Above link illustrates my problem but here goes… I am trying to make my site download faster. Ive always noticed that since I switched over from a static site to a wordpress version the site always felt to me it took longer to download. No I know for sure its taking longer having ran it through a speed test via speed the bot.
Ive added a stack of plugins (all promising to speed things up) to speed up my site www.davidclick.com but nothing seams to improve its download times. I am a bit frustrated in that I paid for a developer ( A good guy I’m not complaining about his work) to convert my old static site to wordpress but now I’m plagued with slow down load times
What can i do to speed it up? I’m not a wordpress developer but I do know how to ad plug ins and make changes etc.
Wordpress adds a lot of extra CSS and JavaScript http requests with every plugin you add, and that all adds weight to each page. As suggested you could try disabling plugins though I’m curious as to why you’re using Wordpress for a simple portfolio site?
Not sure if this is part of it but you have 48 errors when you run the main page in validator. (http://validator.w3.org/)
right at the top Line 1, Column 1: no document type declaration; implying "<!DOCTYPE HTML SYSTEM>"
which surprised me a bit. must be a very old wp theme.
It might not affect the speed but maybe worth looking at?
I didn’t think the speed was that bad really.
You might want to take a look at your text spacing and styling. Especially around your personal photo at the top left hand corner.
D
Hi Blue dreamer and thank you for you reply, well to answer your question why wordress? Previously i had a static site which I manually ediited my site but it took too long to make simple changes. I then paid a developer who recommended worpress. But I’m beginning to regret wordpress, the whole dependency on plugins and sluggish download times is making me consider re building as a static site again.
That’s the big problem, Wordpress gets touted far too much IMHO. While it has it’s uses it isn’t always the best solution, too many developers just “recommend” it without thinking while there are many (better) alternatives around.
I agree with the comments. I am still holding out hope that a new CMS will come along and take over the WP world. There is too much overhead in that world.
I know on my site I have just the basic plugins that I absolutely need and then every time I turn around there is an update.
WP’s plugin architecture is it’s biggest strength and it’s biggest weakness, where you have the ability for end users to add functionality like that it’s inevitable that you start to get bloat and a performance hit. There’s are plenty of excellent CMS’s around, but they don’t have plug n play features…
Nearly every CMS I have seen within the past decade has some level of extensibility. As a matter of fact several such as Drupal have arguably better implementions than Wordpress for handling customization without hacking into core code.
Getting back on topic, there are a number of things you can do to speed up your website.
Update your theme / upgrade to a new theme that uses best-practice WordPress techniques / validates
Remove excess plugins
Install and correctly configure a caching plugin. W3 Total Cache is the most robust but you need the knowledge to correctly configure it. WP Rocket is a premium caching plugin but is a great alternative for users with limited knowledge in server configuration.
Move to a better web host. Any shared hosting solution will restrict how fast your website delivers content. A correctly configured VPS with software like Varnish in front of it will dramatically improve performance for logged out users. Alternatively you can look at managed WordPress hosting like WP Engine.
Optimise your images before uploading.
Enable browser caching (your selected caching plugin should help in this regard, but if not you can look at modifying your .htaccess file with the appropriate rules)
Utilise a CDN network. I saw you were on Cloudflare. Take a look at your settings to get the best out of it.
Ensure the PHP version you are using is up to date - current stable release is 5.6.x
Look to using a high-availability DNS service provider
Hire a professional to help with the optimisations.
While this advise isn’t speed related, and I don’t disagree with comments about WordPress not being the best solution for every situation, when configured correctly it’s a great platform to run your website, fast. Just look at big-named companies like Time Magazine, The New York Times and ESPN for examples. They are all successfully running high-traffic websites on WordPress.
WordPress can be resource intensive when you are running a heavy volume of plugins and other assorted add ons. More and more you see WordPress specialized web hosting and with good reasoning. You might pay a bit more but you will find that your WordPress website can see a big improvements when you put it on a server that understands its needs best.
