Website Speed Optimization

By creavio Team April 10, 2026 1 views

Website Speed Optimization

A slow website loses visitors. Studies show 53% of mobile users leave a page that takes longer than 3 seconds to load. For photographers, this means potential clients bouncing before they see a single image. Here is what affects your creavio site speed and how to optimize it.

Image Optimization

Images are the biggest factor in page speed for photography websites. creavio automatically optimizes images when you upload them, but there are things you can control:

  • Upload at the right resolution: You do not need 8000px wide images on your website. 3000px on the long edge is plenty for full-screen display. Larger files take longer to process and serve.
  • Use the right format: creavio serves images in WebP format when the browser supports it. WebP is 25-35% smaller than JPEG at the same quality. This happens automatically.
  • Optimize before upload: Run your images through Lightroom export with 80-85% quality. The visual difference between 85% and 100% quality is invisible. The file size difference is significant.

Lazy Loading

creavio uses lazy loading by default. Images below the fold (not visible when the page first loads) are loaded only when the visitor scrolls down to them. This means your initial page load only needs to fetch the images actually visible on screen.

For your portfolio page with 50 images, the browser loads the first 6-8 immediately. The rest load as the visitor scrolls. This dramatically reduces initial load time.

Cover Images and Hero Sections

The hero image (the large image at the top of your page) loads immediately and has the biggest impact on perceived speed. For hero images:

  • Use a single strong image, not a slideshow (slideshows load multiple images upfront)
  • Keep the file under 500KB after optimization
  • Use a horizontal/landscape orientation for better coverage across screen sizes

Video on Your Website

Embedded videos add load time. Recommendations:

  • Use video thumbnails that load the player only when clicked
  • Do not autoplay video on the homepage. It forces an immediate large download.
  • Host videos through your creavio collections and embed them rather than uploading directly to the page

Fonts and Custom Code

If you have added custom CSS or external fonts, they can affect load time:

  • Stick to 1-2 font families maximum. Each font adds a network request.
  • creavio's built-in fonts (including Poppins) are pre-optimized and cached. Custom fonts from Google Fonts add an external dependency.
  • Avoid large CSS animations or heavy JavaScript in custom code blocks.

What creavio Handles Automatically

You get these optimizations without doing anything:

  • CDN delivery: Your site is served from Cloudflare's global network. Visitors get content from the server closest to them.
  • Responsive images: Different image sizes are served based on the visitor's screen size. A mobile phone gets a smaller image than a desktop monitor.
  • Browser caching: Returning visitors load your site faster because static assets are cached.
  • Code minification: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are compressed to reduce file size.
  • HTTP/2: Multiple assets load simultaneously instead of one at a time.

Testing Your Speed

Check your site speed with these free tools:

  • Google PageSpeed Insights: pagespeed.web.dev. Scores mobile and desktop separately.
  • GTmetrix: gtmetrix.com. Detailed waterfall showing what loads and when.
  • WebPageTest: webpagetest.org. Test from different locations worldwide.

Aim for a Google PageSpeed score above 80 on mobile and above 90 on desktop. Photography sites are image-heavy, so perfect 100s are unrealistic. Focus on keeping the score green.

Common Speed Killers

  • Uploading 10MB images straight from Lightroom without export optimization
  • Adding a homepage slideshow with 20 images
  • Embedding three external widgets (chat, booking, Instagram feed) simultaneously
  • Using unoptimized GIF animations instead of video

Fix these and your site will load fast for every visitor.