How to Optimise Your Website for Faster Load Times – An Overview

In an age of competition and online presence, website load times under 2.5 seconds aren’t just nice to have, they’re essential for retaining visitors, passing core web vitals, and improving positions in Google search results. 53% of mobile users will leave a page that takes over three seconds to load, which can negatively affect conversions and traffic; this guide delivers actionable, up to date strategies to reduce web page load times, improve user experience, and future proof your site for speed.

Why Faster Web Page Load Times Matter in 2026

Search engines like Google now treat web page loading and rendering times as a core ranking factor, with Core Web Vitals–Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), and Interaction to Next Paint (INP) directly influencing your website’s visibility in search engine results. To pass your core web vitals your website need to achieve an LCP time of under 2.5 seconds, CLS below 0.1, and INP within 200ms to meet what Google deems to be acceptable thresholds, as these metrics reflect real user experiences and can impact bounce rates (by up to 32% per extra second of delay).

Beyond SEO, fast sites convert better: e-commerce pages loading in 1 second see 3 times higher conversions than those taking 5 seconds. In 2026, with mobile traffic at over 60% and AI driven searches (ewww) prioritising speed, optimising website performance improves visitor experience, reduces cart abandonment, and can even impact the amount of electricity used (as a lighter, faster page results in less energy consumption). What with AI munching all that electricity, power consumption is something we NEED to worry about these days.

At NetNerd.com, we specialise in server level optimisation to help deliver faster page load times without as much onus on page output type optimisation. To improve page load times (and reduce power consumption) we leverage the following, by default, at no additional cost:

• The Litespeed web server for a faster TTFB.
• HTTP/3 to reduce network traffic overhead.
• Object caching for reduced code execution.
• Brotli compressions for a further reduction in data transfer

Before optimising, it’s advisable to measure your website’s current performance. Free tools such as Debug Bear’s Page Speed Test and Google’s Pagespeed Insights can be used to benchmark Core Web Vitals and identify areas for improvement. Google’s Pagespeed insights do include a month’s worth of historical CrUX data where as Chrome’s “in browser” lighthouse tool offers live metrics.

• Run Google PageSpeed Insights for mobile and desktop scores, focusing on diagnostics like “Reduce unused JavaScript” or “Eliminate render-blocking resources.”
• Test with GTmetrix or WebPageTest for waterfall charts showing load sequences and global location simulations.
• Check Google Search Console Core Web Vitals report for field data from real users, prioritising pages with high traffic but poor scores.

Top tip: Recheck your site’s performance immediately after updating (and you are applying updates… right?).

Images often make up 50-70% of page weight (percentage of bytes of total page size), which can make fast sites slow to load due to the amount of data being transferred. Modern image formats and preloading LCP images can help reclaim those seconds in load time specific to image data transfer and loading sequence.

Compress files with CompressX, Optimole, or Smush. Aim for hero images under 200KB and others below 100KB without visible quality loss. Switch to WebP or AVIF formats, which shrink sizes 25-35% over JPEG/PNG while maintaining sharpness.

Enable native lazy loading (loading="lazy") for off-screen images, deferring them until scrolled into view. This boosts initial load by 20-40% on content-heavy pages.

For dynamic sites, use plugins like Imagify (WordPress) or Cloudinary for automatic optimisation using their CDN for improved image delivery.

Bloated code can cause delays when a browser renders your website’s pages. Minification strips whitespace, comments, and unused characters from HTML, CSS, and JS without changing functionality.

• Tools: HTMLMinifier, CSSNano, or Terser for JS. Combine files to cut HTTP requests-merge multiple CSS/JS into one.
• Inline critical CSS above-the-fold: Extract render-blocking styles into <style> tags in <head>, deferring the rest.
• Code splitting: Bundle tools like Webpack split JS into chunks loaded on-demand, preventing monolithic downloads.

Enabling compression for your website reduces the amount of data transferred over the network when a web page loads. The browser decompresses the web page upon receipt.

Gzip or Brotli can be used to compress page output.

Example .htaccess for gzip compression (Apache servers):

<IfModule mod_deflate.c>
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript
</IfModule>

Example .htaccess for Brotli compression (Apache servers):

<IfModule mod_brotli.c>
    AddOutputFilterByType BROTLI_COMPRESS \
        text/html \
        text/plain \
        text/css \
        text/javascript \
        application/javascript \
        application/json \
        application/xml \
        application/rss+xml \
        application/atom+xml \
        image/svg+xml \
        font/ttf \
        font/otf \
        font/woff \
        font/woff2

    BrotliCompressionQuality 6
</IfModule>

Caching serves static versions of pages/resources, reducing the number of resources transferred on a page load. Browser caching stores files locally via HTTP headers and can be set using directives in .htaccess:

<IfModule mod_expires.c>
ExpiresActive On
ExpiresByType image/webp "access plus 1 year"
ExpiresByType text/css "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/javascript "access plus 1 month"
</IfModule>

• Page caching: Plugins like WP Fastest Cache (WordPress) or the Litespeed web server (native to the hosting stack) can be used to cache HTML.
• Object caching: Redis/Memcached for database queries helps reduce response times.
• Preload key resources: <link rel="preload" href="critical-font.woff2" as="font" crossorigin> for fonts/scripts.

CDNs can be used to distribute assets and cached pages across edge servers. This helps reduce latency by serving web pages from the nearest location. Users see can see 50-70% faster load times when using a CDN, especially international traffic.

• Free tiers: Cloudflare (auto-optimizes images, enables HTTP/3).
• Paid: KeyCDN or BunnyCDN for video-heavy sites.
• Integrate with HTTP/3 and the QUIC.cloud CDN to reduce connection time by 30% over HTTP/2.

Third-party scripts (analytics, ads) can increase the time it takes for a page to become interactive. Defer non-critical JS using: <script defer src="script.js"> to load JS post post page parsing, without blocking rendering.

• Preconnect to external resources (origins) using: <link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.gstatic.com"> for early handshakes.
• Audit with Lighthouse: Remove or async-load embeds like YouTube (use loading="lazy").
• Localise fonts/analytics to reduce the amount of external DNS lookups.

Mobile users expect app-like speed. Responsive design with touch-friendly elements (48x48px min buttons) is expected by users as standard.

• Serve lighter mobile payloads: Conditional resources via media queries.
• Progressive Web Apps (PWAs): Add service workers for offline caching, boosting repeat visits.
• Test with Lighthouse Mobile and fix viewport issues, and avoid negative user experience.

A fast server response time (TTFB) is key to a fast loading web page. Using NVMe hosting, optimising databases, and the use of the Litespeed web server can all help reduce TTFB.

• PHP 8.3+ and OPcache for dynamic sites (built in for free with Netnerd.com web hosting).
• Database caching with Redis halves query times (available with even our cheapest web hosting packages).

Ongoing optimisation and monitoring can be extremely beneficial, but taking this on all at once can be overwhelming especially if you’re new to developing and maintaining a website. Setting up an 8 week plan at the beginning of your website journey can help to break tasks down in to manageable byte sized (see what I did there?) chunks:

• Weeks 1-2: Audit and quick wins (image optimisation, minify and combine, reduce render blocking resources).
• Weeks 3-4: Caching and CDN setup.
• Weeks 5-6: Code & third-party localisations.
• Weeks 7-8: Mobile optimisation and server tweaks.
• Ongoing: Uptime monitoring, monthly Lighthouse checks, GA4 tracking, Google search monitoring.

Implementing these website speed optimisation tactics position your site well for user satisfaction and improved search engine rankings. Start with an audit today at NetNerd, apply one change weekly, and watch engagement soar. Your visitors (and Google) will thank you. Ready to nerd out on performance? Dive deeper with our optimisation experts.

Faster websites rank better, convert more users, and provide a noticeably improved user experience. Google now treats Core Web Vitals (LCP, CLS, and INP) as direct ranking signals, meaning slow sites lose visibility. With mobile traffic dominating and AI-driven search prioritising speed, performance is no longer optional.

To meet Google’s recommended standards, your site should achieve a Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) of under 2.5 seconds, a Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) below 0.1, and an Interaction to Next Paint (INP) of 200ms or less. These metrics reflect real user experiences and directly impact bounce rates and engagement.

Yes. Faster websites consistently convert better—e-commerce pages loading in one second can see up to three times higher conversion rates than slower pages. Faster pages also consume less energy by transferring fewer bytes and reducing server and client processing, making performance optimisation both commercially and environmentally beneficial.

NetNerd focuses on server-level optimisation to reduce load times without relying solely on front-end tweaks. This includes the LiteSpeed web server for faster TTFB, HTTP/3 to reduce connection overhead, object caching to minimise code execution, and Brotli compression to lower data transfer sizes—all included at no extra cost.