Slow Loading Homepage
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My homepage https://middleme.net/ loads extremely slow since last month. It is a WordPress.com-hosted site.
I used a free website speed test tool and it showed my load time as 100.06s.
How can I optimise the speed as it was never that slow before? Is it related to my WordPress theme?
Thank you in advance for any assistance.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi @kallymiddleme, could you link to the tool you used? I tested it here and have 2.18 and 2.38 seconds.
Also, is it loading slowly for you when you view the site?
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Hi @supernovia, the link is https://www.isitwp.com/free-website-speed-test-tool-for-wordpress/#spdt-pgsug.
It is loading slowly when I view the site on laptop, iPad and iPhone using different internet connections on different days. It is even slower when I use iPhone to open the site. The menu will appear but the body will take longer.
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Hmm, that test shows 2.77 seconds for me, but I can see from this other test that the “LCP” is high:
https://www.webpagetest.org/result/220529_AiDcAN_9X1/I can see most of the bulk is coming from images, too.
If you’d like, you can speed things up a bit by reducing the number of posts displayed on a single load:
https://middlemedotnet.wordpress.com/wp-admin/options-reading.phpRight now it’s at 20. You might try 10. That would cut the number of initial images to load in half, and should pick speed up a bit for you.
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Thank you.
I have reduced the number of posts displayed on a single load from 20 to 7. It certainly improve the loading speed on my laptop. However, the loading on both iPhone and Android phone are still slow.
I have already compressed my images to reduce the size.
Is there anything else I can do to speed up the loading on mobiles?
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You can try getting rid of any unused widgets to see if that helps.
Also, bear in mind, how are people visiting your site on mobile?
Links from Google and Twitter may be converted into an AMP view, which is trimmed down for a faster load. For example, try loading this:
https://middleme.net/2022/05/27/are-your-expectations-of-your-colleagues-too-high/amp/
It won’t look like your site, but the content of that article will be there.
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So sorry for the noob question but how do I get rid of unused widgets as in if you can direct me to the right admin page?
I’m getting the slow loading feedback from those people who key in middleme.net directly on their phone browser.
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You can manage widgets on your site from Appearance ->Customize ->Widgets.
https://wordpress.com/en/support/widgets/
I’m getting the slow loading feedback from those people who key in middleme.net directly on their phone browser.
I can confirm the site homepage loads slowly on mobile my end as well. That’s due to the way the theme works – your theme uses what’s called a masonry layout on the homepage, that is, a grid that’s dynamically created based on the length of the individual posts. So to create that the site first has to load the post content in the background and calculate the layout, before the posts actually become visible.
But this is only an issue on the homepage.
If I visit any of your individual posts on my phone, the page loads in only a few seconds.
Most people who find your site, will find it via a search result or a shared link for a specific post, not the homepage, so they shouldn’t run into this issue. When you’re sharing your site with people directly, also consider sharing links to specific posts, than to the homepage. People are much more likely to read your content if they reach your site via a specific post, than they are if the post list on the front page is the first thing they see :)
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Hi,
Thank you for guiding me to manage my widgets. I probably should think about changing my theme.
As for those who find my site using MiddleMe.net directly, it is because the website is stated on my namecard and email signature. It wouldn’t work to have a specific link on a namecard, would it? :)
So besides changing my theme and limiting widgets, is there anything else I can do to increase the loading speed on mobile?
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Hi,
I’m afraid there isn’t much more you can do. But it’s worth keeping in mind that this is more a limitation of mobile internet than your site itself.
FWIW, your site loads in just a couple for seconds for me on my iphone (going directly to MiddleMe.net).
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I appreciate WordPress Support team’s assistance! My website loads so much fast now. I think it was the widgets that slows it down once I removed all of them, the site loads instantly on my mobile. It is also possible that my theme is creating some problems since it is a retired theme so many kinks start to appear. Well, this means my website is now due for a makeover (time to go shopping!).
A huge thank you (you guys deserve more) to the prompt support and not losing patience with this noob (me).
Cheers!
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