Why is my website slow? 10 Reasons

10 reasons why your website is loading slowly explained

Looking for answers to why is my website slow so you can optimize the speed for faster load time?

The truth is that the first step to speeding up a slow website is to know what's causing the issues first.

So asking that question is a great first step.

In this article, we will review the top reasons for slow loading website speed such as:

• too much traffic
• wrong hosting server
• unoptimized images
• bad hosting provider
• bad coding
• inefficient cache
• too many HTTP requests
• security issues
• lack of CDN

Please understand that this why is my website slow post is packed with points based on many website tests and things you might not have heard before.

If you stay open-minded and are willing to not follow the hoard, you will get an honest information on what's causing your website to load slowly.

1. You are the cause

Yes, the your website slow loading might be because of you.

So why is that?

Most people follow the herd mentality.

They do things because everyone is doing it or some “guru” said so.

Oftentimes, people will start with an already optimized website, but then go on to start adding bloats because everyone is saying use this plugin or that tool or add that feature(s).

You really don’t need all the extra things you are adding to your site(s).

And you need to have speed in mind before even starting your website.

Simplicity is always better.

Think twice before upgrading to that premium theme or plugin or tool.

Why? Because premium themes, plugins, and features like flash elements tend to have a lot of bloats.

2. Bad web host/wrong plan

The cause for your website page's slow loading time may not be entirely your fault but rather the fault of the web hosting provider or the plan for the amount of traffic you have.

Your current hosting plan simply might not be capable of handling the traffic to your site.

This could be due to the servers running commodity hardware and processors which may not be able to provide the required bandwidth and as a result may be leading to high latency issues.

Another reason is just being with a bad host with constant performance issues ( no web host will really be fast 100 percent all the time but the good ones have less of these speed issues).

Part of choosing the right website hosting service company is avoiding the hosting service providers that stack a lot of websites on the same server.

Focus on finding a web hosting company that provides top quality hosting solutions with well-optimized servers and fewer websites stacked on it.

If you are interested in getting a new web host, you can get a good cheap one with BlueHost( for beginners or sites without much traffic), WPengine( Full managed WordPress hosting, incredible customer support, extremely fast), GreenGeeks (LiteSpeed server hosting).

3. Too much traffic

When a website is getting too much traffic than the server can handle this will lead to it being slow.

At this point, it is time to upgrade to a server that can handle your website traffic.

If you are on a shared server then it is time to upgrade to a dedicated or vps server.

Some website hosting companies that offer great customer support and infrastructure for VPS or dedicated server plans that you should consider are GreenGeeks, BlueHost and WPengine.

4. Not having CDN

If you have an international website with a lot of traffic, not enabling CDN may cause the pages to not load fast.

Content delivery networks when used and set up correctly can help visitors in different countries experience fast load time.

5 Inefficient cache

Not having a server or browser cache in place or setting them up incorrectly is another reason.

6 Wrong CMS version

Popular content managers like WordPress & Joomla regularly fix some of their bugs and problems and send periodic updates to install them.

These updates can lead to more efficient and faster functioning of the CMS.

Not installing or ignoring these updates will likely prevent your site from performing at optimal level.

7. Un-optimized images

Un-optimized high-resolution images consume a lot of bandwidth.

The truth is that more often than not, these high-resolution images are not required.

Uploading a lot of high-resolution images without compressing and resizing them will increase the size of your web page.

As a result, these un-optimized images will take their own time to load whereas the text on the website will load first resulting in a bad user experience.

8. Security(DoS & DDoS attack)

A why is my website slow tutorial can't be complete without mentioning how security issues like DOS or DDoS are the culprit.

A DoS stands for denial of service.

It is a web security attack where one computer is used to attack a server to bring it down.

The idea is to shut down your website or slow it down.

 DoS and DDoS can cause serious speed issues.

Both of them typically slow down websites as the servers are flooded with bad traffic.

9. Using a bad CMS theme

For those using WordPress, a theme is really the foundation of your website performance.

If you are serious about a fast website, start with or switch to a theme that is super fast.

Fast means less bloat and small overall size.

Free themes like Neve, GeneratePress, and WordPress's own Twenty themes are enough options.

They are super lightweight and not bloated, especially, the Twenty-Twenty and Twenty Twenty Two.

They have a lot of features built into the core which reduces plugin use.

10. Bad tools/features

What we mean by bad tools is using tools like plugins that are bloated.

For those using CMS like WordPress and Joomla using badly coded plugins will increase your website site and memory usage.

For Joomla or WordPress websites use lightweight plugin that help performance not those that impact it negatively.

Bad features are using things like flashy elements through hard coding or with tools like plugins.

They usually lead to performance issues so only add flashy elements if you really need them.

Consider speed support services

We recommend that you consider hiring a website speed expert to help you fix some of the issues mentioned.

Some of the page speed loading time issues mentioned in this article require a website performance professional help to fix.

This is because it takes time and advanced knowledge of website performance improvement optimization to apply some of the fixes properly.

For WP users, getting expert WordPress speed service is recommended

Recap

We hope that this article has given you an insight into the various reasons why your website is slow.

The reasons presented are not meant to be all the factors but they are the main issues most of the time.

Now that you have learned why websites load slowly, you can now avoid doing those things and fix them.

Please remember to consider WPENGINE or BlueHost or GreenGeeks for a VPS, dedicated, or other servers if you are considering upgrading to stronger servers or new hosts.