Stage 02 of the work
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 holding
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.
How it runs
In this order, every time. A stage that is done in a different order on different jobs cannot be compared with itself afterwards.
What is needed from you
- A written note of which items from the report you want carried out.
- Access to the site: an administrator account, a repository, or whatever your platform uses.
- The name of whoever else works on the site, so two people are not editing it at once.
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01
Agree the list in writing
The items to be done, item by item, from the report you already hold. Anything found along the way that is not on that list is raised with you and added only if you say so.
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02
Take a backup first
Files and database, taken before anything is touched, kept for the length of the project and handed to you at the end of it. No work starts until the backup has been taken and checked.
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03
Work on a staging copy
The changes are made on a copy of the site, not on the site your customers are using. If your platform has no staging of its own, one is set up for the project and taken down afterwards.
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04
Show you the staging copy
You get an address to look at and a list of what changed. Nothing goes to the live site until you have said in writing that you are happy with it.
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05
Publish, and keep the way back
The approved changes go live in one pass. The backup and the previous versions of every file altered are kept, so the site can be put back the way it was if something behaves unexpectedly.
Before a single file is touched
Four things that make a change reversible
Loading speed work reaches into templates, scripts and server headers on a site that is earning its living while the work goes on. What makes that acceptable is not care. It is that every step of it can be undone.
| Safeguard | What it is | Why it is not optional |
|---|---|---|
| The backup | Files and database, taken before the first change and checked by restoring it somewhere else. | A backup nobody has ever restored is a belief, not a backup. It is tested when it is taken, not on the day it is needed. |
| The staging copy | A working copy of the site at its own address, not indexed and not open to your customers. | Editing a live template means your customers are the people who find out it was wrong. Where a platform offers no staging, one is made for the project. |
| The approval | A list of what changed, file by file, and an address where you can see it working. | Nothing reaches the live site on the strength of it looking obviously right. Obviously right is how most of a broken checkout gets published. |
| The way back | The backup, plus the previous version of every file altered, kept for the length of the project and handed over at the end. | Undoing a change should take minutes and no negotiation. If putting a site back needs a rebuild, the work was not reversible in the first place. |
approval is written · publication happens in one pass · the backup and the previous versions are handed over at the end, whether or not they were needed
What actually changes
Moved, not removed
Most of the time on a slow page is not being spent on anything anybody chose. It is being spent on the order things happen in. Each heading below says what may change and what is left alone, and the second column is the one worth reading.
- Images
- what may change 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.
- what is left alone The pictures themselves. Nothing is cropped, retouched or replaced with a stock photograph without you asking for it.
- Fonts
- what may change 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.
- what is left alone Which typefaces you use. A font licence is yours and a brand decision is not a speed decision.
- Scripts
- what may change 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.
- what is left alone Anything your business depends on. Analytics, payments, consent tools and booking widgets are moved, not removed, unless you decide otherwise.
- Loading order
- what may change 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.
- what is left alone The order of your content. What appears at the top of the page is your decision, not a performance setting.
- Caching
- what may change 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.
- what is left alone Your hosting arrangement. Where a faster plan or a different server is the honest answer, you are told so rather than sold something else.
When the honest answer is "not here"
Some of what a report finds sits behind a platform, a licence or a hosting plan and cannot be reached by anybody working on the site from outside. Those items are written down with the reason and left alone. A change made anyway, against a licence or against the terms of a platform, is a problem handed to you dressed up as a saving.
What this stage is not
- Nothing goes live without your written approval, including changes that look obviously right.
- Redesigns, new pages, new features and content rewriting are different work and are quoted separately.
- Where a platform or a plugin licence forbids a change, it is left alone and the reason is written down instead.
The other two stages
- 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
- 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
What a stage costs, how long it takes and how many rounds of changes it includes depend on the site, and they are set out in a written quotation in pounds sterling before anything starts. Nothing is owed for asking.
Request a website speed review