How I Fixed Website Performance: Real Lessons from a Non-Tech Guy (and Found the Best WordPress Hosting)

📌 TL;DR – What I Did and What Happened

Bottom line: You don’t need to be a developer to fix this stuff — just persistent and curious

My WordPress Performance Journey: From Frustratingly Slow to Lightning Fast 🚀

I never thought I’d be writing about WordPress performance optimization. As a massage therapist, my expertise is in relieving physical tension—not fixing technical website problems! But when my WordPress site started performing poorly, I had no budget to hire a developer, so I rolled up my sleeves and figured it out myself.

What follows is my story of transforming a frustratingly slow WordPress site into one that now loads in seconds, mainly by finding the best WordPress hosting and making smart optimization choices. I’m sharing this because if I—someone whose technical skills once maxed out at creating bold text—could dramatically improve WordPress performance, I believe you can too.

I’ve always been fascinated by technology. Although my professional background is in massage therapy and rehabilitation, I’m a self-taught website builder who learned everything from the ground up. After many late nights and YouTube tutorials, I pieced together the knowledge I needed. Like many people stepping outside their main field, I made plenty of mistakes, picked up lessons the hard way, and slowly improved bit by bit.

The Warning Signs: Something’s Not Right 🔍

It started with a dip in traffic. Checking Google Search Console (Google’s tool that shows how your site performs in search results), I found warnings piling up about something called “Core Web Vitals.”

Google has these measurements called “Core Web Vitals” that sound complicated but are actually pretty simple. Think of them like a restaurant review, but for your website:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): How quickly does your food (content) arrive?
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Can you start eating right away, or is the table wobbly and distracting?
• First Input Delay (FID): Does the waiter respond when you ask for something?

My website was basically getting one-star reviews on all three measures!

Even though the pages “looked fine” in basic speed tests, Google’s real-world data from actual visitors was waving a big red flag. When real people visited my site on their phones, they were experiencing delays that could be causing them to leave before even seeing my content. I knew I had work to do.

Understanding Core Web Vitals: These are three specific measurements Google uses to evaluate site experience: Largest Contentful Paint (loading), First Input Delay (interactivity), and Cumulative Layout Shift (visual stability). Google considers a “good” LCP to be 2.5 seconds or less.

[Late nights and lots of coffee: The reality of learning website optimization when you’re not a developer]

What Was Actually Wrong With My Site? 🧠

After running multiple diagnostic tests, I dug into every corner of the site and identified four major issues:

1. Server Problems

My hosting plan wasn’t keeping up — at busy times, the server (the computer that stores and delivers my website) was getting overwhelmed, like a waiter trying to serve too many tables at once.

2. Plugin Overload

My optimization plugins were either too heavy or not set up quite right — these are the add-ons that help your WordPress site run better, but they were actually slowing things down.

3. Too Much Stuff

Extra code and files were slowing things down, especially on mobile — imagine trying to download a folder filled with unnecessary documents before you can read just one important letter.

4. Slow Response Times

The server response time was way slower than it should’ve been — this is how long it takes for the server to start sending your website to a visitor, like the delay between ordering food and the kitchen starting to prepare it.

BEFORE: My homepage took so long to load that I could literally start brewing coffee after clicking the link and return to a still-loading page. Visitors were giving up before seeing a single massage service I offered.

“This was one of the low points. I remember sitting there late at night, staring at that CPU usage spike thinking, ‘What on earth did I break this time?’ Turns out, it wasn’t just me — my old hosting plan just couldn’t handle the load.”

The Big Decision: Finding the Best WordPress Hosting for My Site 🧭

I made a big decision: migrating to one of the best WordPress hosting providers to dramatically improve WordPress performance. After careful research, I chose FastComet with their FastCloud Extra plan.

My WordPress Hosting Research Process

• Identified what I needed: Fast load times, reliable uptime, good WordPress-specific support
• Researched options: Compared features, prices, and WordPress performance reviews
• Narrowed down choices: FastComet, Bluehost, SiteGround, and HostGator (all known for WordPress hosting)
• Made final decision: FastComet’s superior LiteSpeed support and WordPress optimization features

After researching the best WordPress hosting options (companies that specifically optimize their servers for WordPress sites), it quickly became clear that FastComet stood out when it came to WordPress performance, support, and reliability. Their built-in LiteSpeed support — a technology that makes WordPress sites load much faster — was crucial for improving those Core Web Vitals scores Google cares about.

Affiliate disclosure: I now use what I consider the best hosting company for WordPress, based on performance, price, and ease of use — FastComet’s FastCloud Extra plan (starting at $4.99/month) at the time of writing this article, and I genuinely recommend it for those facing similar issues. I compared it to Bluehost, SiteGround, and HostGator before making my choice and found that FastComet offered the best balance of performance and value.

The Moving Day 📦

The night I decided to switch hosting providers, I honestly felt sick to my stomach. What if I broke my entire website? What if clients couldn’t book appointments? I remember sitting at my kitchen table at 11 PM, coffee in hand, finger hovering over the “Migrate Site” button, wondering if I was making a huge mistake.

Spoiler alert: It worked out fine, and I wished I’d done it months earlier!

The migration process was straightforward: 🛠️

• Backed up my entire website (just in case!)
• Set up my new FastComet account
• Used their migration tool to transfer everything
• Tested thoroughly before switching DNS settings (the internet’s address book)

Decluttering My Website for Speed 🧹

First Attempts at Fixing Things

Before migrating, I experimented with Seraphinite Accelerator (a WordPress plugin that compresses and optimizes your site) to improve mobile performance. It made a noticeable difference, even on my old hosting setup, and helped me squeeze out extra speed where I could. But I knew deep down that it was more of a band-aid than a long-term fix.

Better Tools, Better Results

After moving to FastComet, I had access to better tools — including native support for:

• LiteSpeed Cache: A super-efficient way to store ready-to-serve copies of your pages
• Cloudflare DNS: A service that routes visitors to your site more quickly

This gave me more stable, efficient control over performance and caching without risking plugin conflicts.

My 5-Step Clean-Up Process

1. Optimized caching system — Tweaked LiteSpeed Cache settings to strike the right balance between speed and stability.
2. Removed redundant plugins — Retired Seraphinite Accelerator, since using it alongside LiteSpeed could cause overlap and issues.
3. Plugin audit — Removed old, bloated plugins that were no longer serving a purpose or had better alternatives.
4. Code cleanup — Organized and minimized CSS and JavaScript files to reduce server clutter and loading time.
5. Content delivery optimization — Prioritized the most important parts of pages based on Google’s Core Web Vitals guidance.

Making the Site Better for Real People 👥

Visual Content Optimization

• Image compression — Reduced file sizes without sacrificing quality
• Format conversion — Switched to modern formats like WebP where supported
• Dimension right-sizing — Ensured images weren’t larger than needed

Loading Prioritization

• Smart lazy loading — Loads images only when about to be viewed
• Script management — Delayed non-essential scripts
• Critical CSS delivery — Ensured essential styling loaded first

Continuous Testing and Refinement

• Real-world data analysis — Monitored Google field data to verify real improvements
• User feedback integration — Incorporated suggestions from actual users
• Regular performance audits — Established a monthly check-in on key metrics

The Real Results: What Actually Changed 📊

Performance Metrics

Business Impact 📈

• Google Core Web Vitals Status: From mostly “Poor” to nearly all “Good”
• Bounce Rate: Decreased from 68% to 42% (26% improvement)
• Mobile Session Duration: Increased by 35%
• Conversion Rate: Improved by 18% for newsletter signups

What these numbers mean in real terms: More visitors stayed on my site long enough to book appointments, leading to a 22% increase in new client inquiries and a measurable boost in revenue.

Technical Improvements

• Server Response: Consistently under 200ms, even during peak traffic
• Cache Hit Ratio: Improved from 65% to 92%
• Plugin Count: Reduced from 22 to 14 essential plugins

“This screenshot from my LiteSpeed Cache dashboard made me smile — a drop from 1.60s to just 0.33s load time. I’m no developer, but seeing these numbers confirmed I was finally on the right track.”

“Lighthouse performance report showing 99 Performance, 100 SEO, and dramatic improvements in Core Web Vitals after migrating to FastComet and optimizing site speed.”

Valuable WordPress Performance Lessons I Learned Along the Way 📚

The Best WordPress Hosting is Your Foundation

• Hosting is the foundation — like building a house on rock vs sand
• Poor hosting limits performance no matter how much you optimize
• A good host improves speed, reliability, and peace of mind

Keep Improving

• Optimization is never finished
• Schedule regular performance checkups
• Stay up to date with WordPress and web tech

Focus on Real People

• Prioritize actual user experience over lab tests
• Use field data to guide decisions
• Consider users on mobile, slow networks, and older devices

Simpler is Better

• Every feature adds weight — remove what you don’t need
• Ask: “Does this really help users?”
• Clean, lean sites nearly always perform better

“These four lessons—solid hosting, keeping it simple, putting users first, and staying curious—are what helped me turn things around. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, just start with one. You’ve got this.”
— John

Free WordPress Performance Resources 🧰

I’m currently working on more downloadable tools and walkthroughs to help others improve their WordPress performance. In the meantime, here are some next steps you can take:

• Explore tools like PageSpeed Insights and LiteSpeed Cache
• Free online image resizer and converter for lightweight Webp formats
• Consider hosting that supports LiteSpeed Technology for built-in performance boosts
• Follow reputable blogs like WPBeginer or WPShout Blog for performance tips and how-to guides

Want more tutorials and templates in the future? Let me know — I’m building these based on reader interest!

🚀 Thinking of Switching Hosting?

If your WordPress site feels sluggish or unreliable, moving to a better host might be the most impactful change you can make.

I ultimately chose FastComet after testing a few options—not because they were the flashiest, but because they provided real performance gains and solid support without exceeding my budget, while also offering great support to me.

Feel free to check them out through my link. It won’t cost you anything extra, but it helps support the time I spend writing and testing all of this stuff. 🙏

From One WordPress User to Another 🤝

Looking back, I’m grateful for the struggle. My site is now fast, stable, and I’ve gained the confidence to manage it myself.

You don’t need to be a developer to fix your WordPress performance — just be curious, patient, and willing to learn.

I’d love to hear about your challenges or wins. Leave a comment, or reach out if you’re stuck. I’m no expert — but I’m happy to help where I can.

Let’s Connect

• Got questions? Reach out directly
• Want feedback? Share your site or story

About The Author

John Winter

I am a licensed massage therapist and rehabilitation specialist with over 10 years of clinical experience — and a passionate self-taught website builder. I’ve created MassageForBody.com to help people feel better, both in body and in life. Through years of hands-on work and plenty of late-night tech learning sessions, I strive to bring helpful, trustworthy content to readers around the world.

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