Here are 2 ways to speed up the search results widget:
1. Go to Search results widget → Filters and disable the Show variants with no results setting. Thus, variants with no results won’t be shown.
2. Switch to the Filters tab and set a value for More count for each filter. This parameter will limit the number of results shown to customers when they click the filter for the first time. For example, try limiting filters to 100 products.