Slow speed results – Using W3TC CloudFlare. Incorrect settings?

  • Hello –

    Installed W3TC following generally recommended settings in combination w/ CloudFlare (via MediaTemple).

    There’s been some improvement in page speed but have noticed in detailed report (GTmetrix + Google PageSpeed) that some culprits should presumably be handled/improved if my settings on both are correct.

    I have only two sample/canned posts on blog homepage (w/ optimized images) and it seems odd my ratings remain low: https://reasonandfolly.com/

    Would really appreciate any input and I’ve included a snapshot of my current settings + page speed results below.

    Thanks in advance!

    ——

    Page cache: Enabled/disk enahnced
    Minify: Enabled/mode: auto/method: disk/HTML, JS, CSS minifier: default
    Browser cache: Enabled
    Ntwork Perf & Sec by Cloudflare: Enabled/Security: low/Rockaet Loader, Minification, Dev mode: Off

    1. W3TC Settings in WP

    Page cahe tab:

    General: Boxes checked for cache front page, feeds, 404 pages, don’t cache pages for logged in users
    Cache Preload: Box checked for automatically prime the cache

    Minify tab:

    General: Box checked for Disable minify for logged in users
    HTML & XML: Boxes checked for Enable, Inline CSS minification, Inline JS minification
    JS: Enabled
    CSS: Enabled

    Browser tab:

    General: Boxes checked for Set Last-Modified header, Set expires header, Set cache control header, Set entity tag (eTag), Enable HTTP (gzip) compression

    2. CloudFlare Settings

    Security profile – Low
    Performance profile – CDN only
    Caching level – aggressive
    Auto Minify – None selected (JS, CSS, HTML)
    Rocket Loader: Off
    Page rule: 1 added (https://www.reasonandfolly.com/wp-admin/*) with: Apps: Off, Performance: Off, Security: Off, Always online: Off, Cache level: Bypass cache

    3. Page Speed results

    Google PageSpeed: Score 77
    GT Metrix: Page Speed Grade 86%, YSlow grade 81%, Page load time 1.95 secs

    Culprits include:

    Add Expires headers
    Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
    Compress components with gzip
    Put JavaScript at bottom
    Reduce DNS lookups
    Minify JavaScript and CSS
    Avoid URL redirects
    Make favicon small and cacheable
    Combine images using CSS sprites
    Specify image dimensions
    Defer parsing of JavaScript
    Avoid CSS @import
    Use efficient CSS selectors
    Remove query strings from static resources

    https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/w3-total-cache/

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

  • Optimal settings are site and theme specific, it’s tough to prescribe what you need without hands-on testing. One key thing to remember when using CloudFlare is what you need to let W3TC or CloudFlare handle that.

    Per your settings, minify in W3TC disabled. I’d enable feed caching in W3TC as well. Anything further: https://www.w3-edge.com/contact/

    Thread Starter Niramaya

    (@niramaya)

    Hi Willie – Not sure what “need to let W3TC or CloudFlare handle that” is referring to… minify? In which case, minify is in fact enabled in W3TC (both in general settings and minify tabs) so I’m a bit confused.

    Feed caching – in what area do you mean?

    Thanks for your help!

    Yes, sorry, I’m talking about minify.

    Feed caching is under page caching.

    Thread Starter Niramaya

    (@niramaya)

    Feed caching is enabled, yes (Cache feeds: site, categories, tags, comments). I was mindful to not enable minify in CloudFlare so I think we’re on the same page. Should I still contact support on w3-edge?

    If you’d like have your settings dialed in professionally, yes ??

    Thread Starter Niramaya

    (@niramaya)

    will do, thanks ??

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