Site speed matters for two reasons that pull in the same direction: people leave slow sites, and Google measures loading performance as part of page experience. The good news is that most slow sites are slow for a small number of identifiable reasons.
The work starts with measurement, because optimising the wrong thing is the usual outcome of starting with opinions.
Measure on a real mid-range phone rather than a desktop on office wifi, fix the largest contributor, measure again. Most sites get the majority of their improvement from two or three changes, and the rest is diminishing returns.
Large improvements are common on sites that have never been optimised. Sites already tuned are a different job, and we will tell you if we do not think there is much to win.
It is one signal among many. The more direct effect is on conversion - people abandon slow pages, particularly on mobile connections.
Usually yes, and often substantially, since plugin and theme bloat are the most common causes of a slow WordPress site.
Not normally. Rebuilding is a last resort for sites where the platform itself is the bottleneck.
Tell us what you are trying to do. If something off the shelf already does it, or the job is smaller than you think, we will say so.
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