Slow website no more
A performance rescue for a Craft CMS site where some pages loaded so slowly the server would time out — a project that came to me on another developer’s recommendation, and turned into an ongoing series. After the work was done, PageSpeed scores went from the teens to 97.
- Role: Solo developer — diagnostics, performance optimization, deployment, backups
- Stack: Craft CMS, Vite, PHP, static page caching, server configuration
- Client: Under NDA · came via developer referral
- Engagement: Began as a one-off rescue; became an ongoing series
The Problem
Some pages on the site loaded so slowly the server would time out before returning a response. The site wasn’t broken in an obvious way — it worked, until it didn’t, and the slowest pages were effectively unusable.
The Fix
I worked through the site methodically, finding and fixing each bottleneck:
- Identified and resolved slow database queries
- Implemented static page caching to serve pages without hitting the CMS on every request
- Generated and inlined critical CSS to speed up first render
- Optimized image delivery
- Tuned server configuration
- Set up reliable backups so the improvements were protected
Outcome
PageSpeed scores went from the teens to 97. Pages that had been timing out now load quickly and reliably. We stopped at 97, not 100 — knowing when to stop is part of the job.
Why it matters
Performance rescue projects are a good test of diagnostic thinking. The site didn’t need a redesign or a platform change. It needed someone to methodically find what was slow, fix each issue, and set up infrastructure so the problems wouldn’t come back.
This is the kind of work I genuinely enjoy. There’s no ambiguity about whether it worked — the page either loads in time or it doesn’t, and watching a number climb out of the teens is its own reward. It’s also how a single project becomes a standing relationship: fix the urgent thing well, and you become the person they call for the next one.
