Archived topic
Slow font loading time
7 replies · Started by Jen on July 11, 2021
I've gone through the other posts about fonts loading. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong....
Here is a link to the web vitals: https://webpagetest.org/vitals.php?test=210711_AiDcN3_69224fff42aa9c3fa3eca47ead2663b8&run=3
Most requests and bytes come from fonts.
I used my Siteground Optimizer app to preload the fonts: https://share.getcloudapp.com/Z4uK9D4R
It hasn't had any effect to the web vitals (the link above is after the preloading and cleared cache).
What else can I do to speed this up a bit?
Website: https://womenconquerbiz.com
Any help would be greatly appreciated as I've worked in this off and on without success.
Thanks!
Jen
Hi Jen,
The slow loading time is from your site itself responding slower than it should. Your site's initial response time is slow. Everything else is affected by this. https://share.getcloudapp.com/5zuYoOe6
This isn't something the theme controls. This flag usually is related to the quality of the server. Normally, migrating to a higher-quality web server solves this.
But here's something worth a try. (good practice as well)
Can you check for any activated plugins that you don't use anymore? Perhaps it lessens the number of things your site's server has to process.
The question is about fonts.
Can you help me with the fonts?
Many of the fonts are GeneratePress or from related plugins associated with my theme from the site library.
I’ve also contacted Sucuri and Siteground about the server time and it’s in progress.
Thanks.
Can you help me with the fonts?
It is related to fonts.
There are multiple factors to this which are:
- The size of the font file.
- The number of font files requested.
- The speed of the server. (bandwidth and processing time)
If the font file to be served is large and the server is slow, then the fonts file will load slowly as well.
My suggestion was to at least try to improve this by reducing as much process to the server as possible through disabling of unused plugins. (or perhaps change to a more lightweight alternative)
Example, your site has a plugin called "Social Icon widgets by WPZOOM".
From the 19 font requests of your site (too many), 10 of them are coming from the mentioned plugin. And all 10 of them are the biggest font files being requested.
https://share.getcloudapp.com/v1uYqWXb
Perhaps this third-party plugin has an option to reduce the number of fonts it requests. It worth a try asking the plugin's support if they have a way to do this.
Else, consider getting a more lightweight alternative.
I guess I made an incorrect assumption that it was lightweight was it was part of the theme from the site library. I can replace it.
There are also several served from GeneratePress. That was the heart of the question which hasn’t been answered.
Hi there,
Ways to improve the Google Font loading speed are:
1. Remove any unused Variants from the Typography settings:
https://docs.generatepress.com/article/google-font-variants/
Any weights you're not using you can simple remove from the variant list.
This will reduce the number of requests.
2. Serve the fonts locally so the DNS lookup and request to Google Fonts servers is removed.
Theres two methods to do this:
a. Manually:
https://docs.generatepress.com/article/adding-local-fonts/
b. Automatic with Plugin:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/host-webfonts-local/
In regards to the WP Zoom plugin - may i ask which site you originally installed from the library as this 'should' have been removed.
Boy, that was a while ago. I think it was Marketer? But I may have switched to Agency? (Or that was only for clients...) I do so much customization I forget where it started.
Thanks for the instructions. I've removed the WP Zoom plugin and used SG Optimizer and Asset CleanUp for font management. I was able to plug the font optimization into the ongoing SEO work we're doing right now.
Thanks - Jen
Glad to hear that!
And thanks for letting us know about which site it may have been :)
