When does a website need speed optimisation?
Your website needs speed optimisation when pages feel slow on mobile, Google Search Console reports poor or "needs improvement" Core Web Vitals, visitors leave before pages load, or a redesign, new plugins or marketing tags have added weight. It is also worth doing before a paid campaign, so you are not paying for clicks that bounce.
- Search Console shows URLs failing Core Web Vitals on mobile or desktop.
- PageSpeed Insights field data (from real Chrome users) is in the amber or red band.
- The site has grown over years with plugins, sliders, chat widgets and tracking tags.
- Pages shift around while loading, so visitors tap the wrong button.
- Hosting is cheap shared hosting and response times are slow at busy periods.
What is included in our website speed optimisation service?
Our website speed optimisation service includes a baseline audit using field and lab data, a prioritised list of causes, hands-on fixes to images, code, scripts, caching and hosting, regression testing on real devices and a short report showing before-and-after measurements. You keep a record of every change made and why it was made.
- Audit: Search Console Core Web Vitals report, PageSpeed Insights, Chrome DevTools traces and a review of templates, plugins and third-party tags.
- Images and media: correct dimensions, modern formats such as WebP or AVIF, lazy loading below the fold and a properly prioritised hero image.
- Scripts and CSS: removing unused code, deferring non-critical JavaScript and auditing third-party tags such as chat, heatmaps and ad pixels.
- Fonts and layout: font loading that avoids invisible text, and reserved space for images, embeds and banners to stop layout shift.
- Caching, CDN and hosting: page and browser caching, a content delivery network where it helps, and server response time checks.
- Report and handover: before-and-after results and recommendations to keep the site fast, which our website maintenance and support plans can take on.
Which Core Web Vitals do we optimise for?
We optimise for Google's three Core Web Vitals, measured at the 75th percentile of real visits: Largest Contentful Paint (loading) of 2.5 seconds or less, Interaction to Next Paint (responsiveness) of 200 milliseconds or less, and Cumulative Layout Shift (visual stability) of 0.1 or less. INP replaced First Input Delay in March 2024.
For a plain-English explanation of each metric and how Google measures it, read our guide to Core Web Vitals explained.
| Metric | Good threshold | Common causes we fix |
|---|---|---|
| Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) | ≤ 2.5 s | Oversized hero images, slow server response, render-blocking CSS and JavaScript |
| Interaction to Next Paint (INP) | ≤ 200 ms | Heavy JavaScript, long tasks, bloated third-party tags and page builders |
| Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) | ≤ 0.1 | Images without dimensions, late-loading banners, web fonts swapping in |
How much does website speed optimisation cost in the UK?
As a typical UK market guide, a speed audit with hands-on fixes costs around £500 to £3,000 excluding VAT as a one-off project. Small brochure sites sit at the lower end; ecommerce sites, sites with heavy page builders or many third-party integrations, and hosting moves sit at the higher end.
| Item | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Speed optimisation (audit and fixes) | £500–£3,000 one-off |
| Managed hosting (if a move is recommended) | £30–£150 per month |
| Ongoing maintenance to keep the site fast | £30–£300 per month, depending on scope |
These are indicative ranges from the wider UK market, not a Freehand HQ quote. Your price depends on the platform, the number of templates and how much of the slowdown comes from hosting or third-party scripts.
How does the speed optimisation process work?
We work in five steps: measure, diagnose, fix, verify and monitor. Fixes are made on a staging copy where possible and released in small batches, so each change can be checked and rolled back if needed. Most projects take one to three weeks; field data in Search Console then updates over about 28 days.
If you would rather try the quick wins yourself first, our guide on how to improve website speed walks through them step by step.
- Measure: record baseline field and lab data for your key templates (home, service, product, article).
- Diagnose: trace each slow metric to its cause and rank fixes by impact and effort.
- Fix: apply changes to images, code, caching, fonts, tags and hosting.
- Verify: retest on mid-range mobile devices and check forms, tracking and checkout still work.
- Monitor: watch the Search Console report as the 28-day field data catches up.
When is speed optimisation not enough?
Speed optimisation is not enough when the slowdown is built into the site itself: an outdated theme, a heavy page builder, an ageing platform or a design that depends on large scripts. In those cases tuning only goes so far, and a rebuild or website redesign usually costs less over time than repeated fixes.
A move to better hosting or a new platform may also be the right answer; our website migration services cover that without losing search rankings. Speed is one part of technical SEO; for the wider picture see our SEO services.