and enhanced user satisfaction. In a competitive digital landscape, performance can be the difference between a user choosing your website or your competitor's.
Start with measurement. Use the performance testing tools to establish a baseline. Identify your biggest bottlenecks. Then systematically address them, measuring the impact of each change. Performance optimization is iterative — small improvements compound over time to deliver significant results.
If you're ready to boost your website's performance and deliver the fast, reliable experience your users expect, Emergent Software is here to help. Reach out — we'd love to learn more about your goals.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are Core Web Vitals and why do they matter?
Core Web Vitals are a set of metrics that Google uses to measure user experience on websites. The three main metrics are Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), which measures loading performance; First Input Delay (FID), which measures interactivity; and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), which measures visual stability. These metrics matter because Google uses them as ranking factors in search results. More importantly, they correlate strongly with user satisfaction. Websites that score well on Core Web Vitals typically have lower bounce rates and higher conversion rates because they provide a better user experience. LCP should occur within 2.5 seconds of when the page starts loading, FID should be less than 100 milliseconds, and CLS should be less than 0.1. Improving these metrics requires a holistic approach to performance optimization that addresses loading speed, responsiveness, and visual stability.
How do I know which performance issues to fix first?
Start by running a comprehensive performance audit using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, GTMetrix, or WebPageTest. These tools will identify specific issues and often rank them by impact. Generally, you should prioritize fixes based on two factors: potential impact and ease of implementation. Quick wins like image compression and enabling browser caching can often be implemented rapidly and deliver immediate results. More complex issues like refactoring JavaScript or migrating hosting providers require more effort but may be necessary for significant performance gains. Focus first on issues affecting Core Web Vitals, as these have the most direct impact on user experience and search rankings. Also consider which pages matter most to your business — optimizing your homepage and primary conversion pages typically delivers the highest ROI.
What's the difference between a CDN and regular web hosting?
Regular web hosting serves your website from a single location or data center. When a user in Tokyo accesses a website hosted in New York, the data travels thousands of miles, creating latency. A Content Delivery Network (CDN) solves this problem by distributing copies of your static content (images, CSS, JavaScript) across multiple servers around the world. When that Tokyo user accesses your site, they receive static assets from a server in Asia rather than New York, dramatically reducing load times. A CDN doesn't replace your web hosting — your hosting server still serves the dynamic content and HTML. The CDN complements it by serving static assets more efficiently. Most modern websites use both web hosting for dynamic content and a CDN for static assets. CDNs also provide additional benefits like DDoS protection, reduced bandwidth costs on your origin server, and improved availability.
Should I use WebP images or stick with JPEG and PNG?
WebP is a modern image format developed by Google that provides superior compression compared to JPEG and PNG, often reducing file sizes by 25-35% while maintaining the same visual quality. The challenge is browser support — while most modern browsers support WebP, some older browsers don't. The best approach is to implement WebP with fallbacks to JPEG or PNG for browsers that don't support it. This can be done using the HTML picture element or through server-side detection. The performance benefits of WebP are significant enough that it's worth the additional implementation complexity. For critical images above the fold, consider providing both formats to ensure the fastest possible load time for users with modern browsers while maintaining compatibility for everyone else. Newer formats like AVIF offer even better compression but have limited browser support currently.
How much does website hosting really affect performance?
Hosting has a significant impact on performance, but it's not the only factor. Shared hosting can be adequate for low-traffic websites with modest performance requirements, but it creates unpredictable performance because you share resources with other websites. If another site on your shared server experiences a traffic spike, your site's performance suffers. VPS and dedicated hosting provide more consistent performance because resources are allocated specifically to your website. However, even expensive hosting won't solve performance problems caused by unoptimized code, large images, or excessive JavaScript. The relationship between hosting and performance is multiplicative — good hosting amplifies the benefits of optimized code, while poor hosting undermines even well-optimized websites. For most business websites with moderate traffic, a quality VPS or managed hosting service provides the best balance of performance and cost. Dedicated servers make sense for high-traffic sites or applications with specialized requirements.
Is it worth upgrading to HTTP/2 if my website is already fast?
Yes, upgrading to HTTP/2 is worthwhile even for websites that already perform well. HTTP/2 provides several advantages over HTTP/1.1 that benefit all websites regardless of current performance. The multiplexing feature allows multiple files to be downloaded simultaneously over a single connection, which is more efficient than HTTP/1.1's approach of opening multiple connections. Header compression reduces overhead for requests and responses. Server push allows the server to send resources to the client before they're explicitly requested, further reducing load times. Most importantly, HTTP/2 requires minimal effort to implement — it's typically a configuration change on your web server rather than a code rewrite. The performance improvement may be modest if your site is already optimized, but there's essentially no downside to making the switch. Most modern hosting providers support HTTP/2, and it's often just a matter of enabling it in your hosting control panel or server configuration.
