Performance

Page speed

Page speed is how quickly a web page loads and becomes usable for a visitor, and it affects search rankings, conversions, and how many people leave before the page finishes loading.

Slow pages are usually caused by large images, too many scripts and plugins, slow hosting, or a lack of caching. On WordPress sites, plugin bloat and unoptimized themes are frequent culprits.

Tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and Lighthouse measure page speed and report Core Web Vitals, along with specific suggestions for what to fix.

Performance optimization service

Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals are three metrics Google uses to measure real-world page experience: Largest Contentful Paint (loading speed), Interaction to Next Paint (responsiveness), and Cumulative Layout Shift (visual stability).
Static site

A static site is a website whose pages are built into ready-made HTML files ahead of time and served as-is, rather than generated by a server and database on every visit.
WordPress

WordPress is an open-source content management system (CMS) that powers a large share of the web, letting site owners edit pages and posts through an admin dashboard and extend the site with themes and plugins.

Browse the full glossary

Page speed

Related terms

Core Web Vitals

Static site

WordPress