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Swift Page
Swift Page
0 1 2 3 4 5 Before 4.0s
The main picture finishes arriving, and the page finally looks like itself

Website loading speed

Faster pages, with the working shown

We measure the site you already have under conditions written down, carry out the changes you agree to on a copy first, and measure it again exactly the same way. What moved and what did not both go in the report.

Request a website speed review What a report contains
0 1 2 3 4 5 After 1.4s
The same picture, the same test, once the work in the waterfall below was done
the page as it arrives now the same request after the work
  • The page itself 48 KB → 62 KB
  • styles.css 186 KB → 94 KB
  • slider.js 142 KB → nothing
  • Six web font files 540 KB → 60 KB · now two web font files
  • hero.jpg 1.4 MB → 180 KB · now hero.webp
  • Six product photographs 1.2 MB → 300 KB
  • analytics.js 96 KB → 96 KB
  • Chat widget 320 KB → nothing
seconds from opening the address
0s 1s 2s 3s 4s 5s

The dials and the waterfall above are a worked example of the report format, filled in with example figures so that the layout can be read. They are not a result offered to your site. Yours starts somewhere else and finishes somewhere else, and the honest answer to where is not known until it has been measured.

Measured under these conditions

page
The home page of a five-page brochure site
connection
Throttled to a 4G profile: 1.6 Mbps down, 150 ms round trip
device
Mobile profile, processor slowed four times to stand in for a mid-range phone
tool
Lighthouse in Chrome, cache empty, no browser extensions
runs
Three runs each side, the middle one reported

What is sold

Three stages, bought one at a time

They run in order and they are priced separately. An audit that ends there is a perfectly normal outcome: you hold the report, and what you do with it is your business.

  1. 01

    Speed audit

    Your site measured as it stands, under conditions written down, with everything that is costing time listed and ranked by what removing it would save.

    scope: one site · needs: the address · gives: a written report · changes nothing

    You end up with: A written report: the measurements, the conditions they were taken under, and a ranked list of what is slowing the page down with an estimate of what each item is worth.

    Speed audit, in detail
  2. 02

    Implementing the fixes

    The agreed items from the report, carried out on a copy of the site, shown to you before anything is published, and reversible afterwards.

    scope: an agreed list · needs: a backup and access · gives: the changes, live · reversible

    You end up with: The agreed changes applied to your live site, a note of exactly what was changed in each file, and the backup taken before any of it started.

    Implementing the fixes, in detail
  3. 03

    Re-testing

    The same pages measured again under the same conditions, set out beside the first reading, so the difference is a comparison rather than an assertion.

    scope: the pages audited · needs: the work published · gives: both readings, side by side

    You end up with: A report with both readings side by side, the conditions printed against each of them, and the request waterfall from each run.

    Re-testing, in detail

The report

Every figure carries its conditions

A load time with no page, no connection, no device and no tool behind it can be made to say anything. Both readings in a Swift Page report are taken the same way and printed with the same conditions against them, and the waterfall from each run is kept so you can check the report rather than believe it.

A worked example of the table a report opens with. The last two rows are worked out from the waterfall on this page rather than typed in, so the two cannot disagree.
Reading Before After What moved it
Largest Contentful Paint When the biggest thing on the first screen has finished arriving 4.0 s 1.4 s The main picture, sized and re-saved
Total Blocking Time How long the page ignored taps and scrolls while it was busy 610 ms 120 ms A slider script removed, a chat widget and analytics moved out of the way
Cumulative Layout Shift How far the page jumped about under the reader as it filled in 0.21 0.01 Heights reserved for pictures, and fonts that no longer swap late
Fetched before the first screen was ready Everything the browser had already asked for by the moment above 3.8 MB 0.4 MB Every row of the waterfall that had started by then, added up
Font files fetched How many separate font files the page waited on 6 2 Four weights nothing on the site was set in

Measured under these conditions

page
The home page of a five-page brochure site
connection
Throttled to a 4G profile: 1.6 Mbps down, 150 ms round trip
device
Mobile profile, processor slowed four times to stand in for a mid-range phone
tool
Lighthouse in Chrome, cache empty, no browser extensions
runs
Three runs each side, the middle one reported

What is never in it

  • A score. No number out of a hundred is offered as a target, and no work here is aimed at one: a score is a summary of measurements, and the measurements are what is worked on.
  • A position in search results. Loading speed is one signal among many that nobody outside a search engine controls, and anyone who tells you otherwise is guessing.
  • More sales, more enquiries or more sign-ups. A faster page removes one reason to leave. What a visitor does once they have stayed is down to the offer, the price and the writing.

The same run, request by request

Each row says what was done to it. This is the part of a report worth reading twice: it is where a figure stops being a claim and turns into a list of decisions somebody made about your site.

the page as it arrives now the same request after the work
  • The page itself 48 KB → 62 KB

    Left alone, and a little larger: the styles the first screen needs are now inside it

  • styles.css 186 KB → 94 KB

    Rules no page uses removed; the rest stops holding up the first paint

  • slider.js 142 KB → nothing

    Removed. The one slider on the site was replaced with plain markup

  • Six web font files 540 KB → 60 KB · now two web font files

    Four weights nothing used dropped, the two that are left asked for early

  • hero.jpg 1.4 MB → 180 KB · now hero.webp

    Sized for the space it occupies, saved as WebP, asked for before anything else

  • Six product photographs 1.2 MB → 300 KB

    Resized, and no longer asked for until the reader scrolls down to them: in this run that put them after the first screen had finished

  • analytics.js 96 KB → 96 KB

    Same file, moved behind the page instead of in front of it

  • Chat widget 320 KB → nothing

    Loads when somebody opens it, which on this page nobody had yet

seconds from opening the address
0s 1s 2s 3s 4s 5s

The kinds of work

Five places the time goes

Almost everything that slows a page falls into one of these. Each one says what is looked at, what may change if you agree to it, and what is deliberately left alone.

Kind of work What is looked at What may change What is left alone
Images What each picture weighs, what size it is actually displayed at, what format it is in, and whether the page has reserved room for it. Re-saving at the size in use, modern formats with a fallback, width and height so the page stops jumping, and leaving pictures below the fold until they are wanted. The pictures themselves. Nothing is cropped, retouched or replaced with a stock photograph without you asking for it.
Fonts How many files are fetched, which weights and styles anything on the site is actually set in, where they are fetched from, and what the text does while they are on their way. Dropping weights nothing uses, cutting files down to the characters the site needs, asking for the first ones early, and choosing how text behaves while a font is still arriving. Which typefaces you use. A font licence is yours and a brand decision is not a speed decision.
Scripts What each script costs to fetch and to run, what holds up the first paint, what runs on a page that never uses it, and what a third party is loading on your behalf. Loading behind the page rather than in front of it, waiting for the reader to ask, removing what nothing calls any more, and replacing a heavy library used for one small thing. Anything your business depends on. Analytics, payments, consent tools and booking widgets are moved, not removed, unless you decide otherwise.
Loading order What the browser asks for first, what it discovers late because something else had to be read first, and what is competing for the connection while the reader is looking at nothing. Telling the browser early about what the first screen needs, letting the rest wait its turn, and putting the styles that first screen needs inside the page itself. The order of your content. What appears at the top of the page is your decision, not a performance setting.
Caching What your server says about how long a file may be kept, whether a returning reader fetches the same things again, and how long the server takes to answer before any of it starts. Headers that let unchanged files be kept and changed ones be noticed, a page cache where the platform allows one, and compression on what is worth compressing. Your hosting arrangement. Where a faster plan or a different server is the honest answer, you are told so rather than sold something else.

Platforms

What is in reach, and what the platform keeps

Every hosted platform draws a line round what anybody is allowed to change. Knowing where that line falls before the work starts is the difference between a report you can act on and a list of wishes.

Platform In reach Not in reach, whoever is working on it
WordPress and WooCommerce Theme templates, the plugins that load and where, image handling, caching, font delivery, the database queries a page runs. The speed of the hosting plan itself, and any plugin you are tied to by licence or by a contract with whoever built the site.
Shopify Theme code, the apps that inject scripts, image sizes, font loading, what the first screen asks for early. Shopify serves the pages and runs the checkout. Server response time, the checkout itself and the platform scripts are theirs.
Squarespace Image sizes, injected code, embedded third parties, font choices, and which blocks a page is built from. The template engine writes most of the markup and most of the stylesheet, and neither is open to being changed.
Wix Media sizes, the apps in use, embedded third parties, and what is placed on the first screen. Wix renders the page with its own runtime. Little of the markup is yours, so the room for movement is smaller here than anywhere else on this list.
Webflow Assets, interactions, custom code, the structure of collection pages, and what the first screen asks for. Webflow hosting and the Webflow runtime script.
Sites built to order Everything in the repository: bundles, fonts, images, markup, caching headers, and what the server does before it answers. Whatever your hosting plan decides, and anything a third party you have chosen loads from its own servers.

a platform not on this list is not a refusal · send the address and the answer says what could be reached on it

Nothing happens without you

Your site is not a place to try things

Speed work touches templates, scripts and headers on a site that is earning its living while the work is going on. So it happens in a fixed order, every step of which leaves a way back.

How the work is carried out
  1. 01

    You choose from a list

    The audit hands you every item it found, with what each one is costing and how disruptive removing it would be. Which of them get done is your decision in writing, item by item.

  2. 02

    A backup before anything is touched

    Files and database, taken and checked before the first change, kept for the length of the project and handed to you at the end of it.

  3. 03

    The work happens on a copy

    A staging copy of the site, never the one your customers are using. Where your platform has no staging of its own, one is made for the project and taken down afterwards.

  4. 04

    You see it before anyone else does

    An address to look at and a list of what changed in which file. Nothing reaches the live site until you have said in writing that you are happy with it.

  5. 05

    The way back is kept

    The backup and the previous version of every file altered stay available, so the site can be put back the way it was without a rebuild and without an argument.

Send an address and find out where the time goes

The request form asks for the address of the site, what it is built on and anything you have already noticed. The reply says which stage the site actually needs and what would be measured first. Nothing is owed for asking.

Request a website speed review Start with the audit

quotations are written · in pounds sterling · the whole of what is payable, nothing added afterwards · this site takes no payments