How Do I Speed Up My Wix Website? (A Guide for UK Businesses)

At a Glance: Your Quick Fixes for a Faster Wix Site

Busy running your business? I get it. Here are the key takeaways to get your Wix website up to speed:

• Become a Speed Detective: Use the free Google PageSpeed Insights tool to get a clear, data-driven report on what’s slowing your site down. Always check the Mobile score first.
• Shrink Your Images: Large media files are the number one speed killer. Compress all your images before you upload them to Wix using a tool like TinyPNG.
• Declutter Your Design: Less is more. Limit yourself to 2-3 fonts, use animations sparingly, and tidy up any apps you’re not actively using to generate leads.
• Prioritise Mobile Users: Use the Wix Mobile Editor to hide any non-essential elements for your mobile visitors. If it’s not crucial for them to see it on a small screen, hide it to make their experience much faster.
• Know When to Call for Backup: If your site is still slow after trying the DIY fixes, it’s time to hire a specialist. A short-term project with an expert can deliver huge results.

Your Slow Wix Website is Costing You Leads. Let’s Fix It.

You’ve poured your heart, time, and money into creating a beautiful Wix website. It looks the part, it has all your key information, but there’s a nagging problem… it’s slow. And that slowness isn’t just a minor annoyance; it’s a silent business killer.

For a UK small business owner like you, your website is your digital shop window, your 24/7 salesperson, and often the first handshake with a new customer. When that handshake is limp because a page takes forever to load, potential leads simply walk away.

How bad is it? Studies have shown that poor website performance can have a real financial impact, and a delay of just one second in page load time can slash your conversions by up to 20%. Think about that. For every second a potential client waits, a fifth of them might just give up and go to a competitor.

This gets even more critical when you look at mobile phones. A massive 75% of online time for UK adults is spent on smartphones, yet more than half of these visitors will abandon your site if it takes longer than three seconds to load. You could be losing the majority of your potential customers before they even see what you have to offer.

So, what’s the bottom line here? You feel trapped. Your website is essential, but fixing its speed feels like a dark art, full of technical jargon and potential expense.

My goal with this guide is to give you a clear, simple framework to take back control. We’re going to break it down into three manageable steps: Diagnose, DIY, and Delegate.

You’ll learn how to see the problem clearly, what you can fix yourself today (without any code), and when it’s time to call in a pro for a quick, high-impact job.

Let’s get that website working as hard as you do.

Why’s My Wix Site Moving at a Snail’s Pace?

First things first, let’s clear the air about Wix.

You might have heard people say that Wix websites are just naturally slow. A few years ago, there was some truth to that, but things have changed dramatically. As Google’s own John Mueller has said, “Wix is fine for SEO… they’ve made fantastic progress and are now a fine platform for businesses.”

The platform does have a trade-off: you get incredible ease of use, but in return, Wix handles a lot of the code in the background.

This can lead to a bit of “code bloat.”

But in my experience since 1999, the platform itself is rarely the main problem. More often than not, the real culprits behind a slow Wix website are things that are completely within your control.

Let’s look at what’s likely causing the drag.

Heavy Media Files: This is the big one. By a country mile, the most common issue I see is massive, uncompressed images and videos. That beautiful, high-resolution photo from your professional camera looks great, but it can add seconds to your load time.

App & Code Clutter: Every app you add from the Wix App Market, every tracking code for analytics, and every social media feed adds its own baggage. Individually, they seem small, but together they can create a real drag on performance.

Overly Complex Design: It’s tempting to use all the bells and whistles in the Wix editor. But lots of overlapping elements, fancy animations, and a dozen different fonts all increase the amount of work a visitor’s browser has to do. Simpler is almost always faster.

Mobile Neglect: It’s easy to design your site on a big desktop screen and forget about the mobile experience. If you haven’t gone into the Wix Mobile Editor to simplify the layout, your mobile visitors are being forced to download a site that was built for a broadband connection, not a 4G signal.

Your Website’s MOT: A Guide to Google PageSpeed Insights

Before you can fix the problem, you need to measure it. Think of Google PageSpeed Insights (PSI) as a free MOT for your website. It gives you a detailed report card on your site’s health and, crucially, a list of actionable suggestions for improvement.

Getting your head around this tool is the first step. It gives you the data you need to see what’s really wrong, so you’re not just guessing.

How to Run the Test

It’s dead simple. Go to the PageSpeed Insights website, pop in your website’s address, and click “Analyse.”

Now, here’s the most important first step: click the “Mobile” tab at the top of the report. Your site might seem fast on your office computer, but PSI shows you what it feels like for someone on a smartphone with a less-than-perfect connection. This is the score that really matters.

The Core Web Vitals (in Plain English)

The report is built around three key metrics called the Core Web Vitals. Forget the jargon; here’s what they actually mean for your customers:

1. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Asks, “How quickly does the main content show up?” A slow LCP feels like staring at a blank page, wondering if the site is broken. You want your visitor to see your main image or headline almost instantly.
2. Interaction to Next Paint (INP): Asks, “How quickly does the site react when I click something?” A slow INP is that frustrating lag after you click a button and nothing happens. It makes your site feel clunky and broken.
3. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Asks, “Does the page jump around while it loads?” A high CLS is infuriating. It’s when you try to tap a button, but an image loads above it at the last second, pushing the whole page down so you click on the wrong thing. It instantly destroys trust.

Don’t get hung up on obsessing over achieving a perfect 100/100 score. The real goal is to look at the “Opportunities” and “Diagnostics” sections of the report. This is your personalised to-do list for creating a better, faster experience for your visitors.

Quick Wins: The DIY Fixes You Can Do in Wix Today

Right, you’ve got your PSI report and you know where the problems are. Now for the good news. There are a number of high-impact fixes you can do yourself, right inside the Wix editor, that can make a huge difference.

1. Master Your Media: Tame the #1 Speed Killer

Wix has some clever, automatic image optimisation. So why do you need to do anything? Because giving the system a better file to start with leads to a much better result. It’s the most important thing you can do to speed up your Wix website.

• Compress Before You Upload: Before any image goes into your Wix media library, run it through a free online tool like TinyPNG, Photoshop or TinyJPG. It can shrink the file size by more than 70% with virtually no visible loss in quality.
• Choose the Right Format: Use JPG for photos. Only use PNG if you need a transparent background (like for your logo). Use SVG for simple graphics and icons whenever possible.
• Resize to Fit: Don’t upload a massive 4000-pixel photo for a space that’s only 500 pixels wide. Resize it first in any basic image editor.
• Ditch Animated GIFs: These files are ancient and massive. If you want animation, use a proper video file instead. It will be smaller and load more efficiently.
• Be Smart with Video: For your most important marketing videos where quality is key, embedding from a professional service like Vimeo offers superior features. For simple, decorative background videos, using the native Wix Video player is often faster. Use the right tool for the job.

2. Tame Your Text & Fonts

Every font style (like Bold, Italic, Light) is a separate file that has to be downloaded.

• Limit Your Variations: A good rule is to stick to two font families for your whole site (one for headings, one for body text). Try not to use more than five variations in total.
• Avoid Text in Images: This is bad for speed, bad for SEO (Google can’t read it), and bad for accessibility. Always use a proper Wix text box.

3. Aim for a Leaner Design

A simpler, cleaner design will almost always be a faster design.

• Reduce Animations: Those “fade in” and “slide up” animations can look nice, but use them sparingly. They can slow down the rendering of your page and frustrate users who just want to see the content.
• Break Up Long Pages: An endlessly scrolling homepage can be slow to load. Could that content be broken up into a few shorter, more focused pages? It’s often better for speed and for the user’s journey.

4. Audit Your Apps & Integrations

Take a look at the apps you’ve installed from the Wix App Market.

• Ask the Hard Question: For each app, ask yourself: “Does this directly help me get more leads?” If the answer is no, or you haven’t used it in months, uninstall it. It will remove its code from your site.

5. Make Mobile Your Priority

This is non-negotiable. You must actively optimise the mobile experience.

• Use the Mobile Editor: Switch to the mobile view in the Wix Editor. This isn’t just a preview; it’s a separate editing mode.
• Hide Non-Essential Elements: This is the killer feature. Is there a big decorative background image on your desktop site? A secondary call-to-action? An extra text box? If it’s not absolutely critical for the mobile user, hide it. Hidden elements don’t get loaded, which makes for a dramatically faster site.

When to Call for Backup: Knowing Your Limits

Okay, so you’ve worked through the DIY checklist, compressed your images, and tidied up your mobile view. You rerun the PSI test, and while it’s better, you’re still seeing scary-sounding warnings like:

• “Eliminate render-blocking resources”
• “Reduce unused JavaScript”
• “Minimise main-thread work”

When you see messages like these, it’s a clear signal that the problem is now in the code, beyond the reach of the standard editor. This is the point where you stop struggling and start being strategic. It’s time to delegate.

Your first conversation should be with your current web specialist if you have one. But if you need to bring in targeted help, hiring a freelance performance expert for a short, focused project is an incredibly smart investment.

A Powerful Final Step: Using a Speed App

After all the manual fixes are done, there can still be platform-level issues holding you back. This is where a specialised app can provide that final push. Our recommendation, based on its specific focus and excellent user reviews, is an app from the Wix App Market called Website Speedy – load faster.

But RESIST the temptation to install it until you have put everything above into place.

This app is designed to tackle the deep-down technical issues flagged by PSI. Users often report significant speed boosts and jumps in their mobile scores within minutes of installation.

But don’t just buy it blindly. Follow this plan:

1. Get Your Baseline: Do all the DIY fixes first, then run a PSI test and save your “before” mobile score.
2. Use the Free Trial: Install Website Speedy and activate its 14-day free trial.
3. Measure the Result: After 24 hours, run a new PSI test. If you see a big improvement in your score, you have concrete proof that it’s a worthwhile investment for your business.

How to Find Your Wix Speed Hero on Upwork

If you decide an expert is the way to go, platforms like Upwork are perfect for finding a specialist for a defined, short-term project. Here’s how to do it right.

Craft a Job Post That Gets Results

A clear job post is everything. Use this as a template:

• Title: “Wix Speed Optimisation Expert Needed to Improve Google PageSpeed Insights Score.”
• Overview: “I am a UK small business owner with a Wix website. After DIY optimisations, my mobile PageSpeed score is still poor. I need an expert to fix the technical issues flagged in my PSI report.”
• Deliverables: “The goal is to significantly improve the mobile PageSpeed score for my homepage. Deliverables include: 1) An initial analysis of the PSI report. 2) Implementing technical fixes to clear the warnings. 3) A final ‘before and after’ report showing the score improvement.”
• Required Skills: “Must have proven experience with Wix Speed Optimisation, Google PageSpeed Insights, and improving Core Web Vitals.”
• Screening Question: “Please link to a Wix site you have sped up. Briefly explain what the main problem was and how you fixed it.”

Vetting Your Candidates

Look for a specialist, not a jack-of-all-trades. Check their Upwork profile for the specific phrase “Page Speed Optimisation.” Read their reviews and look for clients mentioning concrete results and improved scores.

Managing the Project

Your benchmark for success is objective and simple: the Google PageSpeed Insights report. Agree on the “before” score with your chosen freelancer. The project is finished when they can show you an “after” report with a clear improvement. This data-driven approach keeps everyone on the same page and ensures you get the result you paid for.

From Sluggish to Speedy: Your Action Plan

Seeing your website struggle with slow speeds is frustrating, but it’s a problem with a solution. By following the Diagnose, DIY, and Delegate framework, you can take back control of your site’s performance and turn it into the powerful lead-generation tool it’s meant to be.

Investing in your website’s speed is a direct investment in your bottom line. It leads to a better customer experience, better search engine rankings, and most importantly, more enquiries in your inbox. As marketing expert Rand Fishkin notes, speed impacts everything from rankings to visitor happiness and the odds they’ll come back.

This isn’t a one-time fix, but an ongoing part of managing your digital presence. With the knowledge in this guide, you now have a repeatable process to monitor, maintain, and improve your Wix speed, ensuring your digital front door is always wide open for business.

If you’d like to explore how a tailored Knowledge Centre could help build trust and generate even more leads, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

FAQs to help you with WIX Performance