A page with a few pictures can take much longer to load than its HTML suggests. Here’s a way to recreate that constraint without needing a dial-up connection.

Take a photo and save two versions. Keep one at its original size and make another near the size you actually display on the homepage. Put them side by side and check whether the smaller version still shows the details that matter. Then compare the file sizes.

For a rough estimate, a 56 kilobit-per-second connection can carry about 7 kilobytes per second at its nominal rate. A 280 KB image alone would take about 40 seconds at that rate, before overhead or slower real-world speeds. At 35 KB, the same calculation gives about five seconds.

Make sure the page’s introduction and navigation are readable while the image loads. Try the page with images turned off or rename the image temporarily. The remaining page should still tell a visitor where they are and what they can click next.