Website is seriously slow, any ideas?

[James.Dunford]

Okay i am having some serious issues with my website. The site went live a couple of weeks ago, but just in the past few days it has become so slow no one can use it! I emailed the company the hosting is with, who suggested a few things to do (all my end) but they simply said it was the number of users, which at the moment is really low anyway! (Sub 50 per day) Anyone had this sort of problem before?

Site is http://trackreviewers.com

[JoyDivision]

Loaded up quickly for me maybe some of the Javascript is causing problems?

[JoyDivision]

Its just gone slow again. It seems to be a problem with the server. Maybe you need to switch hosts.

[MASSEY]

You need a better host.

[cmcp]

Some pointers about load times:

page weight - watch how many http requests you're making and what size they are. you've got loads of bloated javascript on that website

you'll also want to try optimising your pages, look at gzip for compression

server location - are you in the UK? someone will be able to trace it and post the location. faster times for locally hosted

[James.Dunford]

They have always been good before, strange, can anyone reccomend a good host? Will look into that cmcp, thanks! Server is probably in the US i would imagine.

[cmcp]

if they're uk based i'd have another word with them and make your feelings known.

if you are looking elsewhere i'd recommend kualo. top notch company.

[kevin555]

ouch! that's painfully slow - been trying to load for a minute now and nothing has appeared.

another potential visitor / customer lost

[Dwebs-Ltd]

http://tools.pingdom.com/?url=http://trackreviewers.com 18.5 seconds load time. A new record I have never seen anything that high.

It does look like a host issue.

[James.Dunford]

Kualo, will check them out.

Yeah tell me about it Kevin! The reason i think it is an issue with the host is that it has been okay for a couple of weeks, just over the last few days it has been like this, and i can't see that suddenly something would stop it working (ie a plugin) that has been working okay?

Thanks for that Dwebs, looks like a good tool!

(Dare i mention it is Godaddy....?)

[Nathf1505]

I think you are in need of a new host my friend :)

[Paul Norman]

Another vote for a new host, I am afraid. And whilst you are changing, go for one in the UK, with person at the end of a phone. Preferably a friendly one!

[mit74]

your server is based on the west side of US no wonder it's so slow. The ping from UK to the kansas router is very high. Only solution is to ask them to move servers if they have more on the east side. When browsing it's fairly slow but not unbearably so. Most US sites are this slow.

[fisicx]

(Dare i mention it is Godaddy....?)
Sigh....

Not only the in the US but also a really cruddy service with nearly 4000 other sites hosted on the server.

In addition as already mentioned the site structure isn't helping with a high number of absolute path server calles (uses full URL every time instead of just the relative path to the file).

[matt.chatterley]

(Dare i mention it is Godaddy....?)

Ignoring everything else for the moment - switch host first.

You're probably sharing a server with half of the US West Coast. :)

[kevin555]

I don't know how much you're paying but this can often be the result of going for really cheap hosting - unfortunately every tom, dick and harriet does too!

The cheap cheap hosting also encourages kids who bung up tons of big files and mess about with dodgy scripts etc etc.

Sometimes going for a host who charges just that little bit more is enough to deter this 'level' of website client. So paying a little more gets you a lot more if you know what I mean, i.e. less websites, less sharing of music files etc that eats up the bandwith of the host - often a virtual seller who is capped themselves.

Hosting: what are you looking for? Gizmos, gadgets and freebies? Or plain vanilla quick hosting?

For the same price you can get the former but often it will be a service like you've already got - with tons of other websites all with people experimenting.

For the latter, go for a quality host on their basic package, like buying a golf without the extras - you get a quality motor that drives like a dream but without any stuff that you probably didn't need anyway.

[NuBlue]

Hi James,

I think there is also a plugin for Firefox (sorry I've forgotten the name) which will let you see what is taking the time to load within the page.. this is good for spotting rogue code if it turns out that it is a development issue. But the page does not look to contain anything that could cause this from my bery brief look at it.

We do a free trial if you want to do a speed comparison on our hosting.

Hope that helps

[brownie]

There are 53 other domains hosted on the same server, including a couple of porn sites.

310shoes.org (http://310shoes.org/)
acoolexample.net (http://acoolexample.net/)
agstudioarchitettura.it (http://agstudioarchitettura.it/)
airline-tickets.co.in (http://airline-tickets.co.in/)
alertasiphone.com (http://alertasiphone.com/)
anfice.com.ua (http://anfice.com.ua/)
antimalware2010.net (http://antimalware2010.net/)
bm4you.net (http://bm4you.net/)
ca.rateyourcompany.com (http://ca.rateyourcompany.com/)
croatia-vacations.org (http://croatia-vacations.org/)
dropolus.com (http://dropolus.com/)
enjoytetova.com (http://enjoytetova.com/)
exileone.com (http://exileone.com/)
in.rateyourcompany.com (http://in.rateyourcompany.com/)
kraszewski.co.uk (http://kraszewski.co.uk/)
listilla.com (http://listilla.com/)
mycustomercontacts.com (http://mycustomercontacts.com/)
nehandaradio.com (http://nehandaradio.com/)
newd2event.net (http://newd2event.net/)
oreksi.gr (http://oreksi.gr/)
pastukhov.com (http://pastukhov.com/)
pornblog24.com (http://pornblog24.com/)
revisores.com (http://revisores.com/)
trackreviewers.com (http://trackreviewers.com/)
truestorymovie.com (http://truestorymovie.com/)
turovac.com (http://turovac.com/)
ugtglass.com (http://ugtglass.com/)
victoriaboarer.com (http://victoriaboarer.com/)
www.118baby.com (http://www.118baby.com/)
www.acaiberryexpertsjournal.com (http://www.acaiberryexpertsjournal.com/)
www.airline-tickets.co.in (http://www.airline-tickets.co.in/)
www.animanx.com (http://www.animanx.com/)
www.anotatuempresa.com (http://www.anotatuempresa.com/)
www.bewertedeinefirma.com (http://www.bewertedeinefirma.com/)
www.bnews.gr (http://www.bnews.gr/)
www.crimsonfalls.com (http://www.crimsonfalls.com/)
www.froxylady.com (http://www.froxylady.com/)
www.johme.com (http://www.johme.com/)
www.lifedit.com (http://www.lifedit.com/)
www.naturewallpaper.eu (http://www.naturewallpaper.eu/)
www.notasuaempresa.com (http://www.notasuaempresa.com/)
www.notetonentreprise.com (http://www.notetonentreprise.com/)
www.oreksi.gr (http://www.oreksi.gr/)
www.pastukhov.com (http://www.pastukhov.com/)
www.patari.gr (http://www.patari.gr/)
www.sospc57.com (http://www.sospc57.com/)
www.ugtglass.com (http://www.ugtglass.com/)
www.ukcreditreport4free.co.uk (http://www.ukcreditreport4free.co.uk/)
www.volvowiw.com (http://www.volvowiw.com/)
www.walesbook.com (http://www.walesbook.com/)
www.welike2drive.com (http://www.welike2drive.com/)
www.xedant.com (http://www.xedant.com/)

[James.Dunford]

A change of hosting it is! Thanks everyone for all the help on this, the only reason I stuck with them, was because they had been good in the past, will look at the other companies mentioned, and heart Internet.

[Faevilangel]

Look at a uk host and ones that give a damn about their customers, the most popular on this forum are www.csnewmedia.co.uk and www.vidahost.com.

[brownie]

and heart Internet.

I wouldn't recommend Heart, seriously consider the two companies Faevilangel has mentioned.

[mobyme]

+1 for www.csnewmedia.co.uk
fisicx has identified the major problem in that the site structure is using absolute path server calls and when your sharing a server with that many other sites it is always going to be slow when any number of the other sites get busy.

[webhostuk]

You can take a look at http://www.webhost.uk.net

[awebapart.com]

Okay i am having some serious issues with my website. The site went live a couple of weeks ago, but just in the past few days it has become so slow no one can use it! I emailed the company the hosting is with, who suggested a few things to do (all my end) but they simply said it was the number of users, which at the moment is really low anyway!
I tried accessing your site an hour or so ago and was getting nothing, the browser seemed to be hanging, waiting for the server to return something.

Currently, the site seems OK... for now.

Since it is a Wordpress site, which is database driven, the bottleneck could be at the database. The database could even be on a different server to your web server. Database bottlenecks can occur when there are too many concurrent users trying to connect to the database, and that depends on how many different websites are using/sharing the database server, and how many concurrent users per website.

One way to pinpoint or rule out whether it is a database issue is to try accessing other files when your main site is hanging, e.g. your logo graphic file, a css file, or a php file that does not use the database. If these files respond OK, then it is a good indicator that there is a database bottleneck.

If there is a database bottleneck, you could ask your host to move you to a different database server (if they allow for this). Another thing you could do is configure caching within Wordpress to minimise the number of times Wordpress hits the database.

Some content management systems (and ecommerce systems) can be quite heavy handed in their use of databases.

update...

The site is unavailable again. During this time I was able to access your logo and your css file, and another site on the same server (one which does not use a database), so this supports the idea that it might be the database which is the bottleneck.

[DotNetWebs]

..the major problem in that the site structure is using absolute path server calls...

I must admit I have never been convinced by this argument.

The very nature of a TCP / IP means that full URI is sent each time anyway. It's just that with a relative URI the browser will send it in the "Host" field

If you analyse the actual HTTP GET request you will see that in the case of absolute URIs pointing to the same host as the containing page the browser does actually send the relative URL (certainly for IE at least).

Of course it makes sense to use relative URIs. It makes site maintenance much similar and will result in slightly lighter web pages. But I can't see how it would significantly improve performance.

Regards

Dotty

[Lukejenx]

That seems fine for me though, I would say its the host myself. But if you have alot of http requests that may also be contributing. Try fixing the requests if you trust the host.

[DotNetWebs]

...But if you have alot of http requests that may also be contributing...

I forgot to mention that there were something like 14 external JavaScript files on the homepage when I checked... I think something else is going on as well but this won't help.

Regards

Dotty

[James.Dunford]

New host, and it seems to be working, thank you for all the help everyone :)