Website Performance Basics for Brokers

Your website is often the first impression potential clients have of your practice. A slow, clunky, or poorly designed site can undermine trust before you've even had a conversation. Conversely, a fast, professional website signals competence and attention to detail.

This guide covers the fundamental performance considerations for broker websites. You don't need deep technical expertise to understand these concepts or discuss them intelligently with web developers. The goal is to help you recognise performance issues, understand their impact, and know what questions to ask.

Why Performance Matters for Brokers

Website performance affects several aspects of your practice:

Client perception: Slow websites feel unreliable. Visitors subconsciously associate technical problems with business problems. If your website is frustrating, potential clients may wonder if working with you will be similarly frustrating.

Search visibility: Google and other search engines consider page speed when ranking websites. Slow sites may appear lower in search results, reducing the number of potential clients who find you.

Mobile users: An increasing proportion of web traffic comes from mobile devices. Mobile users are often on slower connections and less patient with poorly performing sites.

Conversion rates: Every additional second of load time correlates with reduced engagement. Visitors who wait too long simply leave.

Accessibility: Performance affects accessibility. Slow-loading content can be particularly problematic for users with assistive technologies.

Understanding Page Speed

Page speed isn't a single number—it's a collection of metrics that together describe the user's experience of your site loading.

Key Metrics

Time to First Byte (TTFB) measures how long it takes for a user's browser to receive the first byte of data from your server. This reflects server performance and network latency.

First Contentful Paint (FCP) marks when the first text or image appears on screen. This is when users know something is happening.

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) measures when the main content of the page has loaded—typically the largest image or text block. Google considers under 2.5 seconds good.

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) measures visual stability—how much the page layout shifts as it loads. High CLS is frustrating; you've likely experienced clicking on something just as the page shifts and hitting something else.

First Input Delay (FID) and Interaction to Next Paint (INP) measure how quickly the page responds to user interactions like clicks or taps.

Measuring Your Site's Performance

Several free tools can assess your website's performance:

Google PageSpeed Insights analyses your site and provides specific recommendations. It tests both mobile and desktop performance and shows how your site performs against Core Web Vitals.

GTmetrix provides detailed waterfall charts showing exactly what loads and when, helping identify specific bottlenecks.

WebPageTest allows testing from different locations and connection speeds, useful for understanding how your site performs for users in different circumstances.

Chrome DevTools (built into the Chrome browser) includes a Lighthouse audit tool and Network panel for detailed analysis.

Run these tools periodically and after any significant site changes to catch performance regressions.

Common Performance Problems and Solutions

Most broker websites share common performance issues. Understanding these helps you recognise problems and discuss solutions with developers.

Large, Unoptimised Images

Images are often the largest files on a webpage and the biggest cause of slow load times. Common issues include:

• Oversized images: Using a 4000×3000 pixel image where 800×600 would suffice
• Wrong format: Using PNG for photographs (JPEG is better) or JPEG for graphics with flat colours (PNG or SVG is better)
• Lack of compression: Images that haven't been optimised for web use
• No responsive images: Serving the same large image to both desktop and mobile users

Solutions:

• Resize images to the dimensions actually needed
• Use appropriate formats (JPEG for photos, PNG for graphics with transparency, SVG for logos and icons, WebP for modern browsers)
• Compress images with tools like TinyPNG, ImageOptim, or Squoosh
• Use responsive images that serve smaller files to smaller screens
• Implement lazy loading so images below the fold load only when needed

Too Many HTTP Requests

Every file your page loads—images, stylesheets, scripts, fonts—requires a separate request to the server. Too many requests slow down loading, especially on mobile connections.

Solutions:

• Combine multiple CSS files into one
• Combine multiple JavaScript files into one
• Use CSS sprites for small icons
• Remove unused scripts and plugins
• Consider whether each external resource is truly necessary

Render-Blocking Resources

Some resources prevent the page from displaying until they've fully loaded. If these are large or slow, the user sees nothing until they complete.

Solutions:

• Load non-critical CSS asynchronously
• Defer JavaScript that isn't needed immediately
• Move critical CSS inline
• Load fonts efficiently with font-display settings

Slow Server Response

If your server takes too long to respond, nothing else matters—users wait before anything even starts loading.

Solutions:

• Choose quality hosting appropriate for your traffic levels
• Enable caching so the server doesn't rebuild pages for every visitor
• Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to serve static files from locations closer to users
• Optimise database queries if using a dynamic CMS

Third-Party Scripts

Analytics, chat widgets, social media embeds, and advertising scripts can significantly impact performance. Each external script:

• Requires additional DNS lookups
• May block other content from loading
• May load additional resources of their own
• Is outside your control—if the third-party server is slow, your site is slow

Solutions:

• Audit all third-party scripts and remove any not actively providing value
• Load third-party scripts asynchronously where possible
• Consider whether the benefit of each script outweighs its performance cost

Mobile Performance

Mobile performance deserves special attention. Mobile users face additional challenges:

• Slower connections: Even with 4G/5G, mobile connections are often slower and less reliable than fixed broadband
• Less processing power: Mobile devices can't execute JavaScript as quickly
• Smaller screens: Different layout requirements
• Touch interfaces: Different interaction patterns

Mobile-First Considerations

Design and develop with mobile users as the primary audience:

• Ensure text is readable without zooming
• Make buttons and links large enough to tap accurately
• Avoid hover-dependent interactions (there's no hover on touch screens)
• Test on actual mobile devices, not just browser simulators
• Consider what content mobile users actually need

Responsive Design

Your site should adapt to different screen sizes automatically. Key elements:

• Flexible grids: Layouts that adjust to screen width
• Flexible images: Images that scale appropriately
• Media queries: CSS that applies different styles at different screen sizes
• Viewport configuration: Proper meta tag setup for mobile browsers

Test your site across various devices and screen sizes, including tablets and different phone sizes.

Security and Performance

Security measures can impact performance, but both are essential. The goal is implementing security without unnecessary performance costs.

HTTPS

Your site must use HTTPS (secure connection). There's no excuse for an HTTP-only site in 2026. Beyond security benefits:

• HTTPS is required for many modern web features
• Browsers mark HTTP sites as "not secure"
• Search engines prefer HTTPS sites
• Modern HTTPS with HTTP/2 can actually be faster than HTTP

If your site isn't on HTTPS, this should be the immediate priority.

Security Headers

Security headers protect your site and visitors from various attacks. These include:

• Content-Security-Policy: Controls what resources the browser can load
• X-Frame-Options: Prevents clickjacking attacks
• X-Content-Type-Options: Prevents MIME type confusion
• Referrer-Policy: Controls what information is sent to other sites
• Strict-Transport-Security: Ensures HTTPS is always used

Well-configured security headers have minimal performance impact while significantly improving security.

Working with Developers

Most brokers don't build their own websites. Here's how to have productive conversations with web developers about performance:

Questions to Ask

• What's our target for LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)?
• How are images being optimised?
• What caching strategy is in place?
• How will performance be monitored ongoing?
• What's the performance impact of adding [feature/plugin]?

Red Flags

Be wary if a developer:

• Dismisses performance concerns as unimportant
• Can't explain why the site is slow
• Proposes solutions without measuring the problem first
• Adds unnecessary features or plugins
• Doesn't test on mobile devices

Setting Expectations

Include performance requirements in your brief:

• Target page speed scores (e.g., LCP under 2.5 seconds)
• Required mobile compatibility
• Maximum page weight
• Testing requirements before launch

Maintaining Performance

Performance isn't a one-time fix. Sites naturally slow down over time as content accumulates and third-party services change.

Regular Monitoring

• Set up regular performance testing (monthly at minimum)
• Test after any significant changes or updates
• Monitor real-user metrics if available
• Watch for sudden changes that might indicate problems

Content Discipline

• Optimise images before uploading
• Avoid unnecessary plugins and widgets
• Review and remove outdated content
• Be selective about third-party integrations

Technical Maintenance

• Keep CMS and plugins updated
• Review caching settings periodically
• Monitor hosting performance
• Address issues promptly before they compound

Performance Checklist

Related Resources

Frequently Asked Questions