What happens if my website is slow?

A slow website causes two things: customers leave before the screen appears, and Google pushes the page down. If the first screen doesn't show within 3 seconds on a phone, close to half of customers leave. And most of the slowness comes from photos.

Why are photos the problem?

A single photo from a camera is 5–10MB. Upload photos like that as they are and the first screen alone means downloading tens of MB. On mobile data that takes several seconds. Photos need to be resized to the size they appear on screen and converted to a light format like WebP. ISSYMO automatically shrinks the photos you upload before serving them.

How to check (free)

• Enter your address in Google PageSpeed Insights (pagespeed.web.dev) and it gives you a mobile score and what to fix.
• Open your website on your phone using mobile data (with Wi-Fi off). If it feels slow to you, it feels slow to your customers too.
• In Google Search Console, the "Page experience" report shows a list of slow pages.

Common causes other than photos

• Autoplay video: a video behind the first screen looks nice but is heavy. If you really need it, keep it short and small.
• External widgets: adding several chat, map and Instagram feed widgets slows things down because each one loads separately.
• Old hosting: if the server is slow, there's only so much a light website can do.

Speed is part of design. However pretty your site is, customers can't see it if it doesn't load.