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Website Performance in New Zealand
Most New Zealand websites are slow for two reasons: images nobody resized, and scripts nobody removed. Both are cheaper to fix than anyone expects.
$8k+
Typical project value
2 min
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What people usually mean by website performance
A website performance brief usually follows a poor score in a testing tool, a drop in rankings, or someone finally trying the site on their phone away from the office. The work is measurement, then removing what is not needed, then optimising what is left. It is one of the few projects with a directly measurable effect on revenue.
Quick wins
Images, caching, unused scripts and hosting. Usually returns most of the available improvement in a fortnight.
Core Web Vitals
Hitting Google's thresholds specifically, because they affect ranking and because the field data says real users are having a poor time.
Rebuild the front end
When the theme or platform makes speed unachievable, and patching has run out of road.
What it costs
Indicative ranges from projects posted here. Use them to sense-check a quote, not to budget precisely.
Quick wins
Image optimisation, caching, script cleanup, hosting review, with before-and-after numbers.
$3k – $9k
Full optimisation
The above plus code-level work, third-party script control and Core Web Vitals targets met on real user data.
$9k – $30k
Front-end rebuild
Replacing a theme or front end that cannot be made fast, without losing rankings.
$30k+
Questions worth asking a provider
·Will you measure on real user data, or only on a lab test?
·What are the targets, and what happens if they are not met?
·Which third-party scripts can we remove, and who decides?
·Is our hosting part of the problem? Be honest.
·How do we stop it getting slow again?
Common questions
How much does website speed optimisation cost in New Zealand?
Quick wins — images, caching, script cleanup, a hosting review — are $3,000 to $9,000 and usually deliver most of the available improvement. Full optimisation including code-level work and meeting Core Web Vitals on real user data is $9,000 to $30,000. Replacing a front end that cannot be made fast starts around $30,000.
Does speed really affect sales and rankings?
Yes to both, though not equally. Core Web Vitals are a confirmed ranking signal, and while they are a small factor next to content and links, they act as a tiebreaker. The larger effect is conversion: people leave slow sites, and on mobile connections they leave quickly. On an ecommerce site the revenue effect of a two-second improvement is usually far larger than any ranking change.
What is usually the cause?
In New Zealand, most often images uploaded straight from a camera at several megabytes each; then third-party scripts — chat widgets, analytics, ad pixels, review platforms, each adding weight; then a page builder or theme loading everything on every page; then no caching; then hosting that is cheap for good reason. The first two account for most of it, and neither requires a rebuild.
Lab scores or real users?
Both, and insist on the second. A testing tool runs a simulated visit and gives you a score; field data reports what actual visitors experienced on their own devices and connections. They frequently disagree, and it is field data that Google uses. A quote promising a score is not the same as one promising an experience — ask for targets on real user data.
How do we stop it slowing down again?
Sites get slow the way houses get cluttered: one plugin, one tracking script, one uncompressed image at a time. What prevents it is automatic image processing on upload, a rule that new third-party scripts need approval, monitoring that reports Core Web Vitals monthly, and someone who reviews it. Ask for those to be set up as part of the engagement — it is cheap while somebody is already in there.
Website Performance projects open right now
Titles and categories are public. Full briefs, budgets, regions and buyer detail are visible to approved providers only.
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Run the free test before you brief anyone
PageSpeed Insights takes thirty seconds and gives you two things most quotes are missing.
The lab score is a simulated visit. It is useful for diagnosis and it is not what Google ranks on.
The field data — labelled Core Web Vitals Assessment — is what your actual visitors experienced, on their own phones and connections. That is the number that matters, and it is frequently much worse than the lab score suggests.
Run it on your home page and on one product or service page, then take those figures into every conversation. It makes the quotes comparable and stops anyone selling you a fix for a problem you do not have.
Images and scripts are most of the problem
In New Zealand, on ordinary business sites, the causes are boringly consistent:
- Images straight from a camera. Four megabytes each, displayed at 600 pixels wide. This alone is often half the page weight, and fixing it is close to free.
- Third-party scripts. A chat widget, two analytics tools, an ad pixel, a review platform, a booking embed. Each was added for a reason and nobody has ever removed one.
- A page builder loading everything. Every slider, font and animation on every page, whether or not the page uses them.
- No caching. Every visitor causing the whole page to be rebuilt from scratch.
- Cheap hosting, shared with hundreds of other sites.
The first two are usually the majority of the problem, and neither needs a rebuild.
The script audit is the highest-value hour
Ask for a list of every third-party script on the site, what each does, what it weighs, and who asked for it.
That list is always longer than anyone expects and it always contains something nobody can account for — a tracking pixel from a campaign in 2023, an analytics tool nobody logs into, two chat widgets because a previous agency added one.
Removing three of them is often the single largest improvement available, it costs almost nothing, and it needs a decision from you rather than work from a developer. Make sure somebody in your business is empowered to say no to the marketing scripts.
Agree targets on real user data
A quote promising "a score of 90" is promising a lab number, which can be achieved in ways that do not help an actual visitor.
Better targets:
- Core Web Vitals passing on real user data for the main page types.
- A specific loading time on a mid-range Android over a 4G connection — not a laptop on fibre.
- Total page weight under an agreed figure.
- Measured before and after, on the same pages, and written down.
Field data updates over 28 days, so the real verdict arrives a month after the work. Agree in advance what happens if the targets are not met.
What speed is actually worth
Two effects, and they are not the same size.
Ranking. Core Web Vitals are a confirmed signal, and a small one next to content and links. It behaves as a tiebreaker between comparable pages rather than a lever.
Conversion. Considerably larger. People abandon slow pages, and on a mobile connection they abandon them quickly. If you sell online, model the revenue effect of a two-second improvement on your own traffic — it is usually the number that justifies the project on its own, and it makes the ranking question secondary.
If a proposal is sold entirely on SEO, ask what it does to conversion.
Ask honestly about hosting
Cheap shared hosting is cheap because your site sits alongside hundreds of others. No amount of front-end optimisation fixes a server that takes 1.5 seconds to begin responding.
Ask each developer whether hosting is part of your problem, and what moving would cost per month. Some will avoid the question because they sell the hosting. The honest answer is sometimes that $30 a month more would deliver more improvement than $5,000 of optimisation.
Then stop it drifting back
Sites get slow the way houses get cluttered — one plugin, one script, one uncompressed image at a time. Six months after an optimisation project, most sites have given back a good part of the gain.
Ask for these as part of the engagement, while somebody is already in there:
- Automatic image resizing and compression on upload, so nobody has to remember.
- A rule that new third-party scripts need approval from a named person.
- Monthly Core Web Vitals reporting from Search Console.
- A written note of what was changed, so the next developer does not undo it.
Comparing five quotes
Read for:
- Who measured your site before quoting?
- Who set targets on real user data rather than a lab score?
- Who produced a third-party script audit?
- Who was honest about hosting, even if they sell it?
- Who included something to stop it recurring?
Send your PageSpeed results, say what the site runs on, and say whether it sells anything. Developers who do this work will ask for the script list before they ask about the design.
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