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how to speed up a wordpress site

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  • 05-03-2015 8:11pm
    #1
    capefear
    Registered Users Posts: 772 ✭✭✭


    Hi Guys

    We are working on our site and its slow to load. We are hosting the site with blacknight and the site is a wordpress theme with arforms. One form is fairly large about 5 pages long and its taking 15 - 20 secs to load.

    Any idea on how we can speed this form up and also the website in general.

    Thanks in advance.

    CF


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    #2
    Graham
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 17,642 Mod ✭✭✭✭Graham


    Examine your site using http://gtmetrix.com, it will highlight the problem areas and make reasonable suggestions to address issues.
    Install a cache plugin, W3 Total Cache if you're technically confident WP Rocket if you want something easy to configure (it's worth the $39).
    Use a content delivery network (CDN), Cloudflare is free for the basic CDN, paid options include MaxCDN or CDNify. I've had great experience with the Free Cloudflare package and a paid CDNify package (my current provider).


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    #3
    D Hayes
    Registered Users Posts: 511 ✭✭✭D Hayes


    You are going to be limited with options on a shared hosting package. Look for plugins that minify/combine js and css files. And look at using a CDN to host static files. Also look at caching plugins.

    Beware of poorly developed plugins and themes, these can impact site performance.


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    #4
    Vurnon San Benito
    Registered Users Posts: 3,979 ✭✭✭Vurnon San Benito


    capefear wrote: »
    Hi Guys

    We are working on our site and its slow to load. We are hosting the site with blacknight and the site is a wordpress theme with arforms. One form is fairly large about 5 pages long and its taking 15 - 20 secs to load.

    Any idea on how we can speed this form up and also the website in general.

    Thanks in advance.

    CF

    Try installing W3 Total Cache and limiting (deactivating) unnecessary plugins.

    Shared hosting will never the fastest regardless, I'd personally move to a VPS, but using the above caching plugin, and CDN's as mentioned by others, you'll speed up your site.


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    #5
    zig
    Registered Users Posts: 1,206 ✭✭✭zig


    If changing of hosting isnt an option then I would find WP Super Cache fantastic, Autoptimizer is another good option but can mess with your js.

    Either way WP is very slow unless you go the caching or CDN route.


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    #6
    capefear
    Registered Users Posts: 772 ✭✭✭capefear


    Thanks guys for all the feedback, much appreciate. I will look into the suggestions tomorrow. My hosting is with blacknight which vps package should we go with and which os would you recommend.

    Sorry for all the questions


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    #7
    Talisman
    Registered Users Posts: 6,037 ✭✭✭Talisman


    On your shared hosting you should check that HTTP compression is enabled and the version of PHP that you are using. Sometimes you have the option of selecting more recent versions of PHP which have improved performance.

    What volume of traffic does the website get? In my experience a properly configured Linux server with 512MB RAM is more than sufficient to host a generic WordPress website.

    Where you can come undone is the connection speed, Irish providers make you pay a premium for faster connection speed for servers. A 10Mbit connection won't suffice for a very busy website.


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    #8
    mneylon
    Registered Users Posts: 7,739 ✭✭✭mneylon


    If you need assistance and / or advice please contact our helpdesk directly.

    Some general advice:
    • install a caching plugin like WP Super Cache
    • check which plugins you have enabled - some are very badly written
    • Run the site through something like pingdom's speed test ( http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/ )

    Blog | Tweets



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    #9
    STintin
    Registered Users Posts: 28 ✭STintin


    Use Google Page Speed tools , to find out High loading scripts and files and Optimize them.


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    #10
    moon1
    Registered Users Posts: 21 ✭moon1


    Hi, I am using free CDN from Cloudflare and W3 Total Cache (with the right settings) plugin for my website. According to Google Page Speed Insights before migrating my website DNS to Cloudflare loading was somwhere at 69% after 90%.

    Also, try not to use loads of plugins and scripts on your website. Keep it simple!

    If you need any help just let me know!
    capefear wrote: »
    Hi Guys

    We are working on our site and its slow to load. We are hosting the site with blacknight and the site is a wordpress theme with arforms. One form is fairly large about 5 pages long and its taking 15 - 20 secs to load.

    Any idea on how we can speed this form up and also the website in general.

    Thanks in advance.

    CF


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    #11
    Buttercake
    Registered Users Posts: 539 ✭✭✭Buttercake


    Here are my tips besides those already mentioned

    1. The P3 (Plugin Performance Profiler), analyses your plugin load speeds
    2. Minify CSS and JS with Minify Plugin - https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/minify
    3. Hosting Images with wordpress.com, Install Jetpack plugin and setup an account with WP.com for free and use their Photon app also free to host your images

    Install YSLOW to chrome to give you more analysis.

    A skinny theme is always good, most of these premium themes get these days from themeforest etc have rubbish page builders or site managers built in which use up a lot of resources. I'd avoid them and get a simple theme built, only install the plugins that you need.


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