§ Performance · No. 01
Core Web Vitals · Real Numbers
Est. MMXIV

Filed under

Performance ·
done honestly.

§ Website Speed Optimization

Website Speed Optimization.

Burnt Bacon speeds up slow websites so they pass Google’s Core Web Vitals, rank better, and convert more visitors. We fix the real culprits — oversized images, render-blocking scripts, bloated plugins, and weak hosting — on WordPress, Shopify, and custom sites, with before-and-after numbers to prove it. Real humans, based in South Jordan, Utah.
Core Web Vitals
Real Speed Gains
Before / After Numbers
WordPress · Shopify · Custom
Utah Team
Core Web Vitals
Real Speed Gains
Before / After Numbers
WordPress · Shopify · Custom
Utah Team
Core Web Vitals
Real Speed Gains
Before / After Numbers
WordPress · Shopify · Custom
Utah Team
Core Web Vitals
Real Speed Gains
Before / After Numbers
WordPress · Shopify · Custom
Utah Team

§ The diagnosis

Why your site is slow.

It’s almost never the host. It’s almost always images, fonts, scripts, and one heavy plugin doing far more than it should. Speed isn’t just a vanity number — it affects rankings, conversions, and bounce. Google factors Core Web Vitals into search results, and humans abandon pages that don’t load in a couple of seconds. Slow is expensive.
Want the longer version? Read our notes on Core Web Vitals on the blog.

Oversized images

Hero photos uploaded straight from a phone at 6MB. The single biggest culprit on most sites — and the easiest one to fix.

Render-blocking scripts

Tag managers, chat widgets, marketing pixels, and theme JavaScript loaded in the wrong order, holding up the whole page.

Bloated plugins

One heavy page builder or 'all-in-one' plugin can quietly add 600KB of CSS and JS to every page on the site. We find and prune.

Weak hosting

Cheap $4/month shared hosting that's fine for a brochure site collapses when you actually get traffic. Sometimes the fix is moving.

§ What we optimize

What we optimize.

The eight levers that move the needle on real-world page speed and Core Web Vitals.

Image optimization & lazy-loading

Resize, compress, convert to WebP/AVIF, and lazy-load below-the-fold images. Usually the single biggest LCP win.

Script & JS cleanup

Defer non-critical JS, remove unused scripts, and stop render-blocking before it starts. Better INP, lower CPU.

Caching & CDN

Page caching, browser caching, and a proper CDN so visitors load static assets from a server near them — not across the country.

Font loading

Self-host or preconnect web fonts, use font-display: swap, and stop the invisible-text flash that hurts both UX and CLS.

Code & database cleanup

Trim bloated CSS, prune dead plugins, clean revisions and transients, and tighten queries on WordPress and WooCommerce.

Hosting recommendations

When the host is the problem, we'll tell you — and migrate you to a faster one. No vague 'upgrade your plan' nonsense.

Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS)

Targeted fixes for Largest Contentful Paint, Interaction to Next Paint, and Cumulative Layout Shift — the three Google actually grades.

Before / after benchmarks

PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse, and field data captured before and after, so you can see exactly what changed and why.

Speed work pairs well with SEO / AIO, e-commerce, and a proper web design rebuild when the site is past saving.

§ Built for real-world results

Built for real-world results.

A 100/100 PageSpeed score on a broken site is a participation trophy. We optimize for the numbers Google and your visitors actually feel.

Measurable before / after

Every project ships with documented PageSpeed and Core Web Vitals scores from before we started and after we finished. No 'trust us'.

No dark-pattern tricks

We don't hide content, defer real images, or game scores by breaking the site. The goal is real-user speed, not just a green Lighthouse badge.

Field data, not just lab

Lab scores are a starting point. Real Core Web Vitals — what Google actually measures from real visitors — is the scoreboard that matters.

§ Who this is for

Who this is for.

If your site feels slow, scores red on PageSpeed Insights, or is failing Core Web Vitals in Search Console, this is the page you want. Most of our speed work is for Utah small businesses, WordPress sites that got heavy over the years, and Shopify stores quietly losing sales every time a product page crawls in.
Utah small businesses with aging WordPress sites
Shopify stores losing sales to slow load
Sites currently failing Core Web Vitals
Page builders (Elementor, Divi, WPBakery) bogged down
WooCommerce stores slow on category and product pages
Marketing teams hitting a ceiling on paid traffic ROI

§ How we work

Our speed optimization process.

Five steps. No mystery, no padding. Most sites see major gains within one to two weeks of starting.

01

Audit & benchmark

We capture your current PageSpeed, Lighthouse, and Core Web Vitals — lab and field. You get a free video walkthrough of what's slow and why.

02

Quick wins

Image compression, lazy-loading, caching, CDN, font fixes. The high-ROI work that moves scores fast without rebuilding the site.

03

Deeper fixes

Script audit, plugin pruning, CSS/JS cleanup, database tuning, and hosting recommendations when the platform itself is holding things back.

04

Re-test

Same tools, same conditions, same pages — so the before/after is apples to apples. We don't move the goalposts to make numbers look better.

05

Report

A plain-English summary: what was slow, what we changed, what the new numbers are, and what to keep an eye on. Yours to keep.

Want the deeper philosophy on search performance? See SEO / AIO or our Salt Lake City web design

§ Receipts

What our clients actually say.

Real Utah businesses. Real results.
Burnt Bacon redesigned our entire site and our organic traffic doubled within 6 months. Craig and his team are the real deal — professional, communicative, and they actually deliver.

Nielsen's Frozen Custard

OWNER

We've worked with other web agencies before and none of them came close to the level of communication and results we got with Burnt Bacon. Highly recommend.

Alcatraz Escape Games

MARKETING LEAD

They built our site from scratch and handled everything — design, setup, and SEO. Best investment we've made in our online presence.

The Break Grill

OWNER

§ Questions

Frequently asked questions.

Why is my website so slow?
Usually it’s oversized images, render-blocking scripts, too many plugins, or weak hosting — rarely a single cause, and almost always fixable.
Core Web Vitals are Google’s page-experience metrics — LCP (loading), INP (responsiveness), and CLS (visual stability) — that factor into rankings.
Yes — speed and Core Web Vitals are ranking signals, and faster pages also convert better and bounce less.
Most sites see major gains within 1–2 weeks, depending on the platform and how much cleanup is needed.
It’s usually a flat project fee scoped after a free audit of your site’s current performance.

Read more on Core Web Vitals on the blog, or head straight to contact.

§ Pair it with

Beyond just faster.

Web Design

Hand-coded WordPress and custom builds with performance baked in.

Salt Lake City Web Design

Local builds for SLC businesses — fast, accessible, on-brand.

SEO / AIO

Rank on Google and get cited inside ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini.

E-Commerce

Shopify Certified Partners building stores that actually sell.

§ Ready when you are

Want a faster website?

Free video audit of your current speed and Core Web Vitals — yours either way. We’ll show you what’s slow, what’s costing you traffic, and what to fix first.

— or —

Mon–Sat, 9AM–5PM