Why is my website slow to load?

Most slow websites are caused by one of five things: large unoptimised images, render-blocking JavaScript, a slow origin server, missing CDN caching, or third-party scripts (ads, chat, analytics) that block the main thread.

• Google's Core Web Vitals flag any LCP above 2.5 s as poor — the median cause is images over 500 KB.
• TTFB (time-to-first-byte) above 800 ms usually means the origin server or database is the bottleneck.
• Third-party scripts (Intercom, GA, ad tags) commonly add 300–1200 ms to interactivity.
• A CDN (Cloudflare, Fastly, Bunny) typically shaves 40–60 % off global load times.