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Hi there,
Trying to figure out why my site loads so slow — my host is blaming my wordpress optimization, but its brand new and I feel like its the server, but I’m not sure.
Thanks.
Customer Support
Hi there,
It’s tough for us to tell. You are using Elementor which usually slows your site down a bit.
Here are our optimization tips if it helps:
https://generatepress.com/fastest-wordpress-theme/Thank you — I’ll check it out 🙂
If that doesn’t help, then try disabling all plugins to see if the site is faster. Then reactivate the plugins one by one to see if any of them is slowing it down significantly.
Hi Leo,
So I’ve been tinkering with this, trying different stuff, talking to my host, you, and elementor — and the only thing that seems to have made my site speed up was switching away from the GeneratePress theme. How do I process a refund? I may end up coming back, but at this point I don’t want my 30 days to run out while I figure this out, and it’s not looking good for GP :\
Thanks,
Shaun
Lead Developer
Hi Shaun,
No worries about your 30 days running out – we wouldn’t refuse the refund while actively working with you to fix an issue.
GeneratePress itself adds very little load time to your site, so that’s strange to hear. Can you install this plugin?: https://wordpress.org/plugins/query-monitor/
With that plugin activated, load your site – does it offer any insight into what’s going on?
Also, if you run your site through Pingdom, it will help you see what’s going on: https://tools.pingdom.com/
For example, your site has 56 HTTP requests, which is way too many.
It also looks like some of your images being served from the shortpixel CDN are taking a while to load.
Of course, if you’d prefer a refund you can shoot us an email here: https://generatepress.com/contact
oops, Tom already beat me. Ignore my scribble.
Hi Shaun,
I have a simple suggestion. Just run your index page trough a speed test like:
https://tools.pingdom.com/Make sure you chose a test location that is reasonable (not Europe). I usually test from San Francisco.
Then wait a few seconds and once their script has completed, analyze the waterfall graph.
If your web host sucks (and most do) then you will see a lot of yellow which signals wait time on the server side.
I always test all of my sites and if something is off, I take a screenshot of the test results and let tech support see it. Shortly after, they apologize and blame a recent upgrade for something that, as they put it, “is not fixed”. 🙂Thanks, Tom — I appreciate it.
Since I posted my reply re: refund, I’ve been trying various things (like a CDN and some wordpress plugins to speed stuff up). I’ve been able to make it load a bit faster, but it still seems to have times when it is super sluggish. I’m not even as sure as I was that it is GeneratePress. When I first disabled GP, it seemed to load faster, but then went back to being slow. So I’ve re-enabled GP and am trying alternatives.
I’m currently getting a pagespeed score of 43… prior to this it was in its 20’s… so I’m making progress, just no idea why sometimes it’s still super slow to load off the bat.
Also, pingdom isn’t working for me… i enter my URL and it doesn’t let me select anything from “Test From” so I can’t hit “start test.” :\
-Shaun
Customer Support
Hi there,
try GT Metrix and register a free account so you can switch to a different server for testing.
I ran a quick test on your home page – of the 50 requests being made the majority of them are to 3rd party servers such as google fonts, google recaptcha and shortpixel CDN etc. These all add uncontrollable delay to your site loading.
I would look at:
a. reducing number of font varients. If they are being set in the theme customizer then this article explains how to deselect them:
https://docs.generatepress.com/article/google-font-variants/b. question whether shortpixel CDN adds any advantage for the landing page images over serving well optimized images locally. BTW – this includes your logo – so every page is making a CDN request…..
c. Recaptcha – not much you can do with it, but its a speed hog so may not want it loading high up on your landing page or on the home page at all.
d. Font Awesome icons – urgh … 2 x requests, 90kb to load what would be around 1kb of SVG icons drives me insane lol As youre using Elementor to create the Navigation, this includes the Search icon, so FA icons has to load before the nav can be rendered…..
Hope this helps.
Great feedback, David! Should I opt for image icons instead of SVG icons? Most of what I have so far on the site is stock. I haven’t had much time to customize since I wasn’t sure why it was slow and if id need to abandon ship.
Re: Fonts, I’ll check out that write-up. Any thoughts on how I can streamline the CSS and Javascript? I seem to be getting hit on that a lot with pagespeed.
I went to look at the font section, but its not loading. I’m guessing it has something to do with one of my plugins or something, but all it lists is “widgets” and it doesn’t load a preview of the site anymore. Hm…
Another thing going on is that the service demand on internet bandwidth worldwide has increased enormously with more people working from home, many more online meetings, etc. I maintain a couple dozen WordPress websites and have noticed an appreciable slowdown in server responses while working on the backend. Sites where updates occurred almost instantaneously now can take 10 seconds or more.
GeneratePress is a fast, efficient theme, but it can do nothing about slow server response.
I use Google PageSpeed Insights for testing. It may not be the best but I assume that this is what Google uses. I have noticed that clients’ sites can vary in speed at different times of the day. This is very likely due to available bandwidth based on sever loads at different times.
If you are getting PageSpeed numbers in the 40s it’s not because of GeneratePress.
I don’t think this is at all relevant to my issue. I’m testing side by side with other wordpress sites on the same server, which perform substantially better.
I can tell you that your speed issues are not the GeneratePress theme.
Typography not loading would most likely be a plugin conflict.
Worth disabling all other plugins to see which one is at fault.SVG Icons if you can.
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