Optimising Joomla website

[Gavin Hanly]

Hi - I've been having semi-regular problems with my Joomla-based site. While some of those are host-based (which I'm dealing with elsewhere) I think I'm overdue getting an expert in to make sure the site is optimised best - particularly with regards to speed.

I have a good understanding of HTML/CSS but my SQL/server knowledge etc is non-existant. Can anyone recommend how to find/hire someone to look at this on a strict on-off consultancy basis?

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Have you tried JCH Optomize?

You could do everything yourself, but this has a lot of tweaks in one place.

 

[Gavin Hanly]

Yes - I have that but I think some of the issues are more convoluted than that can handle. My host says that the database is under some strain, but I'm not sure where to start with regards to analysing where the issues are.

 

[webhostuk]

Whats the database size are you running some frequent crons? or do you have lots plugins. Make sure you get hosting on SSD server for fast database processing.

 

[KM-Tiger]

Optimising db performance isn't just about fast i/o that you would get from SSDs. It could be memory or processor bound, depends on the nature of the db queries.

I'm not a Joomla expert, but I have dealt with Joomla sites that needed a lot of tweaking of db settings to get them to run at a reasonable speed.

It will depend what sort of hosting you have as to whether you can do this.

 

[gpietersz]

Fast IO does often help though, and these days there is no reason not to have SSD.

Is the problem intermitted or continual, and is it shared hosting?

Optimising the DB schema often helps - specifically the single commonest solution to database performance issues is to add an index.

You could add the index to the DB directly (without touching Joomla code) if that is what is needed. I know databases but not Joomla so I cannot tell you whether it might cause a (probably fairly easily fixable) problem later on depending - can someone say whether Joomla relies on any sort of DB migration tool that might not like direct changes to the schema?

If its a badly designed query or series of queries (repeated queries in a loop in the code are another common problem) its a bit more complex, but given that Joomla is used on lots of large sites a badly designed query will probably be in a plugin.

 

[Ecommerce-Help]

I worked on a slow Joomla site a few years ago and looked at moving to Elxis CMS as it was supposed to be faster than Joomla and and run less database queries. In the end the client stuck with Joomla and deleted some content and plug-ins which helped.