Charging time
Loading time is not a single value, but a chain reaction. Between the click and the fully usable page, there are name resolution, server response, data transfer, rendering, and script execution. Each stage can slow things down.
The magnitude of the problem is well-documented: With waiting times exceeding three seconds, bounce rates increase significantly, and with waiting times exceeding five seconds, a substantial portion of mobile visitors abandon the site. For a website with 2.000 visitors per month and a three percent conversion rate, this quickly translates to several lost leads per month, solely due to waiting time.
Experience has shown that five measures are most effective: Server-side caching, so that not every request accesses the database ; images in the correct format and size; fewer third-party scripts (every tracking tool costs money); modern protocols like HTTP/3; and a server location close to your visitors.
What rarely helps, however, is adding another optimization plugin to an already overloaded installation. Clean up first, then speed things up.
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