How to Measure Website Performance: A Non-Technical Guide

What “Performance” Actually Means

When people talk about website performance, they’re really talking about one thing: How quickly and smoothly your website responds when someone visits and tries to use it.

It’s not just about a score. It’s about how your site feels to use and whether your guests achieve their goal when they visit.

You can put it in plain language this way: If a site feels annoying, confusing, or slow to use, that’s a performance problem.

Signs Your Site Is Slow, Without Needing to Measure Anything

You don’t need any tools to tell if your site has issues. Just use it like a normal visitor and notice what happens.

Here are some common red flags:

1. The page is blank for a couple of seconds after clicking your link. You click your home page or a product page and see absolutely nothing. Just a white screen or loading icon is all that appears. Even two or three seconds of nothing makes people impatient when they land on a website.
   
2. You click or tap on a button and nothing happens. Maybe the “Add to Cart” button doesn’t respond right away when you click on it. Or the menu takes a few seconds to open. That dead time makes people think the site is broken and they often won’t complete the purchase.
   
3. Images start grainy and eventually become clear. When you first land on the website, you see blurry or pixelated images that sharpen after a moment. This is a sign that images might be too large, or are loading in a way that slows everything else down to a snail’s crawl.
   
4. Text or images jump up or down the screen. You start reading, and suddenly the text moves because a banner, ad, or image finishes loading and you lose track of what you were even reading. That jumpy behavior is extremely frustrating and makes people lose trust.
   
5. The site works fine on your computer, but feels worse on your phone. Maybe it’s slow to scroll on mobile, or the layout looks broken when you finally land on the site. Since many visitors are on phones, a bad mobile experience is basically a performance failure for the website.

If you notice any of those, you already know your site is not performing the way it should and visitors are probably navigating away from your site.

The Easiest Place to Start Measuring

When you’re ready to see some numbers, the easiest place to start is PageSpeed Insights from Google. You don’t need to understand everything it shows, but you do need to grasp the basics.

Here’s a simple, step-by-step way to use it:

1. Open your browser and search for “PageSpeed Insights.”
   It should be one of the first search results from Google that you’ll find.
2. Copy the URL (web address) of the page you want to test.
   Start with your home page. Then you can test key pages, such as:
   • Your main service or product page.
   • A popular blog post.
   • Your contact or booking page.
3. Paste the URL into PageSpeed Insights and click “Analyze.”
   The test may take a few seconds to load, but don’t worry — that’s normal.
4. Look at the two tabs “Mobile” and “Desktop.”
   Always pay close attention to the mobile tab. Remember, many sites look “okay” on desktop, but struggle on phones.
5. Notice the overall score, but don’t obsess over it.
   Google will give you a score out of 100. Higher is better, but the score itself is not the entire story. Instead, you’re looking for patterns:
   • Does mobile score much lower than desktop?
   • Do several important pages score poorly?
6. Scroll down to the “Opportunities” and “Diagnostics” sections.
   You will see suggestions like:
   • “Properly size images”
   • “Eliminate render-blocking resources”
   • “Reduce unused JavaScript”
7. Some of that is developer language, and that’s okay.
   For now, you just need to know the following:
   • Things about images are often manageable by you.
   • Things about JavaScript, CSS, and “blocking” are usually developer tasks.

You’re not trying to become a performance expert. Instead, you’re simply building a basic view: “Are my key pages in okay shape, or do I have real problems?”

Is Your Website Actually Hurting Your Business?

A slow or clunky site is not just a tech problem. It can quietly start to drain your revenue.

Ask yourself these questions:

1. Do people literally complain about my site?
   • Even a few comments about the site usually mean many more people had the problem and just left without saying anything.
     
2. Do I have a lot of full carts but fewer purchases?
   
3. Do I have a lot of traffic but not a lot of business?

If you answered “yes” to any of these, your website might not just be “a bit slow.” Actually, it could be costing you real opportunities, not to mention, it’s probably driving away your potential customers and costing you sales.

Fixes You Can Do Right Now

Not everything requires a developer to fix your website. There are several simple changes you can make yourself that can have a real impact on your website and make things flow faster and easier.

1. Compress Images Before You Upload Them

Large images are one of the biggest reasons sites are slow. However, there are a few things that you can do to help speed things up.

Before you upload a photo:

• Run it through a free compressor like TinyPNG or Squoosh.
  
• Aim to keep most web images under a few hundred kilobytes, not many megabytes.

Do this for:

• Home page hero images
  
• Product photos
  
• Blog post images
  
• Banners and backgrounds

Over time, this alone can speed things up.

2. Remove Plugins and Tools You’re Not Using

If you use a platform like WordPress, it’s easy to collect plugins over time. Each plugin can add:

• Extra code
  
• Extra scripts
  
• Extra things that must load on every page

Go through your plugins or add-ons and ask yourself:

• Am I still using this?
  
• Does this feature truly matter?

If the answer is “no,” then quickly deactivate and remove it. Fewer moving parts on your website often means better performance and fewer chances for conflicts.

3. Shorten Your Pages

Very long pages with tons of sections, images, embeds, and widgets can feel heavy on any website.

You don’t need to cut important content, but you can:

• Remove repeated or outdated sections.
  
• Break extremely long pages into separate, focused pages.
  
• Simplify layouts with fewer “blocks” and special effects.

Shorter, more focused pages tend to load and feel faster.

4. Clean up “Above the Fold” Content on Your Home Page

“Above the fold” means what people see before they begin scrolling.

Ask yourself:

• Does a visitor see one clear message and one clear call to action?
  
• Or do they see sliders, pop-ups, an autoplay video, and multiple competing buttons?

Try to aim for:

• One strong headline that explains what you do.
  
• One clear supporting sentence.
  
• One main button (like “Book Now,” “Get a Quote,” or “Shop Now”).

Fewer distractions in the first viewport usually mean:

• Faster load.
  
• Less confusion.
  
• A better first impression.

5. Personally Check Your Site Weekly

Make it a habit. Once a week, quickly test your own site like a visitor:

• Click a few key pages.
  
• Try the main forms or checkout process.
  
• Do it on both your phone and your computer.

Ask yourself honestly:

• Does this feel smooth?
  
• Does anything feel slow or sticky?
  
• Would I be annoyed if this were not my business?

If it feels bad to you, it feels even worse to your customers, because they have no reason to be patient.

Conclusion: You Do Not Have to Do This Alone

Measuring website performance doesn’t have to be technical or overwhelming. You can:

• Notice simple warning signs just by using your site.
  
• Run a few quick tests with PageSpeed Insights.
  
• Watch for business clues, like abandoned carts or low conversions.
  
• Apply practical fixes, which includes compressing images, cleaning up plugins, and simplifying key pages.

If you work through everything here and still can’t get your site where you want it, that’s okay, because there are tools and teams who actually specialize in all of this.

The important thing is that you understand the basics, always take the time to ask the right questions, and choose the right level of help for your business needs. When your site feels fast and smooth, visitors stay longer, trust you more, and are more likely to become long-term customers. That’s how you turn website performance into a real advantage for your business.