Slideshow Plugin — 340KB Page Builder Plugin — 280KB SEO Plugin — 190KB Security Plugin — 210KB ...and four more nobody remembers installing Every plugin adds weight your visitors have to wait for

If you're short on time

  • Most WordPress sites are slow because of plugin stacking — every plugin loads its own CSS and JavaScript on every page visit
  • Slow sites lose customers before they've read a single word — roughly 53% of mobile visitors leave if a page takes more than 3 seconds
  • Page speed is a confirmed Google ranking factor, especially on mobile
  • I build hand-coded HTML and CSS — no WordPress, no plugins, no page builders
  • The trade-off: you can't edit it yourself without knowing code, but most small business content doesn't change often enough for that to matter

If you've ever run your site through Google PageSpeed Insights and felt slightly embarrassed by the results, you're not alone. I look at a lot of small business websites before I build new ones for people, and the pattern is almost always the same.

WordPress, a free theme from a marketplace, and then — because the theme doesn't quite do what's needed — a plugin for the slider. A plugin for the contact form. A plugin for SEO. A plugin for security. A caching plugin because someone told them that would help. A cookie consent plugin because of GDPR. By the time the site goes live, it's carrying ten separate plugins, each loading its own JavaScript and CSS files on every single page visit.

Why this actually matters for your business

The speed problem has two direct consequences. First: Google. Page speed has been a confirmed ranking factor since 2010 for desktop, and since 2018 specifically for mobile. Second, and more immediate: people leave. Google's own research found that as load time goes from one second to three seconds, the probability of a visitor leaving increases by 32%. Your site might have the best content, the best prices, the best service — but if it hasn't finished loading, nobody's reading any of it.

What I build instead

Every site I build is hand-coded HTML and CSS. No WordPress, no plugins, no page builder. What you get is a file that contains exactly what's needed and nothing else. No database running queries on every page load. No PHP processing server-side. The browser downloads the file, reads it, and displays it. Pages load in under a second on a standard connection. Every site is mobile-first from the first line of code — not resized after the fact, but built for mobile as the primary use case.

The honest trade-off

WordPress's real advantage is that you can log in and update content yourself without touching code. For most small business websites I build — a dental clinic, a villa rental, a local tradesman — the content changes maybe twice a year. When something needs updating, I do it. If you're running a high-volume e-commerce site or publishing new content every day, a hand-coded site probably isn't the right fit — I'll tell you that honestly if it's your situation.

Want to know how your current site is actually performing?

Send me your website and I'll take a look — load speed, mobile experience, basic SEO. Honest feedback, no pitch.

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