Site very slow, can't figure out why

I suggest trying the P3 (Plugin Performance Profiler):
https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/p3-profiler/

Even if you do not suspect it to be a plugin, this will confirm your suspicion. Or, it may reveal the faulty plugin.

Hey radgh,
Thanks for the suggestion. I ran this and the “slowest” plugin was actually P3 itself. I only have three plugins installed, so I feel like this confirms that plugins aren’t the issue.

tcheck8 – What’s your domain? I’ll take a look at your site, if you’d like.

Hi there!
The domain is usccirclek.org. I just feel that the load times of the site (especially the initial load) take an inadequately long amount of time when compared to other websites that ALSO run on WordPress. By a “long amount of time,” I generally mean 5-10 seconds per page. Once these pages are cached by the browser, this problems tends to go away (as would be expected).

Since creating this post, I have extensively researched how to optimize the site by using plugins like W3TC.

You can also take a look at studentsforeducation.org, which is also a WordPress site on my DreamHost account. This website has NOT been optimized so it may better manifest the slowness I’m talking about.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

A quick way to see if it’s the server or what you’ve done to your site is to go to https://usccirclek.org/readme.html ?? That loads REALLY fast, so that tells me what’s slowing your site down is probably directly related to your plugins and themes.

You can use WP Super Cache, by the way, instead of W3TC, since you’re using PageSpeed and that already minifies your content for you.

Thanks for pointing this page out. I know for certain that a plugin is not causing the issue, as I’ve experienced these speed problems on WordPress prior to ever installing a plugin. My best guess is that the database querying is causing the lag. I will revert to the default theme later today to see if my current theme is causing the speed issue. I am using a theme called PageLines, which is pretty well supported so I feel as if it is not causing the issue, either.

Thanks for the suggestion about WP Super Cache, too. I feel that even without caching at all, the site should generally load faster than it does right now.

Another thing to note is that loading the back end of WordPress (/wp-admin) takes very long as well. Loading the page over wifi on my phone right now took about 14 seconds.

My best guess is that the database querying is causing the lag.

It’s possible. If the default theme goes quickly, you’ll have an answer, though.

A quick way to see if it’s the server or what you’ve done to your site is to go to https://usccirclek.org/readme.html ?? That loads REALLY fast,

I wonder what kind of tool, if any, Ipstenu-DH DreamHost Rep uses and why he picked a tiny 9,0 K file. Just to impress OP or blow him away?

The speed is 72.3 KB/s.

That loads slower than any other readme.html file.

In other words, that

REALLY fast

statement is baseless.

She.

And I use that file, which is included in all WP installs, as a very simple, no tool, benchmark to determine if Apache is having a hissy fit or not. When THAT file loads very slowly, I know something’s really wrong. It’s intentional to separate PHP (which is PHP and thus uses more memory and CPU) from a static HTML page to actually start to understand things on your domain. It’s not a full overview, but it’s not meant to be. It’s step one ??

But since you mentioned, what tool did you use to get 72.3 KB/s?

Sorry, lady. I usually ignore avatars.

wget https://usccirclek.org/readme.html
--2013-03-29 11:54:21--  https://usccirclek.org/readme.html
Resolving usccirclek.org (usccirclek.org)... 208.113.246.119
Connecting to usccirclek.org (usccirclek.org)|208.113.246.119|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 9105 (8.9K) [text/html]
Saving to: "readme.html"

100%[======================================>] 9,105       --.-K/s   in 0.1s    

2013-03-29 11:54:21 (73.5 KB/s) - "readme.html" saved [9105/9105]

From where are you running that? Your computer? That’s a very, very subjective test ??

I’m not in the DH offices today (I’m on my own home network) so I ran the same command, just to show you how wild and crazy the difference is.

wget https://usccirclek.org/readme.html
--2013-03-29 10:03:06--  https://usccirclek.org/readme.html
Resolving usccirclek.org... 208.113.246.119
Connecting to usccirclek.org|208.113.246.119|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 9105 (8.9K) [text/html]
Saving to: 'readme.html'

100%[==============================================================================>] 9,105       --.-K/s   in 0.03s

2013-03-29 10:03:07 (282 KB/s) - 'readme.html' saved [9105/9105]

So I loaded in .03s and I get 282 KB/s ?? I get 1.97 MB/s on another server, and 642 MB/s on another but those numbers change every time I run, and sometimes pretty dramatically (especially once I kicked the kid off the wifi for a second and turned off netflix).

See? That’s I was talking about and you just prove it. Whether it’s my turtle speed or your rocket booster speed, the page loads “very fast” because a human eye can’t see differences when they last fractions of a second. if you still disagree, we would start measuring figments of your imaginations. ??

Ahhh I see where you were thinking. I was actually just comparing it to basic PHP.

To whit: If a readme loads real fast, and a (say) phpinfo page does too, but WordPress does not, the odds are that it’s NOT the server itself being a dummy ??

Apology accepted. ??

Thank you.