Speed up WordPress: a faster site at a fixed price
A slow WordPress site gets measured, then fixed.
Speeding up WordPress doesn't mean installing yet another plugin and hoping. A slow WordPress site almost always has specific causes - huge images, no caching, plugins and scripts that block the page - and each one can be measured. We do WordPress PageSpeed optimisation at a fixed price, with before and after numbers and no promises of magic scores.
Why a slow site costs you
On mobile, every second of waiting has a price: someone arriving from Google or an ad campaign who sees a blank page goes back before the site loads, and you've already paid for that click. Then there's Google: Core Web Vitals are among the signals it uses to assess page experience, and a site in the red on mobile starts at a disadvantage against a competitor with similar content. It isn't the only ranking factor, but it's one of the few you can fix with a well-defined piece of technical work.
How we measure
We start from data, not impressions. We use PageSpeed Insights and Lighthouse for lab testing, and real Chrome user data (CrUX) when the site has enough traffic. The metrics that matter are the three Core Web Vitals, which Google assesses at the 75th percentile of visits:
- LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): how long the main element of the page takes to appear. Good is 2.5 seconds or less.
- INP (Interaction to Next Paint): how quickly the page responds to taps and clicks. Good is 200 milliseconds or less. It replaced the old FID in March 2024.
- CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): how much the content jumps around while loading. Good is 0.1 or less.
On top of these we look at TTFB, the time the server takes to send the first byte: it isn't a Core Web Vital, but it's the metric that tells us whether the problem lies with the site or the server (good is 0.8 seconds or less).
What we do
- Initial measurement on mobile and desktop, on the pages that really matter: home page, service or product pages, most-visited articles.
- Page caching configured and checked, with the right exclusions for basket, members' area and forms.
- Compression of text content (Gzip, or Brotli where available) and browser caching for static files.
- Images: modern formats (WebP or AVIF), sizes that suit the screen instead of straight-from-the-camera originals, lazy loading below the fold and the main image loaded first.
- Heavy plugins and scripts: we find the ones slowing things down and replace them with lighter alternatives or defer their loading - chat widgets, maps, sliders, tracking pixels.
- Final measurement and before/after report: what we changed, the starting and finishing numbers, what's left to do and why.
Site or server: where the problem lies
A site can be slow because of itself or because of where it runs. If the server takes two seconds to respond, you can slim the pages down as much as you like: visitors will still wait. That's why TTFB is the first thing we check.
This job works on the site. Server configuration - Nginx or Apache, PHP-FPM, OPcache, the database - is a different service, web server tuning from €249, described on the monitoring and performance page. If the initial measurement shows the bottleneck is the hosting, we tell you before starting, even if it means not selling you the site optimisation.
A typical case
A brochure site on a multipurpose theme, around thirty plugins, photos uploaded straight from the camera and no caching. On mobile the home page takes several seconds to appear, while TTFB is acceptable: the problem is the site, not the server. The work covers caching, images and two plugins that load scripts on every page, even where they aren't needed. The final report shows LCP and page weight before and after, and points out that the remaining headroom is in the theme, with a separate quote if you want to go further.
Price and what isn't included
The job costs €269 at a fixed price, for one WordPress site, and includes the initial measurement, the optimisation and the before/after report. You'll find it alongside our other jobs in the fixed price section.
Server configuration, theme changes, new feature development and paid plugin licences aren't included. If any of these are needed, we quote before going ahead, by the hour (€75/hour) or with an hour package. We don't promise a guaranteed score: we measure before and after with the same tools and report the numbers to you.
Who it's for
- Businesses and professionals with a WordPress site that struggles to load on mobile and who don't want to rebuild it from scratch.
- Anyone running ads and paying for clicks that land on a page that doesn't load in time.
- Agencies and web designers who handle design and content and want someone to take care of the technical side of performance.
- Anyone with ongoing support can fold this work into WordPress support.
How we work
You send us the site address and an administrator login (ideally hosting access too). We take the initial measurement and tell you whether the problem is the site or the server: if it's the server, we stop there and explain why. Otherwise we take a backup, do the work and hand you the report with the before and after numbers.
We work Monday to Friday, 09:00-18:00. Quotes are free and we reply within one working day.
Frequently asked questions
Do you guarantee a PageSpeed score of 100/100?
No, and we'd be wary of anyone who does. The score depends on theme, plugins, content and hosting, and a lab score of 100 can sit alongside a site that feels slow to real visitors. We measure the metrics that matter before and after the work and hand you the numbers.
What's the difference between the PageSpeed score and real-world speed?
The score is a lab simulation, run on a reference phone and network. Real-world speed is measured on the data Chrome collects from people actually visiting the site: that's what Google assesses the Core Web Vitals on, for search too. We look at both, but the target is the real-world data, which is updated over a 28-day window: the improvement shows in the weeks after the work.
Isn't a caching plugin enough?
Sometimes it helps a lot, sometimes it isn't enough or makes things worse: a caching plugin won't shrink 4 MB images or remove a slider that loads three libraries, and if it's misconfigured it can break the basket or forms. We configure it as part of the job, alongside everything else.
How much does hosting affect speed?
A great deal when the server is slow to respond: if it takes more than a couple of seconds for the first byte to arrive, no amount of site optimisation makes up for it. We measure this straight away; if hosting is the bottleneck we tell you before starting, even if it means not selling you the optimisation.
Do you need to change the theme or the site's content?
Normally no: the work covers caching, images, plugins and how scripts load. If it turns out the theme needs changes or something needs building, we give you a separate quote first, by the hour (€75/hour) or with an hour package.
Do you work on the live site?
We take a full backup first and, where the hosting allows it, try the changes on a staging copy. Every change stays reversible and is documented in the final report.
Other fixed-price fixes
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