A slow store is rarely slow for one reason. This is the order we work through when a WooCommerce site needs to be faster.
When a store feels slow, the cause is usually several medium problems rather than one large one. We go through them in the same order every time, starting with what the customer feels first.
1. Measure real pages
We test the homepage, a category page, a product page, the cart and the checkout separately, on mobile settings. Each has a different bottleneck.
2. Hosting and caching
- Is the PHP version current, and is object caching available?
- Is page caching on for catalogue pages and correctly off for cart, checkout and account pages?
3. Plugins
We profile which plugins add the most time to each request. A store with forty plugins often has five doing most of the damage, and two that are not used at all.
4. Images and fonts
- Product images served in modern formats and at the size they are displayed
- Lazy loading below the fold, never on the main product image
- Fonts self-hosted and limited to the weights actually used
5. Database
Large stores collect expired transients, orphaned metadata and autoloaded options that load on every request. Cleaning them is unglamorous and effective.
6. Checkout
The checkout cannot be page-cached, so it shows the true speed of the server. We check third-party scripts, payment gateway calls and cart fragment requests here.
The result is a short, ordered list: what to fix, what each fix is worth, and what to leave alone.
A short call. We look at what you need, tell you what it takes, and follow up with a fixed quote.
No pitch deck. No obligation.