Optimization FAQ

How much will optimization improve my website’s speed?

Your site will be as fast as it can possibly be without going to more extreme measures like a hosting transfer or theme change.

Check out these results from two recent website optimization projects.

One site may have huge gains because it started off incredibly slow. The next may not gain much percentage-wise.

Both will be faster. Guaranteed.

As we work on your site, we take notes about any additional things you could do to improve your site’s speed, e.g., changing to a faster server or using a different theme.

We’ll share these recommendations in the report we’ll provide after your optimization is complete. Your report will also include before and after stats showing how much your site has improved in each of the four key areas we use to measure site speed.

Will my site stay optimized?

Yep!

Most of what we do solves not only the current problems with your site, but the reasons the problems developed in the first place. Plus, we’ll leave your site with solutions that automatically address the worst slow-site culprits so you won’t have to worry about them.

That said, you could go crazy and ruin your performance gains by installing a dozen terrible plugins, or switch to a bloated or poorly-coded theme. We’ll do our best to discourage that by including helpful suggestions in our final report to you.

How can I tell how much my site improved?

We’ll make it easy.

Before we work on your site, we run performance tests to document where we started. Once our work is complete, we test again.

You’ll get results of both before and after tests as part of the personalized Website Speed Optimization Report we’ll prepare for you.

Check out the charts above for a visual.

Will you optimize my images?

Yes!

Plus, we’ll leave in place a solution that will help you automatically keep images in check going forward. It does a fabulous job of reducing their size and load time without affecting quality.

Even if you’re using something like WP Smush, we can usually optimize your images even more.

If you have a large image library (this is common with sites that have been online a while), there may be a small additional charge (and possibly a slight increase in turnaround time) to optimize the entire library. If we find that this is the case we will get in touch and let you know.

Will you fix all the things that cause slow loading?

We tackle the issues responsible for the vast majority of slow website problems.

Not worrying about things that may only improve your speed by 1% but double the amount of time we spend optimizing means we can offer this service at a reasonable price.

Sometimes things like your website’s server or theme affect your speed. Even if it’s something we don’t handle, we’ll let you know what’s going on and can usually provide recommendations to help solve the issue.

Someone else optimized my site, but it’s still slow. Can you help?

We often can make improvements, but as you might imagine it depends on why the site is still slow.

We’re glad to help you figure out what makes sense. Just get in touch and tell us about your site.

Can you optimize my WordPress.com site?

No, but your WordPress.com site may not need anything you can’t do yourself given enough time.

WordPress.com doesn’t allow you to add many of the things that slow down regular websites. The biggest problem with WordPress.com sites tends to be images that haven’t been properly sized. Make sure you use the smallest image size you can get away with.

See our post on ways images can make your site slow. It includes tips that’ll help you avoid or fix problems with slow-loading images.

Another potential culprit is complicated WordPress themes. Choose a simple design from a reputable developer. You can’t go wrong with themes from Automattic (the creators of WordPress).

Will my website get an ‘A’ in performance when you’re done?

Not necessarily, but an ‘A’ isn’t all it’s cracked up to be ?

We focus on things that improve speed most, not the grades assigned by speed checking websites.

Some performance test measures don’t help page load speed much, and they’re more technical a fix than it’s worth pursuing for what you might gain.

If you’re interested in getting an ‘A’ regardless, we can help. Just get in touch.

Will this work for non-WordPress sites?

Sorry – our service is strictly for WordPress websites 🙁

We do offer a diagnostic service to help you pinpoint speed issues with other types of websites. Click the link below to find out more.

Website Speed Checkup »

What if you can’t improve my site’s speed at all?

Hasn’t happened yet.

We think there’s probably room for improvement in any site. But if we’re wrong, we’ll reverse any changes we’ve made and refund your money.

I know everything I need to know now. Will you please fix my site speed?

Yep. Just click the button.