Reducing your page size for faster loading

Speed up page load time.

Last updated August 21, 2024

While Squarespace has a number of measures in place to ensure fast load times, content added to your site impacts how quickly it loads. For example, pages with many images can load slowly, especially on mobile devices and slower connections.

Whenever possible, keep each page on your site to 5 MB or less.

Use this guide to check the size of individual pages and to get your page size within this ideal range. This helps decrease the loading time on your site. To learn about common issues related to site loading time, visit My site is loading slowly.

Check page loading speed

To get a sense of your site’s load time, use tools like Pingdom, GTmetrix, Google’s PageSpeed Insights or your browser's built-in inspection tool. For example, you can use the following steps with Google Chrome:

  1. Open Developer Tools.
  2. Click the Network tab.
  3. Refresh the page to display the load time.

Keep in mind that these tools are ideal for sites coded from scratch, instead of sites built using a CMS. Since Squarespace sites use a CMS, some tools can return false negatives. If you see an error or slower than average speeds while using these tools, it doesn’t necessarily mean there’s an issue with your site.

Check your page size

If a page take longer to load than you'd like, check its page size.

One way to do this is with Chrome Developer Tools:

  1. Open Google Chrome. If you're logged into Squarespace, log out or open a private browser window.
  2. Open a new tab.
  3. Open Chrome Developer Tools. Shortcuts:
  • Mac - + Option + J
  • Windows - Ctrl + Shift + J
  1. In the same tab, open the page you want to check. Developer Tools should stay open.
  2. In Developer Tools, click the Network tab. If information doesn't appear in this tab, refresh the page.
  3. Review the total page size at the bottom of the screen. In the example below, it's shown as "1.0MB transferred."
  4. Click the Size column to sort the page content by size. This shows the parts of the page that take up the most memory and are potentially slowing it down, especially on mobile. The larger content will most likely be images. Click the file's name to see the image.

You should aim for a page size of 5 MB or less. 1 MB is the safest size for cellular connections. If your page size is larger, see our tips below for reducing page size.

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Reduce your page size

Since content on most pages loads simultaneously, pages with a lot of content take longer to load. If a page is larger than 5 MB, removing content or reducing the size of your images can help it load faster.

To reduce the content on a page:

  • Ensure there are no more than 60 blocks per page. To remove a block from a page, visit Deleting blocks.
  • If the page has more than one topic, split it into multiple pages. This can also make it easier for visitors to find the information they need and help improve your site's SEO.
  • Reduce the number of videos. Embedded content like YouTube or Vimeo videos can increase load times, especially on mobile devices. Instead, spread the videos across multiple pages using links to help visitors navigate from one page to another.
  • If your blog landing page is loading slowly, use blog excerpts to add teasers for each post, rather than showing the full text of the post. You can also enable AMP to help post posts load faster on mobile devices.
  • If your site uses stacked index pages (version 7.0), reduce the number of sections, especially sections with galleries.

Help images load quickly

Large images and pages with lots of images can take a long time to load. By following some best practices, you can speed up image-heavy pages.

Reduce image size

Keep images below 500 KB with a width of 1500px to 2500px. To upload a smaller image file, resize it using any third-party image editing software before uploading it. An image compressor like JPEGmini can help reduce file size without sacrificing quality. For more image tips, visit Formatting your images for display on the web.

Tip

Optimize image sizes by connecting the TinyIMG extension. TinyIMG replaces oversized images with compressed versions, ensuring faster page loading while maintaining image quality. While we work with third-party services to ensure Squarespace Extensions work properly, extensions fall outside our scope of support. We can help with connecting or disconnecting your extensions. For all other questions, contact the extensions provider directly.

Don’t overload galleries

Limit galleries to 50 images each. Think of gallery sections, gallery blocks, and gallery pages as display cases, rather than total inventory.

Use .jpg images

Whenever possible, use the .jpg image file type. Limit .gifs or animations.

Enable Ajax loading (version 7.0)

If your site is on version 7.0 and your template supports it, enable Ajax loading. Ajax makes page loading appear quicker and seamless. It's ideal for content-heavy pages, such as blog pages and gallery pages.

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