Page load times
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I ‘m trying to understand what makes a difference to page load times on WordPress.com. I understand what to do on a self hosted site, but I’m not sure what options there are here.
I have set up a test site and activated different themes I am interested in and tested them on Google Page Speed Insights and Pingdom, and done the same with the Demo sites. There are definitely differences between some themes.
Checking the warning messages on both those speed test sites shows the following are the most important warnings:
- fewer HTTP requests
- Compress with GZip
- Reduce DNS lookups
- Render blocking resources
- third party code
- unoptimised images
Some of these I can do something about, but others are inherent in the theme (I presume). So I’m seeking to understand how themes may differ. I’m wondering whether the main differences are:
- whether the theme uses Google Fonts
- how much Javascript it uses
- how many special features it has
This would suggest that I’ll get the fastest speeds if I choose a plain theme with few features, and use the themes default fonts. And if I want more features, I may need to compromise.
I’m interested to hear if anyone else has been looking at this question please.
Thanks.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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I have a follow-up question too please. I note that a whole bunch of the newer themesare actually child themes of Varia. That means, I think, that a visitor’s browser will need to load two set of the php files, the stylesheets, etc.
Is that so? Dos that increase load times for these themes, or are there some time savings here too?
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I have the same concern. Google Search Console is placing page speed front and center.
It’s obvious that going forward page speed will be a significant trigger to page ranking and SEO. I’ve yet to see wordpress.com address this with any advice or guidance.
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Thanks for that input.
I have posted two new discussions on this matter – this one, and also Slow page loads on live site, where I gave some strange page speed figures at two sites and asked if anyone had an explanation.
Also, when I didn’t get any replies on these two discussions, I sought direct support. I was told a week ago by the automatic message they would get back to me within a few days.
However so far yours is the first reply here. I have had one reply on the other discussion, by a staff member who thought I had resolved the problem (I haven’t). And so far no reply from Support.
I am patient about this because WordPress is a free service and these are unusual times, but still frustrated about finding answers to the problem.
Hopefully we’ll both soon have some answers. Thanks again.
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In fairness I should report that I have just this minute received a response from Support, but unfortunately they have tested my site and say it is performing well. I’ll report back here if I get an answer.
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Hi folks –
This is a great question. unklee, your site loads on my 3mb connection in less than 5 seconds.
There are many folks experiencing issues with their internet connections due to covid-19 and the networks being overwhelmed during day time hours. I’d suggest running a speed test to see where you’re at compared to what you should be getting speed-wise. https://speedtest.net/
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Hi Liz,
Thanks for your interest.
I don’t think 5 secs is very good these days, by Google’s standards, what do you think?
Speed test measures the speed of my own ISP, whereas I’m interested in the speed that Google measures on the WordPress.com server. Have I understood this correctly?
It is true, I agree, that times are likely to be down a bit at the moment. But when there is a difference between the load speeds of different themes, I ma trying to understand what makes the difference.
Thanks again.
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Load times vary depending on themes and how they utilize images. If you’re not optimizing images, and using an image-heavy theme, then the site is going to load slower than if you were using more of a text-based theme.
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Thanks Liz. But I AM optimising images using Gimp, I don’t have many images, and I am still getting some slow load times – although one of your colleagues is getting much faster times for my site, which is strange and yet to be resolved.
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Just for the record, in case anyone else searches for this subject, a major cause of slower page loads in my case was advertising which send hundreds of redirects to external URLs. Solution: upgrade site to have no ads.
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