Help Needed: Speed Issues, Low Traffic – Core Web Vitals or Shadow Ban?

Hey BHW crew,

Newbie here desperate for some pro advice! I’ve been running my WordPress blog (http://www.blogaromatico.com.br) about scents and cosmetics, hosted on Hostinger with Cloudflare and LiteSpeed Cache. Been tweaking it for weeks to boost speed, and while I fixed a nasty cache bug that broke everything earlier, I’m still stuck with some issues. Here’s what I’m dealing with now:

1. PageSpeed Scores Suck: Latest metrics are FCP 1.4s, LCP 1.4s, TBT 0ms, CLS 0, Speed Index 5.7s. FCP and LCP are decent, but Speed Index is killing me – page takes forever to fully load. Goal is 100% (or close) on mobile/desktop.
2. Cache History: Switched from WP Rocket to LiteSpeed Cache (Hostinger uses LiteSpeed servers). It’s working now after a rough start, but I’m paranoid about pushing it too hard again.
3. Heavy Theme: Using Newspaper 12.6.9 – suspect it’s dragging performance with animations and bloated code. Disabled some animations, but still feels sluggish.
4. Image Issues: LCP is tied to a thumbnail (Blog-Aromatico-6-696x348.jpg). Optimized it with LiteSpeed’s image tool and WebP, but the rest of the page’s images might still be too heavy.
5. Low Traffic: Site’s not delivering – maxing out at 300 views per day. Could this be tied to Core Web Vitals tanking my rankings? Or am I stuck in some kind of shadow ban? Been grinding content, but it’s like Google’s ignoring me.

Anyone got tricks to:

• Slash that Speed Index down to < 3.4s?
• Tweak LiteSpeed Cache for max speed without risking another crash?
• Slim down Newspaper or swap it for something lighter without losing my design?
• Boost traffic – is this a Core Web Vitals issue or a shadow ban I should dig into?
• Any black hat magic to fake a fast site or dodge Google’s radar (kidding… or am I?)?

Appreciate any hacks, tools, or reality checks you’ve got!

Cheers,

Farias

Feel free to DM me your site so I can take a look at it.

Go to gtmetrix and share a pic of the waterfall with us

Hey Roger,

Thanks for the heads-up! I’ll shoot you a PM right now to chat more about this. Appreciate the help!

Cheers,

****
Roger,

Thanks for reaching out! I’d love to send you a PM as you asked, but I can’t find the darn button to do it. Maybe I don’t have enough posts yet? Anyway, you asked which site it is – it’s http://www.blogaromatico.com.br, my blog about scents and cosmetics. Any chance you could drop me a PM instead, or point me to where that button’s hiding? Appreciate the help! ***

_____________________________________________________

Hey PleaseRead,

Thanks for the reply! I’d love to share the GTmetrix waterfall, but I don’t have a premium account with them, so I couldn’t get that detailed view. I’ve got the PageSpeed Insights report from Google (pagespeed.web.dev) instead – Attached the screenshot below. Can you still spot what’s tanking my Speed Index from this? Any tips would be awesome!

Cheers,

https://gyazo.com/4408dbde931c3a0c1fb1f2b69f6ba0eb

farias615 said:

Hey BHW crew,

Newbie here desperate for some pro advice! I’ve been running my WordPress blog (www.blogaromatico.com.br) about scents and cosmetics, hosted on Hostinger with Cloudflare and LiteSpeed Cache. Been tweaking it for weeks to boost speed, and while I fixed a nasty cache bug that broke everything earlier, I’m still stuck with some issues. Here’s what I’m dealing with now:

1. PageSpeed Scores Suck: Latest metrics are FCP 1.4s, LCP 1.4s, TBT 0ms, CLS 0, Speed Index 5.7s. FCP and LCP are decent, but Speed Index is killing me – page takes forever to fully load. Goal is 100% (or close) on mobile/desktop.
2. Cache History: Switched from WP Rocket to LiteSpeed Cache (Hostinger uses LiteSpeed servers). It’s working now after a rough start, but I’m paranoid about pushing it too hard again.
3. Heavy Theme: Using Newspaper 12.6.9 – suspect it’s dragging performance with animations and bloated code. Disabled some animations, but still feels sluggish.
4. Image Issues: LCP is tied to a thumbnail (Blog-Aromatico-6-696x348.jpg). Optimized it with LiteSpeed’s image tool and WebP, but the rest of the page’s images might still be too heavy.
5. Low Traffic: Site’s not delivering – maxing out at 300 views per day. Could this be tied to Core Web Vitals tanking my rankings? Or am I stuck in some kind of shadow ban? Been grinding content, but it’s like Google’s ignoring me.

Anyone got tricks to:

• Slash that Speed Index down to < 3.4s?
• Tweak LiteSpeed Cache for max speed without risking another crash?
• Slim down Newspaper or swap it for something lighter without losing my design?
• Boost traffic – is this a Core Web Vitals issue or a shadow ban I should dig into?
• Any black hat magic to fake a fast site or dodge Google’s radar (kidding… or am I?)?

Appreciate any hacks, tools, or reality checks you’ve got!

Cheers,

Farias

Click to expand...

I tested the demo version of the theme and it's really fast with lower lcp and no blocking time at all. The google ads code is adding 1+ seconds to your site and the consent form isn't helping your loading speed either.

farias615 said:

Hey Roger,

Thanks for the heads-up! I’ll shoot you a PM right now to chat more about this. Appreciate the help!

Cheers,

****
Roger,

Thanks for reaching out! I’d love to send you a PM as you asked, but I can’t find the darn button to do it. Maybe I don’t have enough posts yet? Anyway, you asked which site it is – it’s http://www.blogaromatico.com.br, my blog about scents and cosmetics. Any chance you could drop me a PM instead, or point me to where that button’s hiding? Appreciate the help! ***

_____________________________________________________

Hey PleaseRead,

Thanks for the reply! I’d love to share the GTmetrix waterfall, but I don’t have a premium account with them, so I couldn’t get that detailed view. I’ve got the PageSpeed Insights report from Google (pagespeed.web.dev) instead – Attached the screenshot below. Can you still spot what’s tanking my Speed Index from this? Any tips would be awesome!

Cheers,


View attachment 429020
View attachment 429014View attachment 429015View attachment 429016View attachment 429017View attachment 429018View attachment 429019

Click to expand...

Everything looks fine from my side, the lack os views is probably because of low authority, core vitals will almost never affect rankings imo.

Huge gap in impression to click ratio after January. What type of content are you using?

Thank you all for taking the time to respond – your insights are greatly appreciated. [Username 1], I appreciate your testing of the theme demo and highlighting the impact of Google Ads and the consent form on performance. I hadn’t fully considered how much they might be slowing things down. Do you have any suggestions for mitigating their effect while retaining ads? [Username 2], your point about low authority likely outweighing Core Web Vitals as the primary issue resonates with me – it’s a perspective I hadn’t fully explored. [Username 3], you’re absolutely right to note the significant impression-to-click gap since January. I’ve been producing entirely AI-generated content using tools like SEOWriting and Grok 3, paired with Canva images, for my blog (http://www.blogaromatico.com.br), which focuses on beauty, health, fashion, nails, makeup, and perfumes. Despite nearly a year of effort, I’m still averaging only 300 views per day at most.

Competitor Comparison: I’d like to bring up an interesting observation. A competitor in the same niche, who launched well after my site, is achieving nearly 1 million views per month and has accumulated over 24,000 backlinks. Their theme appears to be exceptionally lightweight, which may contribute to their success, though I’m unsure if that’s a direct factor. How could they have built such authority and backlink volume so quickly? I suspect they might have purchased links, but when I experimented with buying backlinks myself, my views dropped a few weeks later.

I’d value your advice on the following:

• How might I optimize or replace the Newspaper 12.6.9 theme to improve performance without sacrificing my site’s design?
• What strategies could I employ to enhance my site’s authority and address the impression-to-click disparity? Could my reliance on AI-generated content be a limiting factor?
• Are there effective ways to minimize the performance impact of Google Ads?
• Regarding my competitor’s rapid growth, what approaches – legitimate or otherwise – might explain their success?

I’d be grateful for any guidance, tools, or strategies you could share. Thank you again for your help!

Me



Vs.

To improve your site’s speed and traffic, focus on optimizing images and simplifying your theme.

Core Web Vital is not a ranking factor or it has very minimal effects on ranking. I spent more than 1 month optimizing the speed of my website and achieved 100% score, but never seen any improvement on ranking.

Improve your speed so that it loads fast. But you don't need to spend your time on Core Web Vitals scores.

Ralphoton said:

To improve your site’s speed and traffic, focus on optimizing images and simplifying your theme.

Click to expand...

What are the best plugins for site speed optimization?