First of all I am a former web developer and don't have any budget to go toward hiring anyone or tools at this time.
I've been trying to fix the LCP issue and have just caused more issues such as CLS. I'm banging my head against the wall! I was hoping someone out there with specialized knowledge in this arena might be willing to offer some guidance?
My traffic has been tanking, so I'm worried how the UX can be affecting the site. My website is https://cleancookingcaitlin.com . I am currently using a free version of W3 cache . I'm delaying most of the CSS files in my functions.php except a few files (really struggled with the critical CSS and gave up). I am also using Optimole, Asset Booster, and Cloudflare – all free except Optimole.
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Went help abundantly appreciated – you're my hero!
I checked out your site, and it loads just fine .. a one-second delay is surely nothing .. Take it easy with the nitty gritty of the page speed insights, I’ve been through it, and it legit almost makes you lose your mind .. so I wouldn’t stress too much
For the LCP issue, can you try preloading your Last-Minute.jpg image? that should work. And if you will need the exact code, I can help with that too
This is not the reason for your traffic tanking. Check out recent Google algorithm updates that have been hurting a lot of people
Moving away from HostGator to a better quality host will make a huge difference. A TTFB of 4.4 is killing any chance you have of getting a good rating. A slow TTFB is typically a sign up low quality / overloaded shared hosting. Avoid any host that fits that description eg Hostinger, GoDaddy, BlueHost, and anyone owned by EIG/NewFold.
Try using [https://pagespeed.web.dev/](https://pagespeed.web.dev/) to test your site for page load issues/speed. Remember that if you’re logged in to your WP admin that caching is disabled and you’re likely getting a much slower version of the site than external users will see.
Your page seems to load well for me. I’d guess that your ranking may have more to do with google algo changes affecting your SEO. SEO is definitely not a “set and forget” thing. You’ll constantly need to re-optimize and be building new backlinks to stay relevant (aka. producing quality content that others are continuing to add new links to). Otherwise your competition that is doing this will overtake you.
1. Way too many HTTP requests. Your home page makes more than 90 HTTP requests before loading. (None of your images are lazy loading.) Get that number down below 30.
2. Excessive DOM size. Your home page has over 2000 DOM nodes. This is probably caused by too many <div> and <SVG> elements. You need to reduce the number below 800.