Explaining a Slow Site to a Client

Who you are talking to

Somebody who chose the supplier, approved the design, and possibly asked for two of the things now causing the problem.

So a diagnosis phrased as what is wrong with this site is heard as a judgement about their decisions.

That produces defensiveness, and a defensive conversation ends in nothing being done.

Which makes the framing a practical matter rather than a matter of politeness.

Show, do not score

Since a number means nothing and an experience means everything.

Load their site on a phone, on a throttled connection, beside a competitor's, and let them watch.

Ten seconds of watching a blank screen communicates more than a report ever will.

Then do the same on a fast connection so they can see why they had not noticed.

That second part matters, because it explains their own experience rather than contradicting it.

Nobody argues with what they have just seen happen.

Explain it as accumulation

• Nobody made this decision.
• Each addition was reasonable.
• It happened over years.
• Several people were involved.
• The same happens to most sites.

All five are usually true, which is convenient, since the honest explanation is also the least accusatory one. A site is slow because eleven small things were added, not because somebody did a bad job.

Do not criticise the previous supplier

Even where it is deserved, and particularly where it is deserved.

The client chose them, so criticising the work criticises the choice.

It also sounds like a sales technique, because it frequently is one, and a client who suspects that discounts everything else you say.

Describe what the site does rather than what somebody did: this loads six scripts before the text appears, rather than they built it badly.

Where the previous work was genuinely poor, the facts convey that without you saying it.

And where the previous supplier is still involved, that restraint is what makes a working relationship possible.

A worked example

A consultant presented a client with a report showing a score of thirty-one and a list of technical failings.

The client, who had commissioned the site two years earlier, defended it, questioned the tool, and did nothing.

Six months later a different conversation happened: the site was loaded on a phone on mobile data alongside two competitors, and the client watched his own site take eleven seconds.

He asked what could be done that afternoon.

The work that followed was the same list from the original report.

The difference was that he had seen it rather than been told about it.

Give an ordered list with costs

Since a list of twenty items produces paralysis.

Three to five items, ordered by what they return rather than by technical category.

For each, say roughly what it costs in time or money and roughly what it is worth.

Mark which are settings, which are content changes, and which need a developer, since those are different decisions for the client.

And say plainly which one to do first if they only do one.

A client can act on that and cannot act on a technical audit.

Be honest about what it is worth

Which is where credibility is won or lost.

If the site is at three seconds and you are proposing work to reach two, say that the return is small and the decision is marginal.

Clients have been told that speed is critical often enough to be suspicious of anybody who says it again.

Saying that most of their problem is fixable free, and the rest may not be worth paying for, is unusual enough to be believed.

It also means that when you do say something matters, it carries weight.

Apply their own numbers rather than industry statistics, which is both more honest and more persuasive.

Show it again afterwards

Since the same demonstration closes the loop.

Record the before, and after the work is done, show the same comparison on the same connection.

That is what makes the spending feel justified and what makes the next recommendation easy.

Also show the visitor-facing figures rather than the score, for the reasons covered elsewhere.

Where the improvement is smaller than hoped, say so, since a client who discovers that themselves later will not ask again.

Write it down after the conversation

Since the demonstration is persuasive and unrepeatable.

Send a short note the same day with the three items, the costs, and what you both saw, in plain language.

That gives them something to show whoever else has to approve it, since the person you demonstrated to is frequently not the person who signs.

Keep it to half a page, since a long document reintroduces the report problem you just avoided.

Include the recording or the two screenshots if you have them, because those are what the second reader is missing.

Ask what they have been told before

A question worth putting early, since you are rarely the first person to raise this.

Many businesses have already been told their site is slow, sometimes by somebody selling a fix, and that history shapes how they hear you.

Asking what they were told, and what happened, tells you whether you are explaining something new or repeating something they have learned to discount.

Where previous advice was followed and produced nothing, that is worth acknowledging directly rather than talking past it.

And where they were quoted a large sum and declined, saying that most of what you are proposing is free changes the conversation immediately.

The counter-case

Diplomacy can go too far.

A site with a genuine security problem or a broken form needs stating plainly and urgently, and softening that is a failure rather than tact.

Some clients also prefer directness and find the careful version evasive.

And avoiding any criticism of previous work can leave a client repeatedly hiring the same supplier.

Show the experience, explain it as accumulation, give three ordered items with costs, and be honest when the return is small.

The conversation

1. Load it on a phone, throttled, in front of them.
2. Show a competitor alongside.
3. Show it on fast broadband too.
4. Explain it as accumulation.
5. Name the site's behaviour, not the supplier.
6. Give three items with costs.
7. Say what the return honestly is.

Step three is what prevents the defensiveness, since it explains why the client has never experienced the problem rather than implying they were not paying attention.

The related skill is covered in explaining a drop that is not real.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.