Page Speed Optimization: How We Took a Site from 6 Seconds to 1.8 | AuditMySite

The Starting Point: A 6-Second Nightmare

A mid-size e-commerce client's WordPress + WooCommerce site took 6.1 seconds to load on mobile. PageSpeed score: 28/100. Bounce rate: 61%. Conversion rate declining for three quarters.

Four weeks later: 1.8 seconds, 91/100 PSI, and a 34% increase in mobile conversions. Here's exactly what we did.

Week 1: Image Optimization (LCP: 5.2s → 2.8s)

Images accounted for 4.7 MB of 6.2 MB total. The hero image alone was 2.1 MB.

Convert to AVIF with WebP Fallback

Used ShortPixel ($4.99/month): Lossy quality 80, max width 1920px, AVIF primary. Result: image payload dropped from 4.7 MB to 890 KB — 81% reduction.

Lazy Loading + Priority Hints

Below-fold images got loading="lazy" and decoding="async". LCP hero got fetchpriority="high" and a preload tag.

Responsive srcset

Four breakpoints (480, 768, 1200, 1920). Mobile users now downloaded a 30–50 KB AVIF instead of a 1920px image.

Week 2: JavaScript Surgery (INP: 480ms → 160ms)

23 JavaScript files totaling 1.4 MB. 67% of loaded JavaScript was unused on initial page load.

Removals: jQuery (90 KB) → vanilla JS, Slick Slider (42 KB) → CSS scroll-snap, 5 analytics scripts consolidated into GTM. WooCommerce cart/checkout JavaScript lazy loaded on demand.

Week 3: Server and Caching (TTFB: 1.8s → 220ms)

Cloudflare APO ($5/month) for edge HTML caching, Early Hints (103), and aggressive cache rules. Database optimization: deleted 847,000 post revisions, optimized autoloaded options (4.2 MB → 380 KB), added Redis. TTFB dropped 88%.

Week 4: CSS and Layout Stability (CLS: 0.32 → 0.04)

Critical CSS (14 KB) inlined in head, remaining stylesheet loaded async. Self-hosted fonts (subset to Latin, 120 KB → 35 KB). Every CLS-causing element fixed: ad slots reserved, cookie banner made fixed overlay, product images got aspect-ratio.

The Results

LCP: 5.2s → 1.4s (73% improvement)
INP: 480ms → 160ms (67% improvement)
CLS: 0.32 → 0.04 (88% improvement)
PSI Score: 28 → 91
Mobile Bounce Rate: 61% → 38%
Mobile Conversion Rate: +34%
Organic Traffic (8 weeks post): +22%

Applying This to Your Site

Whether you're running an e-commerce store or a digital menu for your restaurant, the principles are identical. If you're building your brand's web presence, baking performance in from the start is far cheaper than retrofitting.

The Bottom Line

Page speed optimization isn't magic — it's methodology. Images, JavaScript, server response, and layout stability. Fix them in that order, measure at each stage, and you'll see dramatic improvements.