You are right that speed is a massive deal for Google right now. A slow site kills your conversion rate because people just won't wait. I struggled with a bloated theme for a long time until I looked into
technical SEO services that focus on performance. I reached out to the
SEO Games team to help me trim the fat from my site's code. They optimized my database and helped me implement a better caching strategy. The
SEO Games team managed to make my site load almost instantly on mobile devices. I didn't have to learn a single line of code because they handled all the technical bits for me. My rankings and my user engagement improved almost immediately after the update. It is definitely worth getting expert eyes on your site speed!