A one-second delay in page load time reduces conversions by 7%. Here's how to make your site lightning fast.
Website speed isn't just a technical nice-to-have - it directly impacts your bottom line. Google's research shows that as page load time increases from 1 second to 3 seconds, the probability of a visitor bouncing increases by 32%. For a service business paying for every click, those bounces represent real money lost.
Start by measuring your current speed using Google PageSpeed Insights. This free tool analyses your site on both mobile and desktop, giving you a score out of 100 and specific recommendations for improvement. Aim for a score of 90+ on mobile - that's where the majority of your traffic comes from.
Image optimisation is usually the quickest win. Most trade websites use massive, uncompressed photos that slow the page to a crawl. Compress every image to under 100KB, use modern formats like WebP, and implement lazy loading so images below the fold don't load until the user scrolls to them.
Choose a fast hosting provider and consider using a CDN (Content Delivery Network) to serve your site from servers closest to your visitors. The difference between cheap shared hosting and quality hosting can be 2-3 seconds of load time - which translates directly into leads gained or lost.