Site speed impacts user experience and business metrics. Google recommends sites load in 1 second and will emphasize speed in rankings. Faster sites see increased conversion rates. The document provides 8 tips to speed up sites: 1) choose an appropriate web host, 2) combine and minify code, 3) remove query strings from static resources, 4) leverage caching and CDNs, 5) minimize slow scripts, 6) reduce external content, 7) optimize page rendering, and 8) optimize images through compression. Manual compression in tools like Photoshop can reduce image file sizes by 50-80% versus 5-30% for automated tools, yielding significant load time improvements.