Website Performance Checklist

You probably already know people expect websites to load fast. But here’s the kicker: even a one-second delay can kill your conversions by up to 7%. That’s not just tech talk—it’s cold hard cash slipping through your fingers. Users, just like search engines, have zero patience for slow sites. Here is a website performance checklist to ensure you’ve covered all bases.

These days, website speed isn’t just some nerdy metric. It’s a full-on business driver that hits customer happiness, SEO rankings, and sales. If your site drags, you’re losing visitors and trust before they even see your homepage.

1) Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML

Here’s an easy win that often gets overlooked. Minification means stripping out all the extra fluff in your code—spaces, comments, line breaks—to shrink file sizes and speed things up.

You don’t need to be a coder to get this done either. Tools like Terser, CSSNano, or HTMLMinifier handle it automatically during build or deployment.

If you’re rocking WordPress, plugins like WP Rocket or Autoptimize will do the heavy lifting without you lifting a finger.

2) Compress and Optimize Images

Big images are usually the main culprit behind slow pages. But you don’t have to sacrifice quality to get them smaller.

For example, switching from JPEG to WebP on a client portfolio page cut image sizes by 40%. This can improve load times by 1.2 seconds.

3) Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)

If your audience is scattered across the globe, a CDN’s your best mate. It caches your static files on servers worldwide and serves content from the closest one to your user.

Result? Lower latency and faster load no matter where people are clicking from.

4) Enable Browser and Server-Side Caching

Caching is like your site remembering visitors’ info so it doesn’t have to fetch everything fresh every time.

On dynamic sites, caching tools like Redis or Varnish can be a game-changer. And don’t forget to get your cache-control headers right, or all that effort might go to waste.

5) Lazy Load Images and Videos

Ever landed on a page where all the images below the fold load only when you scroll? That’s lazy loading—and it’s brilliant.

By loading media only when you need it, you reduce initial page weight and make the site feel snappier. Works especially well on long blog posts packed with photos.

6) Defer or Async Load Non-Critical JavaScript

Scripts like analytics trackers or social media embeds tend to block page rendering. You don’t want your site waiting for those to load before showing content.

Adding defer or async attributes means the browser can keep loading the page while those scripts run in the background. It bumps up important metrics like First Contentful Paint (FCP) and Time to Interactive (TTI).

7) Eliminate Render-Blocking Resources

Certain stylesheets and JavaScript files can prevent the browser from displaying any content until they are fully loaded. Critical CSS inlining and JavaScript deferring (or moving to the footer) can help address this. You can also use free tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to identify these problem resources for you.

8) Use Responsive Design and Images

A performance-focused site is also about making sure it is mobile-optimised. Use CSS media queries and responsive images with srcset and sizes attributes to serve smaller images to smaller screens. Serving a desktop-sized image to a mobile device is a silent performance killer.

9) Choose Fast, Reliable Hosting

You could do everything right on the frontend, but if your server is crawling, it’ll still drag.

Go for hosts with SSDs, scalable setups, and support for HTTP/2 or HTTP/3. For WordPress, I recommend Kinsta, WP Engine, or SiteGround—these guys really get performance.

10) Limit Third-Party Scripts

Third-party scripts like live chat widgets, pop-ups, or ad trackers can significantly slow down your site. Audit your stack regularly and remove anything non-essential. Where possible, load scripts asynchronously. Tools like Tag Manager can help consolidate and control script loading more efficiently.

11) Regularly Audit Performance

Website performance isn’t a one-off task. Schedule regular audits using tools like:

• Google Lighthouse (built into Chrome DevTools)
• GTmetrix
• WebPageTest
• Pingdom Tools

Keep an eye on Core Web Vitals, Time to First Byte (TTFB), and Total Blocking Time (TBT). These numbers tell you where your site’s choking.

12) Optimise Your Database and CMS Setup

If you use WordPress or similar CMSs, don’t let your database get clogged. Old plugins, lots of revisions, and bloat slow you down.

Tools like WP-Optimize help clean things up. Also, object caching and query optimisation keep server loads manageable during busy times.

Wrap Up

The web’s fast—and your users won’t wait around.

Ready to get your site moving and start seeing results?

At Chromatix, we’ve watched firsthand how a faster site can really crank up engagement and bring in more leads. If your website’s feeling a bit sluggish, reach out to our web design agency in Melbourne. We’re here to help turn slow sites into smooth and high-converting machines.

Want to boost your site speed and conversions? Let’s chat and get it done.