Increasing site speed (Divi + Hostgator)

BHopkins · Jul 25, 2019

Most of my sites load pretty quickly, but I have two new sites both running the Divi theme on Hostgator and they're both very slow. Using GTMetrix I see a lot of "Waiting".

Can someone give me some tips and explain the "Waiting"? Is that the server not responding to the request?

Nut-Nights · Jul 25, 2019

Try W3 Total cache plugin and remove any other plugin you are using to speed up your site. Plus look like something is wrong with your server too.

Trolling4Dollars · Jul 25, 2019

As @Nut-Nights mentioned, try W3 Total Cache. It also looks like you aren't minifying css / javascript, which would also help. Are you behind Cloudflare? If not, consider it.

Having sites on Hostgator, too, this actually doesn't look too bad!

Brilliant Digital Services · Jul 25, 2019

Trying W3 total cache will help.

Nandhugp · Jul 25, 2019

Page size is low and it's optimized well as well. Most probably a temporary issue with hosting. Check back later.

BHopkins · Jul 25, 2019

Thanks all! I was using the built in caching. I set it to "Level 4 (Aggressive)" and saved it, but when I went back, it had defaulted to "Level 0 (No Cache)". Every time I saved it, it reverted back to 0.

W3 Total Cache solved the problem, thanks!

MehdiBmm · Jul 25, 2019

GTMetrix doesn't really give you the speed at which people load your website. Generally divide that by 1.5 or 2. For example, GTMetrix says my website loads in 3.60 but even with caching cleared, it takes me 2.70 or less to load it. The size of your page is also big, try to reduce it to 1MB or less.

Hairein · Jul 25, 2019

Easy solution is to set up proprietly your CDN.
The problem itself is caused by data being loaded every time when you refresh your page, instead of being stored for future sesstions. That's happen when devs keep using old techs such jQuery, making more requests, or setting up badly codes, that can be easily avoided by upgrading own code to at least ES6.

rafark · Jul 25, 2019

MehdiBmm said:
GTMetrix doesn't really give you the speed at which people load your website. Generally divide that by 1.5 or 2. For example, GTMetrix says my website loads in 3.60 but even with caching cleared, it takes me 2.70 or less to load it. The size of your page is also big, try to reduce it to 1MB or less.

I don't know exactly the parameters gmetrix uses to measure the speed, but I'm pretty sure they profile everything until the last resource has loaded. When your browser stops showing you the loading bar/the content has been rendered, there can still be scripts and images loading in the background.

Insurena · Jul 25, 2019

Use gzip to compress your site by over 80%... That's half of the job done.

Then minify your CSS and java script. This should solve your problem.

Hairein · Jul 25, 2019

rafark said:
I don't know exactly the parameters gmetrix uses to measure the speed, but I'm pretty sure they profile everything until the last resource has loaded. When your browser stops showing you the loading bar/the content has been rendered, there can still be scripts and images loading in the background.

Usually 'loading in background' is something like a promise. The code execute one by one, and you can defer it to wait the page loading (otherwise the page will wait the script first).
You can not fix it like this just with w3 school. The plugins can not read human intent, and sometimes they may break it.

Hairein · Jul 25, 2019

Insurena said:
Use gzip to compress your site by over 80%... That's half of the job done.

Then minify your CSS and java script. This should solve your problem.

GZip compression is already enabled, otherwise it would be shown as error in top of Gmetrix. The website is fine, the problem is how the plugins are made / what they've done.

That's why I always prefer develop something from scratch, so I would avoid a bounch of useless stuff xD

ContentExpert · Jul 25, 2019

Nut-Nights said:
Try W3 Total cache plugin and remove any other plugin you are using to speed up your site. Plus look like something is wrong with your server too.

Brilliant Digital Services said:
Trying W3 total cache will help.

What options should be toggled to "on" within the W3 Total Cache plugin?

Should the "Minify" option be enabled?
Should browser, CDN, object, and fragment cache all be enabled?

I just installed it on one of my sites yesterday.

legion85 · Jul 25, 2019

@kindablack is your guy, 2x speed increase or money back

MaestroDelWeb · Jul 25, 2019

This plugin is a good start https://wordpress.org/plugins/autoptimize/ , it's really easy to setup and hasn't broken any of my sites. You might also want to use a separate caching plugin.

Nut-Nights · Jul 25, 2019

ContentExpert said:
What options should be toggled to "on" within the W3 Total Cache plugin?

Should the "Minify" option be enabled?
Should browser, CDN, object, and fragment cache all be enabled?

I just installed it on one of my sites yesterday.

https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/how-to-install-and-setup-w3-total-cache-for-beginners/

ContentExpert · Jul 25, 2019

legion85 said:
@kindablack is your guy, 2x speed increase or money back

I could go from a 6-second load time down to 3 and the money-back guarantee wouldn't apply.

WIZDAHL · Jul 25, 2019

Change your hosting + install Wp Rocket. That's 90% of optimization right there

pravinlpatel · Jul 25, 2019

At the base host always add most of values to increase site speed and you can top up the same using Cache Plugin + CDN.

Async JavaScript plugin is must try for you along with Cloudflare CDN. Good thing is everything is FREE

Try to mix and match Async JavaScript plugin with W3 total cache or any other cache plugin and you're good to go.

chkomze · Jul 25, 2019

How to use wp-rocket with jetpack I don’t see my stats very buggy why ?

Increasing site speed (Divi + Hostgator)

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