Web developer / company recommendation required. Looking to speed up my website.

[markwh8]

Hi there,

I'm looking to speed up my website. In the new year, I'm expecting quite an increase in traffic - I'm unsure as to what the best way to prepare is. It wouldn't be anything crazy, maybe 300 unique visitors per day. I have a basic Bluehost hosting account and my website is quite slow (https://www.thrive-ignite.com).

I'm told that I may have to upgrade my hosting to a Pro Plan with Bluehost, or I may have to migrate to a VPS (which I don't really understand to be honest).

I've also been given different steps that I can follow in order to speed the website up, but I'd hate to screw it up by trying to do it myself.

Long story short, does anybody have any experience with this sort of thing? Perhaps you can recommend a developer you've worked with?

I've been looking on Fiverr for website speed specialists, but I just have no idea if what they're offering would suit my needs - and I'm not sure I'm getting an honest answer when I ask! The same goes for Bluehost support.

Thank you very much for any help, it is appreciated.
Mark

 

[zigojacko]

Your website is not actually that slow but a bit of WordPress optimisation and serving over Nginx with some server-side optimisation would be what I'd recommend and propose which would no doubt improve speed/load metrics.

Happy to advise but we are stacked right up with work currently until at least the end of the year.

 

[zigojacko]

Actually, just checked an inner page and it took a while to serve a holding page so yeah, there is a fair bit that can be improved there...

 

[markwh8]

Your website is not actually that slow but a bit of WordPress optimisation and serving over Nginx with some server-side optimisation would be what I'd recommend and propose which would no doubt improve speed/load metrics.

Happy to advise but we are stacked right up with work currently until at least the end of the year.

Ah okay, thank you very much - if there's a way that you could advise on that without it taking up too much of your time, it would be greatly appreciated.

Or failing that I'm sure I can do a bit of Googling, I'm not completely rubbish with this stuff.

Thanks again.

 

[zigojacko]

What you can do might depends on what you actually have access to because you are currently on a shared server with over 1000 other websites. You probably won't be able to optimise much for Apache or Nginx server-side so that would leave just WordPress but it depends on your plugin/theme set up - someone would need to have a proper look at the code and admin backend.

 

[fisicx]

Getting rid of elementor will be a good start. Do this and you have fixed almost everything slowing down the initial page load.

Look at the site on your phone and you will soon realise why elementor was never a good choice in the first place.

And as @zigojacko says, moving to a UK based host and not sharing with 1200 other sites in the USA will fix a lot of other issues.

 

[markwh8]

What you can do might depends on what you actually have access to because you are currently on a shared server with over 1000 other websites. You probably won't be able to optimise much for Apache or Nginx server-side so that would leave just WordPress but it depends on your plugin/theme set up - someone would need to have a proper look at the code and admin backend.

I see - thank you! I'll await a recommendation and keep trying to find a developer to have a look at things.

Do you think therefore that I would have more scope for speeding up things on the server side if I upgraded to a 'Pro Plan' - I think this would give me a dedicated server (I assume that's just a server to myself).

Thanks again.

 

[markwh8]

Getting rid of elementor will be a good start. Do this and you have fixed almost everything slowing down the initial page load.

Look at the site on your phone and you will soon realise why elementor was never a good choice in the first place.

And as @zigojacko says, moving to a UK based host and not sharing with 1200 other sites in the USA will fix a lot of other issues.

Thank you. I honestly think I may have left it a little late on that front for January - I didn't realise Elementor was such a drain. Might have to wait until next year but I'll get to work changing that.

And got it, sounds good. Would you say the bigger issue is that the website is hosted in the USA, or that it's on a shared server?

Thanks again for your help fisicx.

 

[fisicx]

Elementor and US shared server. They are both as bad as each other.

Most of your visitors will be using a phone. This means you need to build a site for them rather than desktop users. You can do all this with blocks - no need for a page builder. A decent developer could do the conversion in a couple of days.

A bit of effort before Christmas could speed up the site and start generating leads ready for the new year.

 

[markwh8]

Elementor and US shared server. They are both as bad as each other.

Most of your visitors will be using a phone. This means you need to build a site for them rather than desktop users. You can do all this with blocks - no need for a page builder. A decent developer could do the conversion in a couple of days.

Got it - no problem. In that case I'll await a recommendation on a developer and maybe just go for it. Thank you very much for your help.

 

[WebDesires]

Hello,
we do quite a bit of work like this for our clients who want to hit the Core Web Vitals or better.

If you would like to have a chat about what we can do for you please pm us.

Thanks

 

[gpietersz]

Bluehost hosting account

That is problem one. Do not use them or any other owned by Endurance International Group/

or that it's on a shared server?

Definitely this. Specifically an overloaded shared server. I have two sites on a shared server in the US including a Wordpress one and they are a lot faster than yours - but the host has good infrastruture and both sites have light themes..

You could try switching to a different theme (you can do this in the Wordpress admin) and see how much difference it makes.

I may have to migrate to a VPS (which I don't really understand to be honest).

Its an isolated slice of a server, so you have resources for yourself and you have as much freedom to configure this as a dedicate server. There are variants on this. They are cheap, but you will have to pay someone to set it up for you (not much if its just a webserver though, and there are one click installs that will get you most of the way there) and occasional maintanance (although routine upgrades can be automated).

I upgraded to a 'Pro Plan' - I think this would give me a dedicated server (I assume that's just a server to myself).

I am pretty sure that is just better shared hosting.. The dedicated servers are more expensive. I would just move to hosting closer to your clients (as people have suggested). There are plenty of options.

A bit of effort before Christmas could speed up the site and start generating leads ready for the new year.

I agree. There are simple things you could do to improve things. See if an off the shelf theme works better, add a caching plugin, etc.

 

[WebDesires]

That is problem one. Do not use them or any other owned by Endurance International Group/

Definitely this. Specifically an overloaded shared server. I have two sites on a shared server in the US including a Wordpress one and they are a lot faster than yours - but the host has good infrastruture and both sites have light themes..

You could try switching to a different theme (you can do this in the Wordpress admin) and see how much difference it makes.

Its an isolated slice of a server, so you have resources for yourself and you have as much freedom to configure this as a dedicate server. There are variants on this. They are cheap, but you will have to pay someone to set it up for you (not much if its just a webserver though, and there are one click installs that will get you most of the way there) and occasional maintanance (although routine upgrades can be automated).

I am pretty sure that is just better shared hosting.. The dedicated servers are more expensive. I would just move to hosting closer to your clients (as people have suggested). There are plenty of options.


I agree. There are simple things you could do to improve things. See if an off the shelf theme works better, add a caching plugin, etc.

I disagree, shared hosting is horrific - absolutely ALL of the clients we have worked with over the span of 8 years now who use shared hosting always suffer with slow sites and poor service.

In fact we was so sick of the mess that we decided to purchase our own beefy dedicated server, so our sites would perform top notch and also so we could offer our hosting to our clients.

Never looked back since...

 

[fisicx]

Same here. Got my own server and host enough site to cover the bill. Wins all rounds.

 

[nish]

This can be easily fixed, Bluehost servers based in the us, you are better of moving to a UK based host (presuming your traffic is mostly UK based) this will sure help. Then optimising WP, images, scripts and css using a aappropriate cache plugin will resolve your issue easily.

https://gtmetrix.com/reports/thrive-ignite.com/yma6sRPB/

 

[Hooble]

Hello Mark,

Something that may avoid the need to move on to a VPS or dedicated instance of your own is the LiteSpeed web server and Wordpress plugin -

Wordpress Cloud Hosting - Wordpress Hosting Solutions, - Hooble

Our WordPress cloud hosting will help you launch, maintain or grow your WordPress site while you focus on making your customers happy.

www.hooble.co.uk

We offer hosting packages that allow you to use the LiteSpeed cache managing it via a LiteSpeed plugin within your Wordpress.

 

[gpietersz]

I disagree, shared hosting is horrific - absolutely ALL of the clients we have worked with over the span of 8 years now who use shared hosting always suffer with slow sites and poor service.

I agree there are a lot of terrible hosts out there, but there are some good ones if you want them. You need to pay more though. The OP is looking for something for a site for which he is expecting just 300 visitors a day. and a dedicated server is overkill. A small VPS is more than enough.

@fisicx You often advocate DIY web sites to non-technical people. They are not going to run their own servers so they must use shared hosting.

Something that may avoid the need to move on to a VPS or dedicated instance of your own is the LiteSpeed web server and Wordpress plugin

From the descrition on your site, you provide web hosting that runs clusters, which is good and no doubt much better than the likes of Bluehost, but I would still call it shared hosting. That is exactly what the shared host I use does (https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/) , except that they have been doing it for nearly 20 years, so they were doing it before it was called "cloud".

 

[Smithco]

I've used Go Daddy, Hostgator (was OK when Brent owned it), Hostmonster, 34SP, Vidahost and maybe a half a dozen others. VPS and all kinds of setups. They're all a pain in the arse because they all oversell and continually try and upgrade you for what you should have in the first place.

I now use Web Desires who posted above to host all my sites. Small firm, big service. Like Hostgator used to be back in the day. If something breaks or the site doesn't work for whatever reason, fire them a message and they're all over it. None of this waiting days malarkey. No Indian call centres or other silliness you don't want. Daily back ups and when you break your site as I sometimes do tinkering, there's someone to fix it.

 

[Alan]

I've been looking on Fiverr for website speed specialists, but I just have no idea if what they're offering would suit my needs

This is what one of my clients got from their host ( ServeBolt)

"Your site has been measured to have a higher than healthy uncached .... Our Optimizations Team can help speed up your site at $299 per hour. Keep in mind that we do not implement optimizations, but we can help you identify what need to be fixed to get the TTFB to a healthy level."

Note the rate. It might sound a lot, but actually isn't too silly. ( Note to self - increase my rates ) Of course I sorted out my client's issues in about 30 minutes and for slightly less - including implementation

My point being going to Fivver wont get you the sort of quality that can demand a decent rate.

 

[antropy]

Long story short, does anybody have any experience with this sort of thing? Perhaps you can recommend a developer you've worked with?

I've been looking on Fiverr for website speed specialists

If you're looking to spend a fiver, please stop reading now.

But if you've got a sensible budget, please email: [email protected]

Paul

 

[WebDesires]

What a coincidence that you joined last night, found your favourite web host here, and, already had the time to recommend or mention them in two threads and like a comment they made in another!

What a shocker that a uk business finds the uk business forums then finds their uk hosting/web developer provider is part of the same forum and recommends them. That must be almost impossible...

 

[Hooble]

From the descrition on your site, you provide web hosting that runs clusters, which is good and no doubt much better than the likes of Bluehost, but I would still call it shared hosting. That is exactly what the shared host I use does (https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/) , except that they have been doing it for nearly 20 years, so they were doing it before it was called "cloud".

We do yes, the hosting is on servers that are on a highly available cluster, the advantage of this combined with cPanel and LiteSpeed is that you get the speed but also the backups built into our servers. Providing easy to use but also highly available.

 

[WebDesires]

We do yes, the hosting is on servers that are on a highly available cluster, the advantage of this combined with cPanel and LiteSpeed is that you get the speed but also the backups built into our servers. Providing easy to use but also highly available.

I have to say if you NEED litespeed then your server is underpowered or bogged down somewhat... so its an indication straight away that your shared hosting - and thats what it is, isnt up to scratch for the task at hand.

Litespeed is only ever needed to improve on slow server performance, whether thats because the server specs are low or when your trying to get a server to do more than it is capable of, in your case i suspect its the shared aspect where your hosting provider is literally overpopulating the physical server with so many clients its wearing thin.

One of many reasons I hate this sort of thing and steer clear of it, physical server that i know whats on it, what resources i have and if there is any issues it isnt some other invisible hosting client eating resources i need.

 

[fisicx]

We do yes, the hosting is on servers that are on a highly available cluster, the advantage of this combined with cPanel and LiteSpeed is that you get the speed but also the backups built into our servers. Providing easy to use but also highly available.

Not really any different to every other hosting company

 

[Hooble]

I have to say if you NEED litespeed then your server is underpowered or bogged down somewhat... so its an indication straight away that your shared hosting - and thats what it is, isnt up to scratch for the task at hand.

Litespeed is only ever needed to improve on slow server performance, whether thats because the server specs are low or when your trying to get a server to do more than it is capable of, in your case i suspect its the shared aspect where your hosting provider is literally overpopulating the physical server with so many clients its wearing thin.

One of many reasons I hate this sort of thing and steer clear of it, physical server that i know whats on it, what resources i have and if there is any issues it isnt some other invisible hosting client eating resources i need.

We roll out Nginx as standard for all the servers just to provide some sort of cache, but the LiteSpeed was for the CMS Optimized as it gives the developers the options to fine tweak caching on their websites. Since we began we have always been against the stack it high, sell it cheap approach as its affects clients on the servers as you say. We decided to offer the LiteSpeed just for developers who like the control over the cache for their fine tuning.

 

[helios]

Hi there,

I'm looking to speed up my website. In the new year, I'm expecting quite an increase in traffic - I'm unsure as to what the best way to prepare is. It wouldn't be anything crazy, maybe 300 unique visitors per day. I have a basic Bluehost hosting account and my website is quite slow (https://www.thrive-ignite.com).

I'm told that I may have to upgrade my hosting to a Pro Plan with Bluehost, or I may have to migrate to a VPS (which I don't really understand to be honest).

I've also been given different steps that I can follow in order to speed the website up, but I'd hate to screw it up by trying to do it myself.

Long story short, does anybody have any experience with this sort of thing? Perhaps you can recommend a developer you've worked with?

I've been looking on Fiverr for website speed specialists, but I just have no idea if what they're offering would suit my needs - and I'm not sure I'm getting an honest answer when I ask! The same goes for Bluehost support.

Thank you very much for any help, it is appreciated.
Mark

Hi Mark, I run my own IT business, and I can offer you a really good solution, with an interactive webapp, fully responsive, and much faster. It will be in Angular and not wordpress.

 

[fisicx]

Hi Mark, I run my own IT business, and I can offer you a really good solution, with an interactive webapp, fully responsive, and much faster. It will be in Angular and not wordpress.

If much faster why does google only score your site 24/100? Note the OPs site scores 65/100.

 

[helios]

If much faster why does google only score your site 24/100? Note the OPs site scores 65/100.

hi, which site are you talking about?

 

[fisicx]

hi, which site are you talking about?

Trellios

The other question is will an angular website offer the same range of themes, plugins and flexibility as Wordpress does?

 

[helios]

Trellios

The other question is will an angular website offer the same range of themes, plugins and flexibility as Wordpress does?

I think you are making a mistake here. What is Trellios?

Answering your 2nd question, building webapps on angular offers unlimited possibilities, so yes, themes, plugins and flexibility are all included. I know that building on angular requires a lot more coding skills than wordpress which is mainly plugin download. I have customers that had wordpress websites, and their customers interacted with woocommerce, and it wasn't excactly what they were looking for.

I dont want to go into a angular vs wordpress debate here. Its pointless. Wordpress is quite famous, so I will say that for those who want a quick easy to customise website, it is good enough. But coding is required for more complicated projects

 

[fisicx]

I think you are making a mistake here. What is Trellios?

Sorry, I meant tillios. Google scores performance worse than the OP's website.

Wordpress is not mainly plugin download. In fact the OP doesn't need any plugins. With the right hosting and theme they will be able to do everything they need.

 

[helios]

Tillios' low performance is mainly related to the big sizes of pictures which we used and indicates that slower internet connections will load the content slow, but the code itself is optimised. Did you actually try to access my website? On a further note, your notice is very helpful, and my website will score more than 75% by the end of the day.

Also, the right hosting was a thing many years ago. Nowadays the proper way to host a website is to distribute it over a CDN. The distribution of a webpage over multiple locations offers reliability, faster loading times and less cyber attacks. Single server hosting is prone in downtimes lets start with this, and obviously not all of the users follow the same route to it. Some will have a bad route and no matter how great/fast etc the server is, the website will load slow.

The OP wants to run an interactive website, where customers can access daily maintained content, like videos, customers area, accounting and billing, online payments and subscriptions, automatic confirmations. I would like to see this happening in wordpress.

 

[fisicx]

Tillios' low performance is mainly related to the big sizes of pictures which we used and indicates that slower internet connections will load the content slow, but the code itself is optimised. Did you actually try to access my website? On a further note, your notice is very helpful, and my website will score more than 75% by the end of the day.

Not according to Google. The top issue is scrips and blocking content (CSS).

Also, the right hosting was a thing many years ago. Nowadays the proper way to host a website is to distribute it over a CDN. The distribution of a webpage over multiple locations offers reliability, faster loading times and less cyber attacks.

I disagree. Using CDN can be a lot slower and it unnecessary form most site. If you are only targeting the UK or even local standard hosting is quite sufficient.

And in 15 years of self hosting I've never had a problem with cyberattacks. Good server security will suffice to keep the miscreants at bay.

 

[fisicx]

The OP wants to run an interactive website, where customers can access daily maintained content, like videos, customers area, accounting and billing, online payments and subscriptions, automatic confirmations. I would like to see this happening in wordpress.

All easy to do. Loads of ways to do all of this with WordPress.

 

[helios]

All easy to do. Loads of ways to do all of this with WordPress.

This is what everyone says, it remains to be seen though.

 

[helios]

Not according to Google. The top issue is scrips and blocking content (CSS).

I disagree. Using CDN can be a lot slower and it unnecessary form most site. If you are only targeting the UK or even local standard hosting is quite sufficient.

And in 15 years of self hosting I've never had a problem with cyberattacks. Good server security will suffice to keep the miscreants at bay.

UKBF is hosted on a CDN, and it is not build on wordpress

 

[fisicx]

UKBF is hosted on a CDN, and it is not build on wordpress

Not sure what point you are trying to make. There will be case when a CDN is advantageous but for most businesses traditional hosting is sufficient.

 

[NickGrogan]

This is what everyone says, it remains to be seen though.

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thewaltdisneycompany.com

All running on Wordpress.

 

[WebDesires]

This is what everyone says, it remains to be seen though.

hello mate, check out these speed tests and tell me wordpress cannot be optimized or that you are still waiting to see... LOL

PageSpeed Insights

pagespeed.web.dev

PageSpeed Insights

pagespeed.web.dev

PageSpeed Insights

pagespeed.web.dev

All 3 websites on WordPress and optimized by us, we are specialists in optimisation, it appears you are not. IF you are please show us a site you have optimized?

It's not about the platform, its about optimizing delivery, everything, css, js, html, images, caches etc...

 

[helios]

hello mate, check out these speed tests and tell me wordpress cannot be optimized or that you are still waiting to see... LOL

PageSpeed Insights

pagespeed.web.dev

PageSpeed Insights

pagespeed.web.dev

PageSpeed Insights

pagespeed.web.dev

All 3 websites on WordPress and optimized by us, we are specialists in optimisation, it appears you are not. IF you are please show us a site you have optimized?

It's not about the platform, its about optimizing delivery, everything, css, js, html, images, caches etc...

I do understand that there are companies out there which lack of coding skills and verbally attacking in public forum is a marketing strategy to grow their clientele.

I do understand that there are companies out there which will build a website which looks like we live in 2005 that has basic functions, and it will be optimised.

I never defended Angular that much, and your reply is offensive and intimidating. Well done for being specialists in optimisation, I guess that I became a specialist in optimisation too, in less than 24hrs, as with little effort I optimised one of my websites, the desktop version. Later today I will optimise the mobile version too. That makes me a specialist right?

Well, I have no intentions to go into any arguments in someone's thread, who is asking for help. In real life business, I have seen websites that wont score that high in optimisation and they still rack up millions.