How to tell if a theme is poorly implemented?

  • rogerjh

    (@rogerjh)


    11 years ago

    A couple of sites I run are horribly slow. I wanted to blame the hosting company, but tests (e.g. loading the default theme) suggest that they are not to blame. I’ve used tools such as Pingdom’s Website Speed Test, which lead me to suspect that the problem is the theme. For example, server wait time is 5.45 s just for the CSS file.

    I was looking at the Synthesis blurb, which says “a site running a poorly implemented theme…is going to have performance issues that no hosting solution will fully solve.”

    Well I am stuck with the theme which is a premium theme and quite annoying since it cost $50. But my question is, when you are looking at a demo theme before buying, how can you tell if a theme is poorly implemented? Is is just a matter of using Pingdom, or are there other giveaways?

    Thanks!

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

  • ‘google pagespeed’ will help you to check the loading time before purchasing a theme.
    Though caching can dramatically speed up your site also with a slow theme.

    Thread Starter rogerjh

    (@rogerjh)

    Thanks Gerald, that helps. I tried using a couple of caching plugins, but the sites are still slow. Are there coding issues, or other ways to deconstruct a theme to ensure it is optimized for speed?

    Before you got the theme’s source there are not many factors to determine speed issues. Just looking at the source won’t tell you how it works under the hood. This is pretty much a matter of luck if you don`t know the developer.

    There are many many things which can slow down your site and the theme is just one factor out of a hundred.
    wrong apache configs, missing server caching, huge database queries (i.e. related post plugins), external file requests (social widgets), slow hardware, traffic peaks, big htaccess files just to name a few.

    Thread Starter rogerjh

    (@rogerjh)

    Thanks Gerald. I should have figured that it was complicated! I guess I was really looking for a sense of what to look for in a theme to make sure that it was not part of the problem.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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