Common reasons for your site to load slow (page load time is slow)

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There are a lot of factors that can affect the page load time of your site (site loading slow). So if you think that your site is loading slower than expected then you need to investigate it thoroughly before coming to a conclusion because each case is unique.

Sure you can just have a WordPress install with one page and it will load fine but then that is not very helpful because you cannot do anything with that site (definitely not run a business website). I have included a lot of good resources in this post that should help you identify the source and take necessary actions to remedy the situation.

Here is a sort list of most common factors that affect your page load time and make a site slow:

– Overpopulated shared hosting

– Shared hosting with limited resources

– A server with datacenter being too far from you

– Using lots of WordPress plugins

– Using plugins that are not coded properly

– Using a bad theme

– Loading static resources from an external source (JavaScript, CSS, images etc.)

– Loading lots of big images

– Loading lots of JavaScript and CSS files

– Database needs optimization

– and the list goes one …

Overpopulated shared hosting

This is one of the main culprits in most cases. If you have a shared hosting and getting decent traffic and have a lot of posts and pages then your server is just going to load everything slow. The reason is that, it is sharing with lots of other accounts on this same server and the CPU is working slower since it has to share with everyone else. If one of the other shared accounts on this server start to get high traffic then that will also slow down your site too because that other site is taking up all the CPU processing cycles so you are getting less. If one of the other site on this server does something to bring the server down then your site goes down too.

It is one of the ugly truths that hosting providers don’t tell you when they slap that *unlimited everything* phrase on a shared hosting package.

Shared hosting with limited resources

Some shared hosts apply a more strict limitation on the CPU cycles and the RAM memory available to your site. Now, if you have a few users browsing your site then there is no issue. However, as soon as you have lots of users trying to load your site at the same time from different parts of the world, the server is going to get bogged down (kind of like hitting the rev limiter) and all the queries will get slowed down because your server is limiting the CPU and memory usage.

A server with datacenter being too far from you

Some hosting providers offer cheap rates by hosting your site in a country that is too far from you or your user base. This means every time you load a page of your site all the data have to travel a longer distance and will seem like the site is slow.

Using lots of WordPress plugins

I have seen some users use lots and lots of plugins (I have seen a site using 200 plugins and was wondering why the site is loading slow). Plugins are necessary but I don’t see why you would need more than 25-40 plugins. Each plugin adds some functionality to your site meaning there is more code that needs to be executed on each page load. Reducing some of the plugins that are bulky and not really needed helps. Handful of good plugins is all you really need to maintain a healthy site.

Using plugins that are not coded properly

WordPress has many good plugins but there are also a lot of poorly coded plugins out there. Not all developers are skilled and can write code efficiently. The more poorly coded plugins you have on your site the more it will hurt your page load time. Before you add a plugin to your site do some background check on the developer of the plugin.

We also have a list of useful plugins at the following URL that can come in handy:

http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/list-of-the-best-and-must-use-wordpress-plugins-535

Using a bad theme

This is similar to the poorly coded plugin one. Some theme designers write bulky code just to get that one eye catchy style/effect. Do some background checking on the designer/developer as usual.

Read the following post which will be very helpful:

http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/when-themes-go-wild-importance-of-using-a-properly-coded-wordpress-theme-2270

Loading static resources from an external source (JavaScript, images etc.)

Try not to load static resources from an external site unless that site is a well known one. There is nothing wrong with loading contents from sites like Google, Yahoo, Amazon S3, WordPress.com etc.

When you have a plugin or theme that is loading external resources (example, a JavaScript file), you are basically making your site dependant on that external site. So if that external site is slow or down for some reason, your page load time will get affected. What is the guarantee that the external site will always be performing at its best? If you don’t feel comfortable about that external site then you should not add such dependency.

Loading lots of big images

This is an obvious one but worth mentioning. Optimize your images (resize and compress) before uploading it to your site. You can always embed a smaller version of the image in the post or page then make the full size image a link so users can click on it to see the big image if needed (WordPress lets you do this from the add media utility).

Loading lots of JavaScript and CSS files

If your web page is loading lots and lots of JavaScript files then it can hurt your page load time. Combining them and serving as one big file is a really good option.

You can use a caching plugin such a W3 Total Cache to combine all the JavaScript and CSS files and load as one file (this is good for performance). Also minify them too if possible. Here is another good resource for you to read:

WordPress Plugins to Speed Up Your WordPress Site

Database needs optimization

When there is a lot of data in the database, it helps if you optimize it every now and then. This will help whenever your site has to query data from the database as it will find the result faster and serve the data.

Some additional Resource

This is a good post to read if you want to do some performance testing yourself and apply some performance tweaks to your site:

http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/wordpress-optimization-tips-and-tricks-for-better-performance-and-speed-1435

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