Very slow search/sort query

Hi, I have a search page that gives you articles sorted by the likes they get. But the page loads very slow 10 seconds! I know that the problem is with number of likes. In my view I show every post with number of likes they have. When I remove that and also remove The part where I include 'likes' the speed is OK. Is there anyway I can make it faster?

Here is the search method in my controller:

class ArticlesController extends Controller
{
    public function index()
    {
        $categories = Category::with('subcategories')->get();

        $subcategories = $categories->pluck('subcategories')->flatten();

        $countries = Country::getAll();

        $articles = (new Article)->newQuery();

        $requestValues = [
            'sortBy' => 're', //recent
            'q' => '', // search query
            'country' => 1, // country id
            'cat' => '', // category
            'sub' => '' // subcategory
        ];

        $sorts = collect([
            [
                'name' => __('labels.recent'),
                'code' => 're' // recent
            ],
            [
                'name' => __('labels.liked'),
                'code' => 'li' // likes
            ],
        ]);

        if (request()->has('sort') && $sorts->where('code', request('sort'))->first()) {
            $requestValues['sortBy'] = request('sort');
        }
        if ($requestValues['sortBy'] === 'li') {
            $articles->withCount('likes')->orderBy('likes_count', 'desc'); // this is also making it slow
        } else {
            $articles->orderBy('created_at', 'desc');
        }

        if (request()->has('country') && $countries->where('id', request('country'))->first()) {
            $requestValues['country'] = request('country');
        }

        $articles->with(['blog', 'photos', 'likes']) // 'likes' makes it slow
            ->whereHas('blog', function ($query) use ($requestValues) {
                $query->where('status', BlogStatus::APPROVED)
                    ->where('country_id', $requestValues['country']);
            })
            ->where(function ($query) {
                $query->where('status', ArticleStatus::APPROVED)
                ->orWhere('status', ArticleStatus::PENDING);
            });

        if (request()->has('q') && !empty(request('q'))) {
            $requestValues['q'] = request('q');
            $articles->where(function ($query) use ($requestValues) {
                $query->where('title_en', 'LIKE', '%' . $requestValues['q'] . '%')
                    ->orWhere('title_ar', 'LIKE', '%' . $requestValues['q'] . '%')
                    ->orWhere('body_en', 'LIKE', '%' . $requestValues['q'] . '%')
                    ->orWhere('body_ar', 'LIKE', '%' . $requestValues['q'] . '%');
            });
        }

        if (request()->has('sub') && !empty(request('sub'))) {
            if ($requestValues['sub'] = $subcategories->where('id', request('sub'))->first()) {
                $articles->where('subcategory_id', $requestValues['sub']->id);

                $requestValues['sub'] = $requestValues['sub']['id'];
            }
        } else {
            if (request()->has('cat') && !empty(request('cat'))) {
                if ($requestValues['cat'] = $categories->where('id', request('cat'))->first()) {
                    $subs = $requestValues['cat']->subcategories->pluck('id')->toArray();

                    $articles->whereIn('subcategory_id', $subs);

                    $requestValues['cat'] = $requestValues['cat']['id'];
                }
            }
        }

        $articles = $articles->simplePaginate(10);

        return view('articles.index', compact('articles', 'categories', 'countries', 'subcategories', 'requestValues', 'sorts'));
    }
}

Here is the article model

class Article extends Model
{
    public function blog()
    {
        return $this->belongsTo(Blog::class);
    }

    public function photos()
    {
        return $this->hasMany(ArticlePhoto::class);
    }

    public function subcategory()
    {
        return $this->belongsTo(Subcategory::class);
    }

    public function likes()
    {
        return $this->morphMany(Like::class, 'liked');
    }

}

here is the blog model

class Blog extends Model
{
    public function articles()
    {
        return $this->hasMany(Article::class);
    }

    public function user()
    {
        return $this->belongsTo(User::class);
    }

    public function country()
    {
        return $this->belongsTo(Country::class);
    }
}