Initial Site Load Is Very Slow

  • This appears to be a common problem, and it’s very frustrating. Initial loading of my site can blow out to as much as 30 seconds! Subsequent pages are pretty quick to load, averaging maybe 2 seconds. But if I haven’t been back for a while (I haven’t quantified ‘a while’ yet), it’s back to being very slow that for that first page load. The site is new, small, and is using only a small handful of reputable plug-ins. Pingdom did report that there’s an initial wait for the server of up to 20 seconds, so it could be a hosting issue, but then I’d expect that subsequent page loads would suffer too.

    Here’s the URL: https://www.klp.com.au/

    I’m getting a bit desperate, as I’ve already followed all the usual performance optimisation advice, but nothing seems to improve that initial page load beyond about 6-7 seconds. And as I mentioned, it’s often a whole lot worse than that.

    Kev

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

  • I have never seen a site load slow like this. It could be a problem with the theme you’re using or a plugin.

    Weird thing is that Google PageSpeed Insights doesn’t even show dramatic scores as you can see in the image here: https://imgur.com/a/NuTR2

    I suggest first checking your plugins and theme. Then you can try WP Smush and WP Fastest Cache to compress images and other files, use cache and minify CSS and JS etc.

    Thread Starter kfutter

    (@kfutter)

    Thanks for the reply, Joshua. The theme I’m using is the default WooCommerce Storefront theme, with just a few tweaks to make it work with the logo. So, nothing funky there I would imagine.

    Likewise, my collection of plugins is small, and contains only well-known examples:

    • WooCommerce
    • WooCommerce PayPal Express Checkout Gateway
    • Theme Customisations (provides a safe way to modify the default theme)
    • Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights
    • W3 Total Cache

    If you’re aware of any issues with those plugins, please let me know! But they’re among the most common and recommended out there, so I don’t imagine there are any real problems. Something’s up, though, for sure!

    Kev

    Can you try and disable w3 total cache? I had some problems with this plugin in the past, it might help.

    Otherwise you maybe have to make a back-up of your current site, re?nstall WordPress and put the data back on this fresh installation.

    Thread Starter kfutter

    (@kfutter)

    Well, I installed W3 Total Cache after initially noticing the performance issues! They seem a little better after that, but not consistently so. I ran the Pingdom test again a few hours ago, and it came in at just under 5 seconds, which is a major improvement.

    I might try the reinstall option, but I’m pretty nervous about it. I’m not far off going live with my first product, so I don’t really want to screw the site up at this stage. But I don’t want my users stuck waiting for a site that takes 20 seconds to load, either. It’s pretty obvious what impact that will have on sales!

    Kev

    Hii Kev, I think in the long run you’ll be glad that you did a reinstall. It’s only something you have to do once. So it’s either that, or letting potential customers leave your website because of slow loading times.

    If you need any help with the reinstall, please let me know.

    Thread Starter kfutter

    (@kfutter)

    Thanks, Joshua. Let me think about it. I’m a web developer by trade, but fairly new to WordPress, and still feel very uncertain about it. The site took me quite a bit of time and effort to configure, so blowing it away and starting again is a big deal. I know I can back up everything locally and reinstall it, but there’s no guarantee that getting back to where I was will be that simple, or that I won’t simply reinstate the problem. I’ll monitor performance over the next few days, and make a decision after that.

    Cheers,

    Kev

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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