> Why a Squarespace site loads slowly, how to measure it, and the limits Squarespace itself recommends: page weight, image size, blocks, galleries and video. - Canonical: https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/why-is-my-squarespace-site-so-slow/ --- # Why your Squarespace site is so slow, and what to do about it Squarespace publishes its own limits for a fast page: 5 MB or less for the whole page, 500 KB or less for each image, and no more than 60 blocks. A slow Squarespace site is usually over one of them. Measure the page, compare it with those figures, and trim what is over. Updated 6 October 2026 ## Measure before changing anything Enter the page in Google’s PageSpeed Insights and read the mobile tab. Note how long the main content takes to appear and how large the page is in total. Our guide to [checking your website speed](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/how-to-check-your-website-speed/) explains the figures. Test the pages that matter most, not only the home page: a gallery or a shop page is often the heaviest on the site. ## The limits Squarespace recommends Squarespace’s help centre gives figures, and they make a useful checklist. - A page of 5 MB or less, with 1 MB the safest size for mobile connections. - Images of 500 KB or less. - No more than 60 blocks on a page. - No more than 50 images in a gallery. - No more than two background videos on a page. Squarespace also warns that embedded video from other services adds to loading time, most of all on phones. ## The fixes, in order Start with the heaviest things. 1. Resize and compress images before uploading them. A photograph straight from a camera or phone is many times the recommended size. 2. Replace background video with a still image. 3. Split a long page into several. Squarespace’s own advice is that a page with more than one subject should be more than one page. 4. Shorten galleries, and link to a full gallery page from a short one. 5. Remove embeds that are not earning their place: feeds, maps and video players. Then test again and compare. ## What no setting can change The owner of a Squarespace site controls its content and chooses its template. The code that assembles each page and the servers that deliver it belong to the platform. A site that has been trimmed to Squarespace’s own limits and is still slow beside its competitors has reached what the platform gives. At that point the choice is the same as on any website builder: accept the difference, or rebuild on a platform where the pages can be made as light as the content allows. Our guide to [redesigning a website without losing rankings](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/redesign-a-website-without-losing-rankings/) covers what to protect in the move. ## Questions people ask ### How big should images be on Squarespace? Squarespace recommends uploading images of 500 KB or less. It serves them in the smaller .webp format automatically unless that option has been switched off. ### How heavy can a Squarespace page be? Squarespace recommends keeping each page to 5 MB or less, and treats 1 MB as the safest size for mobile connections. Google's PageSpeed Insights reports a page's total size in its diagnostics. ### Does a slow Squarespace site affect SEO? Speed is one of the signals Google uses, through its Core Web Vitals, and a slow page loses visitors before they read it. Both cost a site, on any platform. ## Free competitor gap report Page weight matters most beside a lighter competitor. Name up to three competitors and we run their pages and yours through the same speed tests, then send you who loads faster and why. 1. Speed and technical health, side by side 2. On-page SEO and site structure 3. The content they are found for and you are not 4. Who holds the searches that matter in your market 5. A prioritised list of what to fix first [Request your free report by email](mailto:contact@hadalmedusa.com?subject=Competitor%20gap%20report%3A%20Guide%3A%20Why%20your%20Squarespace%20site%20is%20so%20slow%2C%20and%20what%20to%20do%20about%20it&body=Website%3A%0D%0A%0D%0AWhere%20you%20compete%20(area%2C%20country%20or%20countries)%3A%0D%0A%0D%0ACompetitors%20to%20compare%20against%20(up%20to%20three)%3A%0D%0A%0D%0AAnything%20else%20we%20should%20know%3A%0D%0A%0D%0A) - **Address** — contact@hadalmedusa.com - **Include** — your site; up to three competitors; where you compete ## More in this series - [Why your Wix site is so slow, and what to do about it](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/why-is-my-wix-site-so-slow/) - [Can you move a Wix site to another host?](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/can-you-move-a-wix-site-to-another-host/) - [Is Wix bad for SEO?](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/is-wix-bad-for-seo/) - [Is Squarespace bad for SEO?](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/is-squarespace-bad-for-seo/) - [How to speed up a Wix website](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/how-to-speed-up-a-wix-website/) - [How to read the Wix Site Speed dashboard](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/wix-site-speed-dashboard/) - [Wix site still slow after the fixes? How to find the limit](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/wix-site-still-slow/) - [Is Wix slower than WordPress or Squarespace?](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/is-wix-slower-than-wordpress/) - [Is Wix worth it for a small business?](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/is-wix-worth-it-for-a-small-business/) - [How to speed up a Squarespace website](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/how-to-speed-up-a-squarespace-website/) - [Can you move a Squarespace site to another platform?](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/can-you-move-a-squarespace-site/) - [How to connect a Wix site to Google Search Console](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/connect-wix-to-google-search-console/) - [How to speed up a WordPress website](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/how-to-speed-up-a-wordpress-website/) - [Is WordPress bad for SEO?](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/is-wordpress-bad-for-seo/) - [Why your Shopify store is so slow, and how to speed it up](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/why-is-my-shopify-store-so-slow/) - [Is Shopify bad for SEO?](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/is-shopify-bad-for-seo/) - [How to move from Wix to WordPress](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/how-to-move-from-wix-to-wordpress/) - [How to move a store from Wix to Shopify](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/how-to-move-from-wix-to-shopify/) - [How to move from Squarespace to WordPress](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/how-to-move-from-squarespace-to-wordpress/) - [How to move a store from Squarespace to Shopify](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/how-to-move-from-squarespace-to-shopify/) - [How to speed up a Shopify store](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/how-to-speed-up-a-shopify-store/) - [How to transfer a domain away from Wix](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/how-to-transfer-a-domain-from-wix/) - [How to transfer a domain away from Squarespace](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/how-to-transfer-a-domain-from-squarespace/) - [Website platforms: fixing one, or leaving it: the whole topic](https://hadalmedusa.com/topics/website-builders/) - [All guides](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/) - [Redesigns and rebuilds: what the service includes](https://hadalmedusa.com/services/website-redesign/)