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Web Performance for Small Sites: What to Optimize First?

2/1/2026 · Web Performance · 7 min

Web Performance for Small Sites: What to Optimize First?

TL;DR

  • Prioritize highest impact tasks first: optimize images, enable caching, and add a lightweight CDN when possible.
  • Focus on Core Web Vitals: largest contentful paint, interaction responsiveness, and layout stability.
  • On a small budget you can get big wins from a few steps: compress and resize images, defer noncritical scripts, and enable gzip or brotli.

Core Metrics to Watch

  • Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): aim for under 2.5 s on mobile; this controls perceived load speed.
  • First Input Delay (FID) or Interaction to Next Paint (INP): keep the main thread free by avoiding long JavaScript tasks.
  • Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): reserve width and height for images and embeds to avoid unexpected layout jumps.

Scope and Page Weight

  • Keep total page size under 1.5 MB for mobile when possible. Every extra MB increases load time and data cost.
  • Audit third party scripts and tags. Often one or two external scripts cause most of the delay.
  • Prioritize above the fold assets: inline critical CSS and lazy load below the fold images.

Hosting and Delivery

  • Shared hosting can be fine for low traffic if the host provides solid network and HTTP/2 support.
  • Static site hosts or a small VPS are often cheaper and faster for simple sites than managed platforms.
  • A low cost CDN can dramatically reduce latency for distant visitors and reduce origin load.

Images and Media

  • Use modern formats like WebP or AVIF when supported, falling back to JPEG/PNG for older browsers.
  • Resize images to the display size and use responsive srcset so mobile visitors get smaller files.
  • Compress images with sensible quality settings; progressive or lossy compression usually looks fine and is much smaller.

JavaScript and CSS

  • Minify and split bundles. Too much upfront JavaScript increases parse and compile time.
  • Defer or async noncritical scripts and break up long tasks so the main thread stays responsive.
  • Inline critical CSS for first paint and load the rest asynchronously to speed initial render.

Caching and HTTP

  • Set long cache lifetimes for static assets and use cache busting for deploys.
  • Enable gzip or brotli compression on your server. Brotli typically gives better compression when available.
  • Use HTTP/2 or HTTP/3 if your host or CDN supports it to reduce request overhead and improve parallelism.

Tools and Measurement

  • Use real user data where possible: PageSpeed Insights field data, Chrome UX Report, or simple RUM scripts.
  • Run lab tests with Lighthouse or WebPageTest, but validate changes on real devices and under slow network conditions.
  • Track LCP, INP and CLS after each change; one optimization often improves multiple metrics.

Which Optimizations to Do First?

  • Start with images and delivery: resize, convert format, compress, and add a CDN.
  • Second, remove or defer heavy third party scripts and noncritical JavaScript.
  • Third, enable server compression and set proper cache headers.

Quick Checklist

  • Reduce page weight toward a 1.5 MB mobile target.
  • Convert images to modern formats and use responsive srcset.
  • Defer nonessential JS and inline critical CSS.
  • Enable gzip or brotli compression and set cache headers.
  • Use a CDN or static host with HTTP/2 or HTTP/3.
  • Monitor Core Web Vitals in the field and iterate based on data.

Bottom Line

Small sites can gain significant speed and SEO benefits with a few focused moves. Optimize images, control JavaScript, and apply caching and a CDN first. These steps improve user experience and reduce bounce without large costs.

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