Site Seems Slow? Triage Questions

Most websites wish they loaded faster. And many times, companies make distinct choices that sacrifice some loading speed in order to gain other benefits such as inexpensive hosting costs or cool, multimedia-heavy homepages. And while we hope it’s rare, sometimes the simple reality is that your site might seem to be crawling.

In this edition of “Lance’s Long-Winded Emails,” we fire out a few questions you can ask yourself to help determine how significant of a problem you might be facing. Here’s how we kick off our approach when we receive a report from a client that their site seems way too slow…

1. 1. Check on a few things that could slow our own computers down … especially when it seems slow when you’re editing the site…
      • Are you logged into the admin? If so, the site is not showing you its cached/fast version. It’s pulling everything from the database which takes much longer.
      • Have changes just been made? If so, the site could be doing extra processing to rebuild its cache & might be slower than normal.
      • Is it persistent? If the speed issue seems to go away after a little while, it could just be a fluke where the server was under extra load briefly. But if the issue doesn’t get any better, it could be a real issue that we can address.
   2. Check if it’s potentially the server or the software…
      • Use third-party testing to get a concrete idea of speeds. Note – choose a testing server location nearest to you when performing tests. We like the following services:
        • GTMetrix – GTMetrix is our favorite testing tool – it provides great data, meaningful feedback about what is impacting a site’s performance, and recommendations for improvement – and it presents the most balanced results of actual speed & load times. GTMetrix is neither a pessimist or an optimist – it’s a realist that demonstrates what the average user is likely to experience. Unfortunately, its best data is only available under a paid subscription model.
        • Pingdom – This tool is fast, free, & easy to use. It provides the least helpful insights (including virtually always being wrong on whether a site is using gzip compression) and the most optimistic speeds. And yet, in our many anecdotal tests, Pingdom has always given the closest load speed results to what we’re seeing with our own eyes on our own devices & network connections. For a free snapshot of performance to either provide peace of mind or help diagnose an issue, running a Pingdom test can be a great place to start.
        • Google PageSpeed Insights – This one is the pessimist. In virtually every test we’ve ever run, Google tells us substantially worse news than what we experience in our own anecdotal testing. But that’s OK! Not only does the tool provide lots of detail and tips to improve the site’s performance, it’s great to have an idea of what someone might be experiencing if they don’t have a great internet connection, have an older device, etc. After all, testing is about finding what could be wrong – not confirming that all is well. So taking Google’s negative vibes seriously can have very positive outcomes.
      • Review server response time – An important factor in determining where the root of a speed issue may lie is by checking the server’s “Time to First Byte,” or TTFB. That’s the time that the user is waiting for the server to respond with anything at all. If the server is the cause of the problem, the TTFB will usually be noticeably longer than it ougth to be. An average TTFB is .2 – .5 seconds. Strong TTFBs are .1 second or less. If the TTFB is long, the site will almost never be able load quickly regardless of changes are made. Whereas if TTFB is average or better, and the site is still taking a long time to load, then the issue is most likely on the software side.
   3. Make the Changes you can make, and that’ll make the biggest difference 
      • Check WordPress settings/cache – Most of our clients use WordPress and so this article skews their way. If your WordPress site is hosted on a managed provider like WPEngine or Flywheel, that provider may have its own cache & optimization configurations that help the site perform at its best. If your site is on a more traditional hosting environment, then the site’s cache/optimization is up to you. A number of WordPress plugins can be used to work together to help the site squeeze as much speed as possible. Check that the cache/performance plugin(s) are activated & configured in recommended/optimized settings. If you don’t have one installed, we’re big fans of LiteSpeed.
      • Check Multimedia optimization – If your site’s homepage uses substantial numbers of images and/or video, then large filesizes must be downloaded in order to render the site. Many times when running the speed tests above, the biggest impact that can be made is simply to reduce the “weight” of the page in terms of filesize. It also tends to be the easiest way for a layperson to help get the site to run faster without the help of developers.WordPress can be configured to have image compression that reduces filesizes as much as possible, and video can be hosted externally (such as on YouTube or Vimeo) so that it streams without stressing the main server. The site can also be configured to “lazy load” images – not loading them until they’re on-screen.

Next Steps if Speed is Still an Issue

If you’ve done this triage and the site is definitely running slowly, contact 2 groups – your developers, and your host’s technical support. They can and should work together to help identify and resolve any issues causing the site to run slowly. The changes may not be able to be implemented immediately, but with tenacity and cooperation, they should be able to make helpful impacts. Unfortunately, you will need to brace yourself for the potential for self-preservation instincts to kick in. It is VERY common for hosting services to blame the site’s software and deny that the issue is on their end, and likewise it’s very common for a developer to defend their own work and shift blame to the host. It can be human nature for both parties to try to weasel out of taking responsibility or doing more work – as a wise man once said, that’s what separates us from the animals (except the weasel). But if that situation rears its ugly head, be firm in your demand for them both to be accountable and work together to solve the problem. If they are still problematic, then fire the developers and call us, because we don’t play those games. We’ll help you get to the bottom of it and let you know whether you need to fire your host too.