Websites and development
Why is your website slow, and what does speed optimisation cost?
Most slow websites carry heavy images, too much JavaScript, third-party widgets or a slow server. Google calls a page fast when, for three visits in four, the main content appears within 2.5 s, taps respond within 200 ms and the layout barely moves. VITON13 speed optimisation starts from $73.
What makes a website slow?
A page is slow when the browser has to download, process or wait for too much before the visitor sees and uses it. The causes repeat from site to site, whatever the platform, and most of them can be found in an afternoon with free tools.
- Photos uploaded straight from a camera or a stock site, several megabytes each, with no mobile size.
- Third-party scripts: chat widgets, trackers, pixels, maps and embedded video that load before your own content.
- JavaScript the page never uses, shipped by a theme, a page builder or a pile of plugins.
- Web fonts in many weights, loaded from another server and hiding text until they arrive.
- A slow server or cheap shared hosting with no caching, so every visit rebuilds the page.
- Banners, cookie bars and images without reserved space that push the content around as they appear.
Which speed numbers does Google look at?
| Metric | What it measures | Good | Poor |
|---|---|---|---|
| LCP, Largest Contentful Paint | When the main image or text block appears | 2.5 s or less | over 4 s |
| INP, Interaction to Next Paint | How fast the page reacts to taps and clicks | 200 ms or less | over 500 ms |
| CLS, Cumulative Layout Shift | How much the layout jumps while loading | 0.1 or less | over 0.25 |
There are two kinds of data. Field data comes from real Chrome users over the past 28 days and is what Google’s page experience signals use; lab data, such as a Lighthouse run, is one simulated visit on one device. PageSpeed Insights shows both on the same screen: read the field part first, and use the lab part to find the causes.
Does website speed really affect sales?
The best-known evidence is a study Deloitte ran for Google across 37 brands and published on web.dev in 2020. A 0.1-second improvement in mobile speed metrics went with 8.4% more retail conversions, 9.2% higher retail spend and about 10% more travel bookings.
Treat those figures as a direction, not a forecast for your shop. They come from large brands with a lot of mobile traffic, and a faster page cannot sell an offer nobody wants. What they do show is that small delays add up on every visit, and that mobile visitors notice first.
What should you fix first?
- Check field data in PageSpeed Insights for your key pages and note which metric fails.
- Resize and compress images, serve WebP or AVIF, and give every image its width and height.
- Remove third-party scripts nobody uses, and load chat widgets and maps only when they are needed.
- Cut unused JavaScript and CSS, especially from themes and page builders.
- Limit fonts to the weights you use, host them yourself and show text while they load.
- Turn on caching and a CDN, and move off hosting that answers slowly.
- Measure the same pages again, on the same device and network, and write the numbers down.
| Fix | Metric it usually helps | Effort |
|---|---|---|
| Lighter, correctly sized images | LCP | Low |
| Fewer third-party scripts | INP and LCP | Low to medium |
| Less unused JavaScript | INP | Medium |
| Reserved space for banners and images | CLS | Low |
| Caching, CDN, faster server | LCP | Medium |
What would speed work cost with VITON13?
Speed optimisation is selected; add the checks and fixes that usually travel with it. The totals add the live starting prices of VITON13 packages in both production modes, and the timeline shows how long the chosen work takes.
Cost calculator
Plan your speed work
Tick what your site needs; the totals update as you choose.
Your estimate
- AI-assisted
- from $73
- Human-led
- from $93
- Timeline
- 5–8 working days
stages can overlap; the written estimate fixes the dates
Get a written estimate in 1 working dayStarting prices of VITON13 packages; the written estimate confirms the pages, devices and price after we measure your site.
Speed optimisation covers the agreed key pages and devices: we profile them, fix the measured bottlenecks, record a performance budget and check that nothing else broke. It takes 5–8 working days.
How do agencies price speed work?
| Model | How it works | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly | A rate times the hours spent, often with a minimum | No fixed result; ask for a before-and-after report |
| Fixed package | Agreed pages and devices for a set price and time | What is left out, such as hosting or rebuilding |
| Plugin or service subscription | A tool that compresses and caches automatically | It cannot remove scripts you added yourself |
| Rebuild | A new site on a faster platform | Rarely needed if the slowness has a few causes |
Whatever the model, ask what will be measured, on which pages and devices, and what counts as done. A good answer names the metrics, gives the starting numbers and promises a report you can check yourself in PageSpeed Insights.
Is a 100 score in Lighthouse the goal?
No. Lighthouse is a useful lab tool, but its score moves between runs and describes one simulated visit. A page can score in the nineties and still feel slow for visitors on older phones, or score lower and pass every Core Web Vitals threshold in the field. Aim for good field metrics on the pages that earn money, then keep them there with a performance budget.
When will speed work not help?
If the field data already passes on your key pages, further speed work brings little. The same is true when visitors leave because of the offer, the price or the wrong traffic: a faster page shows them the same problem sooner. In those cases look at conversion and traffic first, and keep speed as a guard against getting worse.
How VITON13 does it
We measure the agreed key pages on the agreed devices, find the bottlenecks with lab and field data, fix them in your code, theme or server settings and measure again under the same conditions. You get a before-and-after profile, a recorded performance budget and a plan for checking field data after release. AI-assisted: AI profiles and drafts fixes, a developer reviews every change. Human-led: a developer leads, AI assists. The written scope and price arrive within one working day.
Website speed optimisation
- Price
- $73 AI-assisted or $93 human-led
- Timeline
- 5–8 working days
Technical SEO implementation
- Price
- $53 AI-assisted or $73 human-led
- Timeline
- 3–5 working days
Website bug fixing
- Price
- $13 AI-assisted or $33 human-led
- Timeline
- 1–2 working days
AI-assisted: AI drafts inside defined steps, a person directs and checks every result. Human-led: a specialist does the work and AI assists.
What is included
- Before-and-after measurements of the agreed key pages on mobile and desktop
- Fixes to images, fonts, scripts, caching and server settings within scope
- A recorded performance budget and a check that nothing else broke
- Delivery: 5–8 working days after access to the site and hosting
Not included
- Rebuilding the site on another platform, quoted separately
- Hosting, CDN and third-party service fees
- The speed of scripts that outside vendors control
- Any promise of search rankings
Revisions: 2 revision rounds
Get an estimate in 1 working dayWritten estimate within 1 working day
Example
INTERNALOur own product
tarasovvitalii.com: a fast portfolio in four languages
VITON13 built the founder’s portfolio as static pages generated in Node and served from its own domain. On 24 September 2026 Lighthouse 13 gave the home page 99 for performance on mobile and desktop, with the main content appearing in 2.0 s on mobile and 0.6 s on desktop, no blocking time and no layout shift; the mobile page loads in 25 requests and 1.6 MB.
What this does not prove
- These are lab tests of one page on one day; a second desktop run minutes later gave 95.
- The site went live on 23 September 2026, so there is no field data from real visitors yet.
- Lighthouse still flags unused CSS and JavaScript and lighter images for phones as savings to make.
Questions and answers
What is a good page load time?
Google’s bar is that the main content appears within 2.5 seconds for at least three visits in four, taps respond within 200 milliseconds and the layout barely shifts. A page that meets all three on mobile is fast by the standard that matters for visitors and for page experience.
Is the PageSpeed Insights score the same as Core Web Vitals?
No. The coloured score is Lighthouse, a lab test of one simulated visit. Core Web Vitals appear above it as field data from real Chrome users over 28 days. A site can pass the field assessment with a modest lab score, and the reverse happens too.
How long does speed optimisation take?
With VITON13 it takes 5–8 working days after we get access to the site and the hosting. Field data then needs up to 28 days to reflect the change, so the final check comes a few weeks after release.
Will a faster website rank higher in Google?
Speed is one of the page experience signals, but relevance and useful content matter far more. A faster site can help when competing pages are similar, and it keeps visitors from leaving; we do not promise rankings from speed work alone.
Can a WordPress or Tilda site be made fast without rebuilding it?
Usually yes. Images, plugins, third-party scripts and caching cause most of the delay, and all of them can be fixed in place. A page builder does set limits, and when profiling shows the platform itself is the bottleneck, we say so before you pay for fixes.
What access do you need?
Admin access to the site or its code repository, access to the hosting or server settings, and ideally Search Console so we can read field data. We work on a copy or a staging site where possible and agree the release window with you.