You want the bad news first or the good news? Okay – bad news: Even the smallest delays in the time it takes your website to load can discourage folks from interacting with your site – be it to book an appointment, buy a widget, or make a donation.
Delays as small as one second can drop website conversion rates (that’s the rate at which people complete some kind of action – be it book, buy, download, or donate – on your site) by SEVEN PERCENT. Can you imagine these same people trying to get a toddler to put their shoes on?! But no joke. Them’s the numbers. And much like Shakira’s hips, the numbers don’t lie.
Imagine giving away 7% of your profits or donations just because… well, just because you didn’t know you were doing it. Boooo!
But there’s MORE BAD NEWS.
Website speed also has a direct impact on your site’s search engine optimization (SEO). Search engines like Google take page speed pretty seriously, and slow websites can perform worse in search than faster, similarly optimized sites. That makes it harder for prospective site users to find you online.
By improving your site’s speed, you can enhance your SEO, attract more organic traffic, and ultimately increase your organization’s visibility and reach. We recently talked about how making your site accessible to folks using assistive technologies, there’s a knock-on effect of boosting SEO. Same goes here. Win. Win. We are pro win-win, and I bet you are too.
Okay, time for the good news. Unlike a lot of website issues, there is something even the non-technical among us can do about it without breaking the bank. That said, some investment goes a long way here, but I suspect it’s a lot less than 7% of your website’s potential income/donations. So, be frugal, but don’t be cheap if you can help it.
Okay – enough intro!! Here’s how you can make boost your site speed in small incremental ways and in a few bigger ways.
Tools You Can Use to See How Fast Your Website Is
Not to brag or anything, but these are our PageSpeed Insights scores… yeah, okay. We’re bragging. That’s not easy, y’all!
Before making any improvements, you need to know where your website stands, right? Right. Below are some free tools that let you enter your URL and Boom! They’ll spit out a site speed score and some recommendations on what may be able to do to make some improvements.
These tools are all more or less the same thing, just with slightly different outputs and user interfaces. Google’s PSI allows you to easily toggle between desktop and mobile scores and will give you a little more insight on items like SEO and accessibility, as well as speed (performance), so I tend to go there first. The others offer other bells and whistles (if you get an account, you can monitor a site’s performance at GTMetrix if that has value to you), so check ’em all out and use the one that makes the most sense to you.
One note on scores – there is such a thing as internet “weather” for lack of a better term. You can test the exact same site an hour a part, making no changes, and see slightly different scores, so keep that in mind as you explore and get your baseline.
And Things You Can Do to Improve Website Speed!
Each of the tools above will identify what you should prioritize as you undertake the speeding up of your website – if you have a ton of huge images, loads and loads of bonus scripts running that are gumming things up, etc. The ideas below are coming from a very WordPress state of mind, but we include a few non WP ideas, too.
Optimize Images
We see this one A LOT. Especially with our nonprofit clients. Big images – the kinds that can pull on prospective donors’ heartstrings – are one of the most common causes of slow load times. You can use plugins like Smush for WordPress to optimize images as you load them.
You can also train your staff to use tools like JPEG Mini to process images before you load them. We often see folks uploading full size photographs – like 6000px wide and many megs of data – to be used on a call out that’s only, say, 300px wide. Making sure you reduce your images to about 1500px wide max before you load them to your site can be super helpful!
Use a Caching Plugin on WordPress
Caching plugins store a static version of your site, reducing the load on your server and speeding up page load times. W3 Total Cache or WP Super Cache (which is WordPress’s own caching tool) are both widely-used free plugins and are pretty easy to set up if you’re a WP admin on your site.
Limit Reliance on Plugins and Delete Unused Ones
One of the most valuable things I’ve learned in my life, just in terms of being a good human, is that just because you *can* do something, doesn’t always mean you should. And this goes for web design as well. There are a lot of WP plugins that can extend the functionality of your site, but before you load that plugin that will fill your page up with unicorns, ask yourself if it truly enhances your organization’s mission, your ability to make the sale – whatever it is you’re trying to do here.
If it doesn’t expressly help, it might be hurting. Don’t. Do. It.
Along the same lines, over time a lot of plugins get added, tested, and abandoned, but left on sites. Do a semi-annual review of all the plugins on your site and delete the ones not in use. Fewer active plugins means fewer scripts and all sorts of stuff loaded on your site – so you’ll see some speed increases (not to mention you’ll have a more secure site to boot!).
Avoid Overbuilt Themes If You Can
We get it – tools like Divi and Elementor are GREAT for a lot of reasons. We used to use them ourselves. And if you’re careful, they can be made to be pretty speedy. But, because they have SO much going on, they can really be sluggish if you’re not careful. Optimally, you can afford to get a streamlined and custom built theme that fits your organization’s needs like a glove.
That ain’t always cheap, though, so more frugal options would be to use an off-the-shelf theme that’s built for speed. This article runs through some of the best of 2024.
Optimize Your Database
Over the course of a few years, digital clutter like post revisions, spam comments – all sorts of gunk – can start to build up on your site causing the database itself to slow down. That’s why when we rebuild a site, we prefer to start fresh with a brand new WP install, with a clean database. So plan for that when you’re prepping for your next build. In the meantime, you can use the WP-Optimize plugin to clean up your database which will probably speed things up a few ticks. (Pro tip: Don’t forget to delete the plugin when you’re done using it! See #3 above.)
Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
A CDN stores copies of your website on servers around the world, so it loads faster for users no matter where they are. Cloudflare offers a free CDN service that can greatly improve your site’s speed.
SUPER IMPORTANT FOR A FAST WEBSITE: Regular WordPress Maintenance & Updates
This is not a one and done thing, friends! Improving your website’s speed requires ongoing care and attention. One of the most important things you can do is make sure that your WordPress core and plugins are ALWAYS up to date, and that any unused plugins are removed from the site.
You want to make a habit of checking performance somewhat regularly, too, to see if new additions to the website (like that new video header that your new ED demanded you put up…) are impacting performance.
ALSO IMPORTANT FOR A FAST WEBSITE: Quality, Speedy Hosting
We see a lot of folks trying to skimp on website hosting fees because they don’t understand what they’re getting for what they’re paying. Suffice it to say if you’re paying $10 a month for hosting, you’re probably getting that you pay for, which is to say not a lot.
Those companies are working on a quantity model, not quality. They cram as many websites as possible into as little server space as possible, resulting in lower performance and more downtime – frustratingly coupled with the crappiest customer support you can imagine.
We used to host a lot of our sites on budget hosts to try to save our nonprofit clients some cash, but in the end, it wasn’t worth it. Repairing hacks (remember this one? I sure do!) due to lax security measures common on those sludgy servers, but not any more. We use premium hosts, get our own slice of server space, and don’t overload them.
The TL;DR
Website speed matters—a lot. Even a one-second delay can measurably reduce conversion rates, which means fewer people are buying, booking, or donating. And it’s not just about keeping visitors happy and engaged with your content; slow sites can also hurt your SEO, making it harder for new users to find you.
But the good news? You don’t need to be a tech expert to make impactful improvements (though hiring a good website team can definitely help. Ahem.).
Start with free tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to figure out how your site is doing right now, and then prioritize fixes. From image optimization to using caching plugins and more efficient WordPress themes, small adjustments can add up to big gains. Regularly clean up your database and consider a quality hosting provider if you haven’t already.
And remember, website speed isn’t a one-time fix but part of ongoing maintenance. Faster sites mean more visibility, happier users, and potentially better conversions—without a huge investment.
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