I hired a web developer to design my new dynamic website as I only have experience with plain old HTML/CSS. It's nearing completion but I am finding it VERY slow to load and go from page to page. I realize that some of the images are rather large & I am working on that but even on pages that are not image-heavy, I feel like I am on dial up. The design team say it's about as quick as it will get but that worries me a bit. It's on a shared host with godaddy, has 1 mySQL database and so far only a few dozen products uploaded. If someone could take a look and make suggestions that I can take back to the designer, I'd be most grateful. (I'm not totally sure I posted this in the right category but I don't know if it's a general design issue, php or database or what....) http://artisanmetalshop.com/ Thanks!
If it happens regularly, then it could be a problem with your server or check server space and bandwidth. Normally you shouldnt have problem with it so far. It might also be taking time to load some of these on your source <script type="text/javascript" src="http://artisanmetalshop.com/js/shared.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://artisanmetalshop.com/js/scripts.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://artisanmetalshop.com/js/browserSniffer.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://artisanmetalshop.com/js/get_state.js.php"></script> Any other suggestions from DP members are appreciated.
Thanks mds. It shouldn't be server space or bandwidth at this point & I bought quite a hefty plan. I don't know anything about js really but I will take a look at the scripts you picked out.
Yes, I do not seem to have any problem. The page load time seemed to be pretty normal to me, well as normal as any store page should be that is.
Too much of scripts loaded <script type="text/javascript" src="http://artisanmetalshop.com/js/shared.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://artisanmetalshop.com/js/scripts.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://artisanmetalshop.com/js/browserSniffer.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://artisanmetalshop.com/js/get_state.js.php"></script>
Hey, it must be because you are using a SLOW SERVER. Try my new host. I have done a lot of research and finally decided to host my sites there. They are fast enough. Worth trying for a month atleast.
One issue you may be having is because you have several files loading from different locations, eg. /js/, /images/, etc. I would advise if you are having load speed issues, cut out all the crap, and move all the files into one directory, for example, all html files to the root, and all files (except css) into another folder, for example, 'files', so your hierarchy would look like this root: index.html contact.html aboutus.html style.css root>files: header.jpg scripts.js etc, therefore when the client is accessing the server, they do not have to go in/out of several directories on the server. I did this for my own site and it cut load times considerably. You may also want to take a look at your file <head>: <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <meta name="language" content="en"> <meta name="robots" content="index,follow"> <meta name="revisit-after" content="3 days"> <meta name="rating" content="General"> <meta name="type" content="long distance"> <meta name="resource-type" content="document"> <meta name="distribution" content="Global"> <meta name="copyright" content="(C)2006 ArtisanMetalShop.com"> <meta name="classification" content=""> <meta name="coverage" content="ArtisanMetalShop"> <meta name="title" content=""> Code (markup): This should really be: <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <meta name="keywords" content="a, few, selective, words, to, specify, your, sites, content, separated, by, commas" /> <meta name="description" content="A small description of your web pages for the user, without this tag, each page is close to useless." /> Code (markup): All other meta tags your site has are useless and only help in slowing the site. I would also recommend you tell your designer you want everything controlled by the css file, not as it is currently, example: <a href="http://artisanmetalshop.com/catalog" class="grey">Browse Catalog</a>[B]<span style="margin: 0pt 10px;">|</span>[/B] Code (markup): Lastly, looking at those javascript (.js) files, you could easily put the code in one file, which would also help increase the load speed. Your site is only around 160kb, which in real terms is nothing compared to some sites I've seen. Your load time was fine for me - perhaps it's your internet connection that is slow? Good luck, if you need anything - PM me.
Thanks so much for all the tips. My designer seems to have taken it back down today so I can't get on and look. I am relieved that not everyone is having problems loading the pages. I was getting v frustrated. I have a T1 speed connection and have no problems with any other site, just this new one. I did start to wonder if it were the server causing the problems. I'm going to forward the tips to the designer and see what they say. I don't know php so wouldn't know where to begin editing some of the pages myself. I've only ever built static before myself and used limited javascript so I am clueless with all that. Thanks!