WP site takes 9 seconds to load (please assist)

There are a few things that could cause your website to run slower then it should.

First I am quickly going to note that Google PageSpeed is very helpful except for you will never get this to 100/100 in less you spend days on it. I say that if you have a 75/100 or above and your server response time is under 2 seconds then you are good.

As for your 9+ page load time try my suggestions below.

• Compression – This is a little minor in less you have more then 2 or 3 images on a page. Either way you should get into the habit of compressing your images BEFORE you upload then to your website. Also I would suggest making the jpg and as small as possible.
• Cache – You did install WP Total Cache but did you configure it right? I would suggest following this tutorial. If you have one option off sometimes it can affect your page load speed by a few seconds.
• Cloudflare – I don’t know if you use Cloudflare or not but if you do I would suggest deactivating it and seeing if it helps. Also sometimes a good purge of the cache on Cloudflare can help.
• Plugins – Plugins can be a thing that can really weight down your website. How many plugins do you have installed? I would suggest using the P3 plugin to see what plugins are slowing down your website the most. Sometimes there are multiple plugins out there that you can use as alternatives if the one that you are currently using is slowing your site down.
• Theme – This is minor but a very select few themes can slow down your website. I would suggest switching to the Twenty Fifteen theme quickly to see if it speeds up your website. Note that when you switch themes and then switch back to the theme that you were using you can lose settings and may need to set the primary menu and sidebar widgets again.
• Host – If all else fails then I would suggest contacting your host provider. It could be a problem on there end or they may be able to help with troubleshooting. Also if you are contacting your host provider then you should make sure that you are on the most recent PHP version (5.6 is the current I think)

Let me know if any of the above were able to help you solve the problem!

Right now your site is loading at almost 3 seconds. I wouldn’t pay any attention to Google Pagespeed and would try the following:
1. Deactivate my plugins one by one and see which one slows down the site. If you have installed any social media plugins, then by deactivating these you will probably increase your speed by at least 40%. Try replacing the plugins you are using with other that do the same job. Also, if there are any plugins that you are not using, I would suggest you to Delete them.
2. Change the theme with a lighter one.
3. Optimize your images. You can do this with a plugin, but it’s always better to do it manually. By converting your png and gif images to jpg, your loading time will improve. Also, every time you add a new image resize it through a resizing software and not the Default WordPress image editor. Last, get a plugin that will lazyload your images. This will improve your G Pagepseed numbers signficantly.
4. Not related with Page speed, but something that I think is crucial for your site is this: Decrease the size of your logo and remove from your home page everything that is against your goal, which seems like it is one: Converting your visitors to buyers. Always keep this in mind and remove everything that may function against it.
I would remove both the logo (or decrease it and put it inside the Navigation Menu. I would also remove the top menu with the Home icon and maybe the block with the image under your Navigation Menu. This way the visitor will know that there is a blog without having to scroll down the page.

Hope these help a little.

Thanks for the suggestion folks. I’m checking into these suggestions now and will let you know what I find.

Thanks again!

Finally had a clearer head then when I posted the question (and more patience).

I started disabling the plugins one by one and found that when I de-activated BackWPup, there seemed (from my novice eye) to be some positive difference.

I also went through the link (https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/how-to-install-and-setup-w3-total-cache-for-beginners/) that Matthew provided which helped further.

Switching the theme didn’t make much difference which is good because I paid for that sports theme.

Things I am working on next (and I appreciate the constructive criticism):
-optimizing the images (how would one lazyload my images?)
-reviewing changes in the site to enhance purchasing by the visitors
-look more into MaxCDN (any suggestions on pursuing this?)

**Thank you very much! I am in deep water here and without you two offering the suggestions and expert level advice, I would be at the bottom of this lake with my site.

optimizing the images (how would one lazyload my images?)

Use a compression plugin to do this I would recommend. https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/tiny-compress-images/ Also you could try lazyloading them. https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/simple-lazyload/

look more into MaxCDN (any suggestions on pursuing this?)

If you have a ton of media on your website then I would consider pursuing CDN. It can get expensive but it will defiantly help speed things up. I would look at MaxCDN. But I would also see if your hosting company has a CDN service to offer. If they do then that may be a better solution. Also I would check out CloudFlare. It may help you a lot in speeding up your site. It’s sort of like a CDN service.

Check this article for plugins that will lazyload your images: https://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/6-lazy-load-plugins-to-make-your-wordpress-site-faster/

“Lazy load” and “Rocket Lazy Load” have worked fine for me without having any conflicts with w3 total cache, but you will have to check how they work with your theme and plugins compilation.

Check how your site responds with and without CDN. MaxCDN has a trial period of one month. You can check it without being charged anything. If the difference is not big, then I would not suggest you to get a CDN service. Instead, I would suggest you to change your caching plugin to a paid one: WP Rocet is the best out there and easily customizable, plus it has an option to lazyload your images, videos and iframes!

Enhancing the purchasing process for your visitors is very important. I think that you should review your main competitors and copy part of their practices. For example, if you check some other sports equiment sites you will see that they have a left sidebar with the sports (Basketball, Football, etc.). This could help your visitors navigate through your site. Again, if something doesn’t add anything to your goal, then it shouldn’t be there, no matter how nice it looks or how much time and money you spent to create it.

Best luck

Any luck @aaron?

Greetings everyone!

I swear all I did was blink and 4 days passed since I replied last. My apologies guys. I lost track of time completely.

I’m working on the site today with the guidance of your suggestions. I am dedicating myself to providing an update this afternoon eastern standard time.

Thanks again for your help and my apologies for the gap in response.

Well, I’m glad my family doesn’t get feed based on my web programming skills as they would be hungry.

I had my top-90.com open in wordpress and top90sports.com which is the one I was planning on making into the production/live site since it was easier to remember (and say) than top hyphen 90.com

I decided I would copy the settings from top-90.com and import them into the top90sports.com. When I copied and pasted the data, it was the reverse meaning I wiped out all of the settings for the theme out.

A little disheartened right now. Going to see how I do a restore since I had backup (wpbackup) but you all can probably ignore this topic for a while as I work to get one back up. ??

AGH!!!!