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Why Website Speed Matters (and 5 Ways to Make Your Site Faster)

Posted by Local Reach Web Design - November 21, 2025

When someone visits your website, every second counts. In fact, studies show that:


If your site loads slowly — especially on mobile — you could be losing visitors before they even see what your business offers. And even if they stay, a slow site sends the wrong message: “We’re not prepared, we’re not professional, or we don’t prioritize your time.” That’s not the first impression you want.

What Website Speed REALLY Impacts

Common Causes for Slow Websites

How to Check Your Speed

You can test your site performance with:


When reviewing your results, pay special attention to these key metrics:


First Contentful Paint (FCP)

What it means: Measures how quickly something first appears on the screen—such as text, a background color, or a small image. This helps visitors know the page is loading.


Target time: Under 1.8 seconds


💡 Think of it as: “Is something happening yet?”


Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)

What it means: Tracks how long it takes for the most important content (like your hero image or main heading) to finish loading. It reflects the point when users can fully see the key portion of your page.


Target time: Under 2.5 seconds


💡 Think of it as: “Can the visitor now see the main part of the page?”


Time to Interactive (TTI)

What it means: Measures how long it takes before the page becomes fully usable—meaning visitors can scroll, click buttons, and interact with your content.


Target time: Under 3.8 seconds


💡 Think of it as: “Is the page ready to engage with?”


If any are slow, it’s a sign your site could be costing you customers.

5 Way to Make Your Website Faster

1. Use High-Quality Hosting

Reliable and fast hosting gives your website the resources it needs to load quickly and handle traffic. Cheap shared hosting often leads to delays.


✔ Our Managed Hosting includes East & West coast servers, daily full VPS backups, and proactive monitoring.


This is best for businesses wanting performance + peace of mind.


2. Optimize Images (Especially for Mobile)

Large files slow page load—especially first impressions.


✔ We provide full media optimization batches for speed and SEO improvement.


Example: We recently reduced a blog graphic from 1.3MB → 24KB without losing quality.


3. Clean Up Code & Reduce Plugin Bloat

Heavy themes or unnecessary WordPress plugins slow everything down.


✔ We build custom sites that are lightweight, optimized, and clean from the start.


4. Enable Caching & Use a CDN

Caching allows repeat visitors to load your site instantly. A CDN (Content Delivery Network) delivers your content from the nearest location—reducing delay.


✔ Cloudflare CDN & caching included in all our hosting.


5. Optimize for Mobile Experience

More than half of users access websites on phones. A fast desktop site doesn't always equal fast mobile performance.


✔ All sites we build are optimized for Core Web Vitals and mobile-first performance.


Hosting & Ongoing Speed Optimization Services

At Local Reach Web Design, every website we host is built for speed — but your hosting plan determines how much ongoing performance support you receive. Here's what that looks like in simpler terms:



Not sure which plan is best?


If performance, SEO, and long-term growth matter to you, Managed Hosting provides better speed, stronger protection, and proactive optimization — all handled for you.

Final Thoughts

Website speed isn’t just a technical detail—it directly impacts how many leads you convert, how you rank online, and how your business is perceived.


If your site is slow, it may be costing you customers without you even realizing it.

Want to Know How Fast Your Website Really Is?

Contact us for a FREE website speed and performance audit.


We'll evaluate:


Prefer “done for you”?

Our Managed Hosting Plan includes ongoing speed optimization and monitoring—no technical effort needed from you.


➡️ Let’s help your website perform as strong as your business.