Slow website loading speed

[rufflemedia_creative 0]

Hi Guys Just installed a new website for a friend www. squeakandbubbles .co .uk (didn't want to link direct) but the load times for every seem too long for his, and my liking. We are using 123-reg.co.uk for the hosting. I can't work out what the problem could be! All I can think of is there's too many scripts on the pages. Tried a few plugins to compress scripts but they don't help. Compressing the css files ruined the site completely. I took out using Google fonts (Droid Sans) for the content text, and changed my SEO plugin which helped a slight amount. I don't think it's the images. I built the site locally using xampp, then transferred everything to the live site. I'm sure I changed all the 'localhost' mentions to the new details etc etc. Does anyone have any suggestions or miracle cures? Thanks! ;

[kastelic 6]

Using a caching plugin an help, for example w3-total cache. Or you could try a better hosting package, like a vps or maybe a wordpress-optimized host like wp-engine.

[rufflemedia_creative 0]

Hi I tried that plugin and it broke the site... Do caching plugins affect ranking/SEO etc? Would love any further help from anyone! Thanks

[kastelic 6]

As for the caching plugin I don't recommend turning on every feature at once, try just caching your pages and files, not minifying css and javascript. It wont affect your seo in any way.

[rufflemedia_creative 0]

Thank you for your help Kastelic. I installed the plugin last night and tweaked it but it still hasnt improved at my end!

[Danny+ 1,327]

Hi Ruffle, I have to say it does take quite sometime to load on my end, so I did some tests for you: Yslow - The site got a Grade B and an Overall performance score of 88, which is OK as far I as know. Pingdom - This seems to be OK too. http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/?url=www.squeakandbubbles.co.uk/&id=5969347 Pingdom DNS Health Check - This found some errors and may well be the cause of the load times? http://dnscheck.pingdom.com/?domain=squeakandbubbles.co.uk×tamp=1318408874&view=1 I would recommend contacting your host and proving them with the link above and asking them about the issue. Pingdom Ping - http://tools.pingdom.com/ping/?target=squeakandbubbles.co.uk&o=2&id=5969382 Pingdom Trace Route - http://tools.pingdom.com/ping/?target=squeakandbubbles.co.uk&o=1&id=5969382 So my advice would be to contact 123Reg and inform them of your load times and show them the errors on the DNS Health check, I can't promise that this is the cause of the issue but it certainly doesn't look good. I also linked you a pretty decent guide on how to setup W3 Total Cache correctly. http://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/how-to-install-and-setup-w3-total-cache-for-beginners/

[rufflemedia_creative 0]

Thanks for your help Danny! I contacted 123-reg yesterday and this morning they replied with same old: Our engineers are aware of a current intermittent issue with Database driven websites on our shared hosting packages and they are currently upgrading the platform to prevent this issue in future, however I cannot give an exact timeframe for these upgrades to complete I'm afraid. We apologise for the current slowdown you are experiencing and I must stress our engineers are aware and are currently working on correcting for all customers, as this issue is in no way specific to yourself. In the meantime implementing the database optimisation techniques as found on the following links should help your website load speeds: http://weblogtoolscollection.com/archives/2005/04/06/optimize-your-database/ http://myblogs.mikeb.info/index.php/component/content/article/461 If we can be of any further help with regard to this or any other matter, please do not hesitate to contact us. Guess I'll have to plod on testing everything then give them a ring! Failing that, change host as Kastelic said!

[ryanjohnjackson 0]

I used yslow on my site, all the javascript I have is either from wp, pagelines, or one of my 6 or so plugins. Why would any of this be "external"? Does external mean linked/hosted on a remote server? This page has 6 external Javascript scripts. Try combining them into one. This page has 9 external stylesheets. Try combining them into one.