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Website Speed Optimization: What It Is and Who Should Do It

By Jeremy Kenerson, Founder and CEO at DeskTeam360

Last updated . Outside sources were checked October 1, 2026, and DeskTeam360's details on September 25, 2026.

Website speed optimization is the work of making pages show up, respond, and settle faster. Google measures it with three Core Web Vitals: the main content should show within 2.5 seconds, the page should respond to a tap or click in under 200 milliseconds, and the layout should shift less than 0.1. The main fixes are caching, a faster server, lighter images, and fewer scripts and add-ons. Whoever already maintains the site is a natural fit to do the work, since speed overlaps with routine upkeep.

Google's three speed measures
Measure What it checks Google's "good" target
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) How fast the page's main content shows Within 2.5 seconds
Interaction to Next Paint (INP) How fast the page responds to a tap, click, or key press Under 200 milliseconds
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) How much things jump around while the page loads Under 0.1

Google checks these at the 75th percentile of page loads, on mobile and desktop separately. In plain words: if 100 visits load a page, at least 75 of them should meet the target, including the slower ones.

Why is website speed optimization important?

Speed matters because a slow or jumpy page is harder to use, and Google publishes clear targets a page should meet. Speed also slips over time. Shopify says each feature you add to a store, like apps, images, and videos, can slow it down. WordPress.org says keeping plugins up to date helps both security and speed. Plan speed checks as part of regular upkeep.

What are the main website speed optimization techniques?

The main techniques are caching, a quick server, smaller images, and fewer blocking or outside scripts. Start at the top of this list:

  1. Turn on caching. WordPress.org says caching gives the biggest speed gain for the least effort.
  2. Check the server's response time. Google suggests most sites aim for a server response (Time to First Byte) of 0.8 seconds or less. It isn't one of the three Core Web Vitals.
  3. Use a content delivery network (CDN). A CDN serves your files from a spread-out network of servers.
  4. Switch to modern image formats. Google's Lighthouse guide says AVIF and WebP images compress better than older JPEG and PNG files.
  5. Lazy-load images below the fold. Browsers can do this with the built-in loading attribute, with no extra script.
  6. Fix render-blocking files. Google's Lighthouse flags files that block the first paint, and suggests inlining what's critical, deferring the rest, and removing what's unused.
  7. Cut third-party scripts you don't need. Google warns that third-party scripts can slow down a site.
  8. Remove apps you don't use. Shopify says each feature you add to a store, like apps, images, and videos, can slow it down.

The step-by-step guide to outsourcing web work shows which web jobs to hand off first. To list them for your own agency, DeskTeam360's Ultimate Task Delegation Template comes with a video walkthrough.

Get the Task Delegation Template

The button opens the template page on DeskTeam360's site.

How do you speed up a WordPress website?

Start with caching, then clean up plugins, then update. WordPress.org says caching gives the biggest benefit for the smallest hassle.

  1. Back up the site first. WordPress.org says to back up the database regularly, and always before an upgrade.
  2. Add caching.
  3. Remove plugins you don't use, and update the ones you keep.
  4. Update WordPress itself to the latest version.
  5. Test the main pages again against Google's three targets.

Speed is one task on the full WordPress maintenance checklist.

How do you speed up a Shopify store?

Speed up a Shopify store by cutting what you've added: unused apps, heavy images, and videos. Shopify says each feature you add to a store can affect its speed.

  1. List every app installed. Remove the ones no one uses.
  2. Save large images in a modern format, like WebP.
  3. Check which pages carry video, and keep only what earns its place.
  4. Test again after each change, on mobile and desktop.

Which tools test website speed?

Google points site owners to the Core Web Vitals report in Search Console, and its web.dev guide names PageSpeed Insights as another tool that shows real-user data.

Know which kind of data you're looking at. Lab data comes from a test run in set conditions. Field data comes from real visitors. The two can disagree. Google's three targets use the 75th percentile of page loads.

Who should do website speed optimization?

Whoever maintains the site should do it, because speed work overlaps with updates, caching, and plugin cleanup. If no one maintains the site now, hand speed and upkeep to the same person or team.

Speed work is part of DeskTeam360's website maintenance, along with updates, backups, security monitoring, and uptime monitoring. This guide doesn't promise a load time for anyone's work, because results depend on the site. For hiring a speed service on its own, see speed optimization services.

More on WordPress and website maintenance

Before you hand off speed work, list everything else on your plate too. The template helps you sort what to keep and what to pass on, and it comes with a video walkthrough.

Get the Task Delegation Template

The button opens the template page on DeskTeam360's site.

Sources

All checked September 25 or October 1, 2026.

What changed

  • October 1, 2026: First version of this page.
  • October 1, 2026: Added server, CDN, image format, lazy loading and script fixes, sourced speed tools, lab and field data, and a "who should do it" answer. Removed an image sizing tip that its source didn't cover.