The 9-second wait

1 · The crime

What goes wrong

A hotel homepage shows a spinner for nine seconds on mobile data while a huge video loads. By the time the rooms appear, half the visitors have gone back to the search results.

2 · The law

Every second of loading costs visitors.

• Speed is felt, not measured: aim for the main content to appear within 2.5 seconds on a phone.
• Big images and videos, too many scripts and chat or tracking widgets are the usual culprits.
• A fast site also ranks better in search.

3 · The tool

Check it yourself, for free

• Google PageSpeed Insights: paste your address and read the mobile report.
• WebPo's free site checker for a quick plain-language summary.
• Squoosh (squoosh.app) to compress images in the browser.

4 · The fix

Step by step

1. Resize images to the size they're shown at and save them as WebP, ideally under 200 KB.
2. Replace autoplay background videos with a still photo; load video only when someone presses play.
3. Remove scripts and widgets nobody uses; load chat and maps only when needed.
4. Re-test after each change and note the new score.