Slow site

Hi @markuswesterberg,

I’m not a programmer but I have built our web shop myself.

That’s awesome! It’s not always easy and so you should be proud for sure.

However, I experience extremely slow site speed and especially loading first page. Once you’re on the site it is a bit better. How can I speed up our site?? I have already used wpsmush etc. to optimize but my google site speed report is very poor. Please, can someone help? ??

I am seeing that as well, the “TTFB” or Time To First Byte is pretty long:
https://a.mikey.link/arBkaY

What I would suggest is trying to narrow down what could be going on. Try disabling all plugins and seeing if it still happens. If the problem is gone, try enabling them back one at a time to see which one could be the issue.

I would also suggest contacting your host to see if they can help you figure it out – they can also help you find your servers Error Logs which might have some hints as to what could be going on.

Hello @mikeyarce!

Thank you for your support and suggestions. I will try this and see if I can narrow it down to a certain plugin. May I ask you, should I experience slow site speed even when I’m logged in as admin and in the admin panel? On the site I undertand that the plugins could be the cause, but I’m also seeing slow response times when editing my site “backend”.

I will start though with the plugins suggestion and see if I can find a cause! Thanks ??

Hi @markuswesterberg,

May I ask you, should I experience slow site speed even when I’m logged in as admin and in the admin panel? On the site I undertand that the plugins could be the cause, but I’m also seeing slow response times when editing my site “backend”.

Yeah, there are times when the admin will also be slow due to a plugin conflict. If it’s still really slow when plugins are deactivated, then it’s a clear sign that something in the theme / hosting is not good.

Hello @mikeyarce,

It seems I’m not a good enough (smart enough) guy to figure this out. Or, it is as you say, something that has to do with the host. I did try to deactivate all plugins and reactivate one at a time and I did some speed tests etc. all the while, but I cannot really seem to find a correlation and it’s really frustrating…

Do you know if there is a way to get a real “pro” to help out to try and narrow down the cause of my slow site?

Hi @markuswesterberg,

Here’s one suggestion I have that might be cheaper than hiring someone to help. Try a new host! WordPress has some official hosting recommendations that you can look at: https://www.ads-software.com/hosting/

Personally, I’ve used 2 out of the 3 listed there and have had all good experiences. What you can do:
1. Open up a new site with the host (make sure they have like a 30-day refund policy)
2. Usually they will do a site transfer free of charge for new customers
3. Move your site over, see if you have the same problems
4. If you do, see if they can help you fix them

Hosts usually want to keep your business so it’s in their best interest that your site works well and loads properly – so a good host should want to help you figure that stuff out.

Hello @mikeyarce,

I have now changed host to FastComet and I’m at least getting some help. We’ll see what they can accomplish!

Running on PHP 7 seems to be faster than 5. Sometimes its possible to change your PHP version in the control panel.

Thanks @lorro! I’ll have a look at that with my host then!