NTG STUDIO WEBShort answer
A slow site is almost always caused by heavy images, too many plugins or scripts, undersized hosting, no caching or a badly coded theme. Compress images, remove unused plugins, enable caching and a CDN, and choose suitable hosting: a site should display in under 2.5 seconds on mobile.
Key takeaways
- Test on a real phone on 4G, not on office Wi-Fi
- Images are often over half a page’s weight
- Every plugin or third-party script slows the site
- Speed affects Google rankings and enquiry rates
In Cameroon, most visitors arrive on a phone, with a variable connection and a data plan they watch closely. A slow site doesn’t just waste time: it loses clients. Here are the ten causes we see most often.
The 10 causes
1. Heavy images. A 4 MB phone photo shown as is. Fix: resize, compress, use WebP or AVIF, lazy-load images.
2. Too many WordPress plugins. Each adds code and requests. Fix: remove everything unused.
3. A heavy "all-in-one" theme. These themes load dozens of features you don’t use. Fix: a lightweight theme or a custom site.
4. Undersized hosting. Very cheap plans pack hundreds of sites onto one server. Fix: quality hosting, ideally with a server close to your visitors.
5. No caching. The server rebuilds every page on every visit. Fix: page and browser caching.
6. No CDN. Files come from a single, sometimes distant server. Fix: a content delivery network serving files from a nearby point.
7. Too many third-party scripts. Chat, ad pixels, social widgets, multiple fonts. Fix: keep only what matters and defer loading.
8. Videos hosted on the site. Fix: use YouTube or Vimeo with a preview image.
9. Unoptimised code. Unminified CSS and JavaScript loaded everywhere. Fix: minification and on-demand loading.
10. A cluttered database. Revisions, spam, leftovers from deleted plugins. Fix: regular clean-up.
NTG Studio Web does it for you (Performance & speed, Maintenance & webmaster). Free 30-minute audit, reply within 24 hours, payment by Orange Money or MTN MoMo.
Measure before and after
Test your homepage and a service page on PageSpeed Insights, mobile version. Look mainly at:
- LCP (main content display): under 2.5 seconds;
- INP (responsiveness to taps): under 200 milliseconds;
- CLS (layout stability): under 0.1.
These are the "Core Web Vitals" Google uses in its rankings.
The effect on your business
A faster site ranks better, uses less of your visitors’ data and turns more visits into enquiries. On a store, every second saved shows in sales.
Optimise or rebuild?
If the causes are images, caching and a few plugins, a few days of optimisation is enough. If the theme itself is heavy and the site is old, a light, modern redesign often costs less over two years. Our custom sites aim for a mobile performance score above 90. Get yours tested: free diagnostic tool.
Frequently asked questions
How do I test my site’s speed?
Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights and check the mobile version. Also test yourself on a phone on 4G, off Wi-Fi.
Does a slow site lose clients?
Yes. The longer a page takes to display on mobile, the more visitors give up, especially with limited data plans.
Do I need to rebuild the site to make it fast?
Not always. Optimisation (images, cache, plugins, hosting) is often enough. If the theme is the problem, a redesign can be more cost-effective.
Founder of NTG Studio Web in Douala. Master’s in international public law, IBM Data Analytics and Anthropic AI Fluency certified. He designs websites and visibility strategies for African businesses. Learn more →