Why does my site take so long to load?
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Hi, I’m hoping that someone can help me figure out why my site loads so slowly? Could it be because my images are too big? What else could be the problem? My blog supports my photography business and I’m afraid people aren’t returning to my blog because it’s too slow. Please help!
Thanks!
Jennifer -
I’m using a firefox 2.0.0.3 browser on broadband and taking into account
(1) the large size of your photos, as well as,
(2) how many posts you have assigned to your front page,
it’s not a slow loading time IMO.You can do these things to decrease loading time for your visitors (remembering that 70% of those using internet are on dial-up):
(1) use either smaller sized images or thumbnails linked to larger size images and allow your visitors to make the choice whether or not to click on them to load the larger size ones;
(2) limit the number of posts you have on your front page -> Options -> Reading Options scroll down to Blog Pages
Show at most: ___posts
Reduce the number of posts and click “Upfate Options” to save.HTH
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TT, are you sure it’s loading the entire page? Comes right up for me but it goes back and fills in the images afterwards.
Your front page is over 10 megs in size if not more with some images over a 1.5 megs in size. On a dial up, that takes nearly an hour to load. On the OC-192 I have here, it took nearly 30 seconds.
I’d move over using either thumbnails linking to the images or at the very least start using more tags and putting the images after the more tag.
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Yes, it’s really slow. TT got all your answers. Post pic one at a time or use another image hosting account for the rest of your pics perhaps? Flickr.com maybe? Then direct them to your flickr link account or put a Flickr widget on your sidebar.
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Another hosting service would actually make it worse as you’re then pulling the images from another source. Fewer sources is always better than more of them.
The issue is image sizes. They’re too big.
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Do you think by uploading too many images inside your wordpress account would actually worsens the problem?
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No, I think placing a dozen or more images of more than a meg in size each on the front page is though.
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@drmike
Perhaps I wasn’t very clear because I was concerned about offending the blogger and was trying hard to be polite.
Minus politeness –
Yes, the page take a very long time to load. Yes, the images load last because you made them so huge and you chose to put so many of them on the front page. Taking the foregoing into account then the page load time is as long as you’re causing it to be.Either way my solutions still stand.
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Thanks for the feedback! I had a feeling my images are too big. So, what should I size them down to? This blog showcases my photography, so I really would like to show big images here and not link to another site. I’m including a link to another wordpress user that showcases her photo-business. She has large images, but her site loads much faster.
http://mooreblog.wordpress.com/page/2/
Can you tell me what she is doing differently? -
I’ll leave it others to answer your comparison question. Instead I’d like to offer the following.
My friend is a professional photographer who has a photoblog and it does not have a slow loading time. This is the front page where she has only a single full sized photo that she frequently updates http://www.suzanne.shutterchance.com/
Now please take a look at this link and see what is possible to do with clickable archived photos http://www.suzanne.shutterchance.com/archive.php -
That’s nice, but that’s not what I’m looking to do. I definitely want to show big images, and I know that plenty of photographers are doing it with faster loading times than mine. What would you suggest I size my images to?
Here’s another wordpress photo blog
http://josiahkennedy.wordpress.com/
Are their images just sized smaller ya think?
Thanks! -
Well that took a long time.
Reduce the number of posts on the front page, for sure. People can always click back for more. Or do what http://trashthedress.wordpress.com has done, which is feature ONE photo from a series on the main page and put the rest behind the MORE tag.
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Thanks guys! So, here’s a really dumb question. How do I go about limiting the number of posts on the first page?
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Sorry! You’re right, I didn’t see that. I have since limited the # of posts and it has really sped things up. Thanks so much for all of your help! I really appreciate it.
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You might also look at the file types and/or compression. You can load lower quality (higher compression) jpegs that will load much faster even at the same size.
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