12 Things to Check for a Faster Website
Your website’s loading speed isn’t just a technical metric—it directly impacts user experience, conversions, and search rankings. Studies show that a one-second delay in page load time can reduce conversions by 7%, and 53% of mobile users abandon sites that take longer than three seconds to load. At Bitek Services, we’ve optimized hundreds of websites, and we’ve learned that performance isn’t mysterious—it comes down to addressing specific, measurable factors. Here are twelve critical things to check if you want a faster website.
1. Optimize Your Images
Images typically account for 50-70% of a webpage’s total size, making them the biggest opportunity for performance improvement. Yet most websites serve images that are far larger than necessary.
Resize images to actual display dimensions. If an image displays at 500 pixels wide, don’t upload a 3000-pixel version. Browsers will scale it down, but you’re still forcing users to download the massive file. Use image editing tools to resize images before uploading.
Choose the right format. JPEG works best for photographs with lots of colors. PNG is ideal for images with transparency or graphics with sharp edges. WebP, a modern format, provides superior compression with excellent quality—30% smaller than JPEG on average. Convert images to WebP with JPEG fallbacks for older browsers.
Compress images without sacrificing quality. Tools like TinyPNG, ImageOptim, or built-in compression in image editors reduce file sizes by 50-80% with minimal visible quality loss. At Bitek Services, we routinely see image optimization alone cut page sizes in half.
Implement lazy loading. Images below the fold—not visible when the page first loads—don’t need to download immediately. Lazy loading defers these images until users scroll near them. This dramatically improves initial page load time. Modern browsers support native lazy loading with a simple loading="lazy" attribute.
Use responsive images. Serve different image sizes based on device screen size. Mobile users don’t need desktop-sized images. The HTML srcset attribute lets browsers choose appropriate images automatically.
2. Minimize HTTP Requests
Every file your webpage loads—images, scripts, stylesheets, fonts—requires a separate HTTP request. More requests mean longer load times. Reducing requests accelerates loading.
Combine files where possible. Instead of linking to five separate CSS files, combine them into one. Same with JavaScript files. Fewer files mean fewer requests.
Use CSS sprites for small images. Icons and small graphics can be combined into a single image file with CSS positioning different portions. One image download instead of dozens.
Inline critical CSS. Small amounts of CSS needed for above-the-fold content can be inlined directly in HTML, eliminating a request entirely. The rest of your CSS can load asynchronously.
Reduce font variations. Each font weight and style is a separate file. If your design works with two font weights instead of five, you’ve eliminated three requests and significantly reduced loading time.
At Bitek Services, we’ve seen websites with 150+ HTTP requests per page. Reducing these to 30-40 requests typically cuts load times in half.
3. Enable Caching
Caching stores copies of files so returning visitors don’t need to download everything again. Proper caching can make repeat visits 80% faster than initial visits.
Set appropriate cache headers. Configure your server to tell browsers how long to cache different file types. Static assets like images, CSS, and JavaScript that rarely change can be cached for months or even a year. HTML pages might cache for shorter periods.
Use browser caching. Browser caching stores files on users’ devices. Configure cache-control headers to specify how long browsers should keep files before checking for updates.
Implement server-side caching. For dynamic content, server-side caching generates pages once and serves the cached version to multiple users. WordPress caching plugins like WP Rocket or W3 Total Cache do this automatically.
Consider Content Delivery Network (CDN) caching. CDNs cache your content on servers around the world, serving users from geographically close locations. This reduces latency significantly.
Bitek Services implements multi-layer caching strategies for clients, dramatically improving repeat visit performance while keeping content fresh when needed.
4. Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML
Minification removes unnecessary characters from code—whitespace, comments, line breaks—without changing functionality. This reduces file sizes by 20-40%.
Minify CSS files. Remove spaces, comments, and unnecessary code. Tools like CSSNano or online minifiers automate this process.
Minify JavaScript. JavaScript minification can significantly reduce file sizes, especially for large frameworks or libraries. Tools like UglifyJS or Terser handle this automatically.
Minify HTML. While typically providing smaller gains than CSS or JavaScript minification, HTML minification still helps, especially on content-heavy pages.
Automate minification. Build tools like Webpack, Gulp, or Grunt can minify files automatically during deployment. Many hosting platforms and CDNs offer automatic minification as well.
At Bitek Services, we integrate minification into build processes so it happens automatically without developers needing to remember manual steps.
5. Reduce Server Response Time
Even before your browser receives any content, time passes while the server processes requests and generates responses. Slow server response time (Time to First Byte or TTFB) impacts everything else.
Choose quality hosting. Shared hosting with hundreds of sites on one server is cheap but slow. Consider VPS or dedicated hosting for better performance. Cloud hosting from providers like AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure offers excellent performance that scales with needs.
Optimize database queries. Poorly optimized database queries can take seconds instead of milliseconds. Add indexes to frequently queried fields. Eliminate unnecessary queries. Cache common query results.
Use a CDN. Content Delivery Networks serve content from servers geographically close to users, reducing physical distance data must travel. This improves response times globally.
Upgrade server software. Newer PHP versions (8.0+) are significantly faster than older versions (7.x and earlier). Modern web servers like Nginx often outperform older alternatives like Apache for serving static content.
Enable compression. Gzip or Brotli compression reduces the size of responses by 60-80%, significantly decreasing transfer time.
Bitek Services monitors server response times and optimizes configurations to ensure consistently fast responses regardless of traffic levels.
6. Eliminate Render-Blocking Resources
Render-blocking resources are CSS and JavaScript files that prevent the page from displaying until they’re fully loaded and processed. Eliminating render-blocking dramatically improves perceived performance.
Defer non-critical JavaScript. JavaScript that isn’t needed for initial page display can load after the page renders. Use the defer or async attributes on script tags to load JavaScript without blocking rendering.
Load CSS asynchronously when possible. Critical CSS needed for above-the-fold content should load immediately, but non-critical CSS can load asynchronously without blocking rendering.
Inline critical CSS. Small amounts of CSS needed for initial rendering can be inlined in the HTML head, allowing the page to render without waiting for external stylesheets.
Use resource hints. The preconnect, prefetch, and preload directives tell browsers to load resources proactively, reducing delays when they’re actually needed.
At Bitek Services, we’ve seen eliminating render-blocking resources reduce First Contentful Paint times from 4+ seconds to under 1 second on the same content.
7. Optimize Web Fonts
Custom fonts enhance design but can significantly slow page loading if not optimized properly. Each font file is a separate download, and browsers often hide text while fonts load (FOIT – Flash of Invisible Text).
Limit font variations. Every font weight and style is a separate file. If you’re loading six font variations but only using three, you’re wasting bandwidth and slowing your site.
Use font-display: swap. This CSS property tells browsers to show text in system fonts immediately while custom fonts load, then swap when ready. This prevents invisible text and improves perceived performance.
Host fonts locally when possible. Using Google Fonts requires an external request. Hosting fonts on your own server eliminates that external dependency. Just ensure you have proper licensing.
Subset fonts. If you’re only using English text, you don’t need font files containing every Unicode character. Font subsetting removes unused characters, reducing file sizes significantly.
Preload critical fonts. Use <link rel="preload"> for fonts needed immediately, telling browsers to download them as high priority.
Bitek Services typically reduces font-related delays from 1-2 seconds to under 200 milliseconds through proper optimization.
8. Reduce Third-Party Scripts
Third-party scripts—analytics, advertising, social media widgets, chat tools—are convenient but often catastrophic for performance. Each third-party script is outside your control and can slow your entire site.
Audit third-party scripts ruthlessly. Review every third-party script. Is it truly necessary? What value does it provide? What’s the performance cost? Remove anything that isn’t essential.
Load third-party scripts asynchronously. Don’t let third-party scripts block your content from loading. Use async or defer attributes so they load without preventing page rendering.
Use facade techniques for heavy widgets. Instead of loading full YouTube video embeds immediately, show thumbnail images that load the full embed only when clicked. This can save megabytes of data and seconds of load time.
Self-host when possible. For analytics or other scripts where self-hosting is an option, hosting on your own servers gives you control over caching and loading strategies.
Monitor third-party performance. Tools like Request Map or built-in browser dev tools show how much time each third-party script takes. Hold vendors accountable for performance.
At Bitek Services, we’ve seen websites go from 15-second load times to 3-second load times simply by removing or optimizing third-party scripts.
9. Implement a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
CDNs distribute your content across servers worldwide, serving users from geographically close locations. This reduces latency—the time data spends traveling over the internet—dramatically.
Choose a reliable CDN provider. Cloudflare offers excellent free CDN services. Paid alternatives include AWS CloudFront, Fastly, and KeyCDN. Choose based on your geographic audience and budget.
Configure caching properly. Work with your CDN to set appropriate cache durations for different content types. Static assets can cache for extended periods, while dynamic content needs shorter cache times.
Use CDN for all static assets. Images, CSS, JavaScript, fonts—anything that doesn’t change frequently—should serve from the CDN for optimal performance.
Consider full-page caching. Some CDNs can cache entire pages, not just static assets. This can dramatically improve performance for content-heavy sites.
Bitek Services implements CDN solutions for all clients, typically reducing load times by 30-60% for international audiences.
10. Optimize Your Database
For dynamic sites using databases (WordPress, custom applications, e-commerce), database performance directly impacts site speed. Slow database queries mean slow page loads.
Add indexes to frequently queried fields. Database indexes dramatically speed up queries on large tables. Identify slow queries and add appropriate indexes.
Clean up your database regularly. WordPress databases accumulate post revisions, spam comments, and transient data that slow queries. Regular cleanup improves performance.
Use database caching. Cache frequent query results so repeated requests don’t hit the database. Redis and Memcached are popular caching solutions.
Optimize database tables. Over time, databases become fragmented. Regular optimization reorganizes data for faster access.
Limit database queries per page. Each database query takes time. Pages requiring 50+ queries to render will be slow. Optimize code to reduce unnecessary queries.
At Bitek Services, database optimization typically reduces page load times by 200-500 milliseconds—a significant improvement in web performance.
11. Enable Compression
Compressing text-based files—HTML, CSS, JavaScript—before sending them to browsers reduces transfer sizes by 60-80%. This is one of the easiest performance wins.
Enable Gzip compression. Most web servers support Gzip compression with simple configuration changes. Gzip compresses text files before sending them, and browsers automatically decompress them.
Consider Brotli compression. Brotli provides 15-25% better compression than Gzip for text files. Not all servers support it, but when available, it’s superior.
Compress all text-based content. HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SVG, JSON, and XML should all be compressed. Images and videos are already compressed formats, so attempting to compress them further provides no benefit.
Verify compression is working. Use browser dev tools or online testing tools to confirm files are being compressed. Misconfigured servers sometimes fail to compress despite settings being enabled.
Bitek Services ensures all client servers have optimal compression configured, typically reducing data transfer by 70% or more.
12. Monitor and Test Continuously
Performance optimization isn’t one-time—it requires ongoing monitoring and testing. Websites change, new content is added, and performance can degrade over time without attention.
Use performance testing tools regularly. Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, and WebPageTest provide detailed performance reports identifying specific issues. Test after any significant changes.
Monitor real user performance. Tools like Google Analytics can show actual user experience data—how fast pages load for real visitors on real devices. This complements lab testing with real-world data.
Set performance budgets. Establish maximum acceptable page sizes and load times. Reject changes that would exceed these budgets. Performance budgets prevent degradation over time.
Test on real devices. Desktop testing tools don’t capture the experience on slower mobile devices with limited bandwidth. Test on actual phones and tablets regularly.
Monitor continuously. Use uptime monitoring and performance monitoring tools that alert you to degraded performance so you can respond quickly.
At Bitek Services, we implement continuous performance monitoring for clients, catching issues before they impact users and maintaining consistently fast experiences.
The Bitek Services Performance Process
At Bitek Services, we approach website performance systematically. We begin with comprehensive performance audits using multiple tools to establish baselines and identify specific issues. We prioritize improvements based on impact—focusing on changes that deliver the most significant performance gains first.
We implement optimizations across all twelve areas covered here, not just one or two. Performance requires holistic optimization, not just fixing the most obvious problems.
We test thoroughly before and after changes, measuring actual improvements and ensuring no negative side effects. We document all changes so future developers understand what’s been optimized and why.
Most importantly, we don’t just fix current performance problems—we implement processes and monitoring that maintain performance over time as sites evolve.
The Business Impact of Performance
Fast websites aren’t just nice to have—they directly impact business metrics. Faster load times increase conversion rates, lower bounce rates, improve search rankings, enhance user satisfaction, and reduce server costs through efficiency.
Google uses page speed as a ranking factor. Slow sites rank lower than fast competitors. Users prefer fast sites and abandon slow ones. The competitive advantages of performance are substantial and measurable.
At Bitek Services, we’ve seen clients increase conversions by 20-40% simply through performance optimization. The return on investment is clear and rapid.
Getting Started
Start with performance testing to understand your current baseline. Use Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix to identify specific issues. Tackle the biggest problems first—usually images, caching, and third-party scripts.
Implement changes incrementally, testing after each change to measure impact. Performance optimization is iterative—each improvement builds on previous ones.
If the technical details feel overwhelming, professional help can accelerate results. Bitek Services specializes in performance optimization, delivering measurable improvements without the trial and error of DIY approaches.
Conclusion
Website performance doesn’t require magic or expensive solutions—it requires systematic attention to these twelve critical areas. Image optimization, HTTP request reduction, caching, minification, server optimization, render-blocking elimination, font optimization, third-party script management, CDN implementation, database optimization, compression, and continuous monitoring together create fast, responsive websites.
Every millisecond matters. Users notice the difference between 1-second and 3-second load times. Search engines notice. Your business metrics notice. Performance optimization isn’t optional—it’s essential for competitive success online.
Take action today. Test your website, identify your biggest performance problems, and start fixing them. Your users—and your bottom line—will thank you.
Is your website slower than it should be? Contact Bitek Services for a comprehensive performance audit. We’ll identify exactly what’s slowing your site, prioritize improvements by impact, and implement optimizations that deliver measurably faster experiences. Don’t let a slow website cost you conversions—let’s make it fast.
