WordPress site speed: what we check before handing over a website

A slow site loses visitors before they see what you offer, and Google ranks it lower. This is the checklist we go through on every WordPress project before handover.

Images

• Modern formats (WebP or AVIF) and the right size for every screen.
• Lazy loading for images below the first screen.
• No multi-megabyte images in the header.

Theme and plugins

The biggest cause of slowness is heavy ready-made themes and too many plugins. We build the theme to measure, so it loads only what is really needed. Every plugin has to earn its place.

Caching and the server

Page caching, compression and good hosting do more than any after-the-fact “optimisation”. For stores we set up caching so that the cart and the account always work correctly.

Fonts and scripts

We load only the font weights we need, and defer analytics, chat and ad scripts so they don’t block the page from rendering.

Codema tip Measure speed on a phone, not on a desktop. Most of your visitors come from mobile and slower networks.

How we measure

We use PageSpeed Insights and real-user data from Search Console. The goal isn’t a perfect score but a site that opens fast on a phone and doesn’t “jump” while loading.