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Website Speed Question

Discussion in 'HTML & Website Design' started by DennisKnows, Jul 4, 2013.

  1. #1
    I recently changed my DNS settings over to Cloudflare because I want my site to run faster. After I get the OK that everything is good, I typed in "Check website speed" in google and clicked on the #1 result.

    My site motorclubofamericahq.org, according to this pingdom.com, loads very slow ever after I switched over to Cloudflare. I'm thinking that it may just be my internet connection.

    Have you ever had this problem? Could it be a coding issue with wordpress?

    Thanks in advance
     
    DennisKnows, Jul 4, 2013 IP
  2. iodalg

    iodalg Well-Known Member

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    #2
    Just tested your site it's slow! Maybe it has to do with the redirected, have you checked that? Do you redirect through htaccesss? I noticed also that the page you redirect to gets an 4xx error if you check on pingdom.

    PS: Has nothing to do with your speed, but I noticed that you have 2 h1 headings! It's best having one h1 heading with the most important keyword/phrase per page. And before the 2 h1 headings you have 1 h2 heading ( Don't Drive Another Mile Until You Read This...), if this is your target keyword change that to h1 and the others to h2 etc, it's also important that your h1 heading is before the h2 headings.
     
    iodalg, Jul 4, 2013 IP
  3. Arick unirow

    Arick unirow Acclaimed Member

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    #3
    Changing to CDN services (including Cloudflare) has some benefits.
    I'm not going to explain all the benefits but only focus on the relation of speed and testing (Pingdom).
    This is my opinion:
    Cloudflare may not cache your site yet. If your site didn't being cached in their server, there is likely no speed increase. Here are the reasons:
    1. Your site structures (themes, scripts/resources) can't being cached or cached partially. Analyze the code and find out any scripts or elements which block CF. Some server didn't give access to an IP which excessively request the pages. If CF unable to cache your site (rare occurrence), the speed increase would be minimal. Note: CF will excessively access your server. It would be no problem if your server/hosting use CF in their server (as add on) or uses 'railgun' in their server configuration. Both will give automatic configuration which allow CF to excessively access your server/sites.
    2. You just activate the CF. Pingdom may uses old DNS routes which mean it still access your old hosting. If it has been propagated and access served through CDN but the score is low, check the log in Pingdom. It has all the answer to your question.
    3. Sometimes, CDN was configured to deny the access to statistics and site speed checker to avoid leeching bandwidth which mean the traffic will be routed to your old host.
    DNS access also give an impact. Any access to your site will be routed to CF (your CDN) and if it has no cache, will be sent to your old host (2x trip). Normally the visitors will be sent to your host but after using CF, any request will be served through CF first and if it has no cache, to your hosting. This is why sometimes site looks slower when they use CF. Luckily, CF will take a copy of the site and save it on their server so next request will be served faster (through CF servers).
    However, if your site use short expired cache, CF may not save all your site. Make sure to use Mod_Expire to fully use CF services. Any CSS and object could be served well if it has long expired times.
    Your site would be served faster through CF (theoretically) because all request (http/objects) will be served through their servers. If your site wasn't being minified, CF will do it for you. Using their asynchronous process surely will make it even faster. Their 'Rocket' features (couldn't remember about it) is nice features. However, you may need to alter the themes and some scripts element to make it works flawless.
    Last, Don't ask me about how to use CF effectively. I'm not using it now. I used it in the past.
     
    Last edited: Jul 4, 2013
    Arick unirow, Jul 4, 2013 IP
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  4. ryan_uk

    ryan_uk Illustrious Member

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    #4
    Meaningless. What is the load speed like after CF compared to before? This is what is important.
     
    ryan_uk, Jul 4, 2013 IP
  5. Arick unirow

    Arick unirow Acclaimed Member

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    #5
    Great question. I would like to hear the answer too.
    I wonder why I didn't ask the same question earlier.:D

    To OP: What 'log' (In 'Waterfall' at pingdom) available before and after using CF (especially before using CF or if CF was turned OFF).

    For others: Here are some result from Pingdom.
    Note for OP: You can request me to remove the screenshots below if you want. I placed it here to show how the real problem is.

    OP Site tested in Pingdom after using CF:
    pingdom2.jpg
    We can see if the 'wait' time in server is more than 3 seconds. In my opinion, it is somewhat bad result. Server may busy or has some errors in configurations. Sometimes, site configuration could be the problem. Make sure to troubleshoot first. Checking another site in the same server is good idea.;)

    Result in 'Performance' tab:
    pingdom3.jpg
    What to say, It seem the site need additional tweaking.

    Here is an example of my site which I think is good (other may have better result):
    mypingdom.jpg
    Has bigger 'request' and 'html size' but with better result. Look at DNS, Connect and waiting time. DNS was at 100 (usually lower), Connect time at 146 (acceptable) and Wait time at 110 Ms (server's time to prepare a page).

    Judging from OP site above, it seems CF work as expected. Lower DNS and connect time are two optimization by CF server. However, the page wasn't being fully served through CF. That mean the page was served through hosting provider.

    For all: apology for using large images.
     
    Arick unirow, Jul 4, 2013 IP
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  6. ryan_uk

    ryan_uk Illustrious Member

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    #6
    And at the moment your home page keeps refreshing on me. Very weird. I stopped it during a refresh, as I don't have the patience to wait to see if it will ever stop doing it. Looking at the source code, it looks like an unoptimised mess. It's being loaded directly from the sever each time (look at the very bottom - there is a time stamp from the cache plugin) and not cached by CF.

    Personally, I don't bother with CF and ensure I make my script and plugin choices appropriate for the required performance (along with hosting). If performance is your concern then you will be better off with Drupal. It has built-in caching and combining of CSS and JS. It can be tuned to be very high performance (there are different levels of caching available).
     
    ryan_uk, Jul 4, 2013 IP
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  7. Arick unirow

    Arick unirow Acclaimed Member

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    #7
    I like it.
    If speed and reliability are the main concern, using CF theoretically could help however I prefer getting a server and tuning it for better usage. Even shared hosting could be better without CDN if the site configured properly.
    Optimization is good answer for the slowness.
     
    Last edited: Jul 4, 2013
    Arick unirow, Jul 4, 2013 IP
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  8. ryan_uk

    ryan_uk Illustrious Member

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    #8
    Exactly, best to get the basics done first before using anything like CF.

    Page Speed is useful for analysis:
    https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights_extensions

    I use that (in Chrome, as it's the fastest browser, so best for evaluating speed) to help with improving page load performance, but I also do backend tweaks (code, databases and server).

    If I was the OP (and sticking with WordPress), I would disable CF, wait (about 24-48 hours for DNS propagation), disabling WP caching and then focus on reducing bloat in WordPress in terms of plugins and theme. The theme is very, very under-optimised. There is a lot of JS (and even some CSS) outside of files and in the main body. I would be moving as much of that into files and also eliminating any JS files that are unused.

    Once the theme is optimised, combine the JS and CSS files using Head Cleaner or a similar plugin and test page speed performance, before finally enabling caching again and test performance. Take advantage of .htaccess and FilesMatch to tell a browser to cache JS, CSS, images, etc.

    Once I'm happy with these tweaks, I would I finally enable CF and test performance again. Testing page load performance with Page Speed, rather than a third party service. (And where possible, get other people to test at each point too, making a record of page load performance - but don't just do one load, but try several. So you get the initial page load speed and then some based on browser-caching.)

    That's what I would do anyway.
     
    Last edited: Jul 4, 2013
    ryan_uk, Jul 4, 2013 IP
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