12 replies to this topic

[bryanhaines]

Over the past few months, I've been having serious problems with my site. Specifically, the site is consuming huge system resources despite having modest traffic (60-80,000 monthly pageviews). A couple months ago, I upgraded the hosting and I'm still having problems. I spent much of the day researching page speed and causes for slow (resource-consuming) sites. I've found 

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to be a useful resource. 

 

To start off, I've disabled all my plugins, without any noticeable difference in performance. My hosting is with Media Temple and they provide hourly reports of GPU (Grid Performance Unit - a system they use to measure resource consumption). This is my site here: 

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After setting up CloudFlare last night and tweaking WP Super Cache (my only operating plugin - the rest are disabled) I've seen load time reduce from almost 5 seconds to a low 1-2 seconds. 

 

I should clarify that this isn't a complain/blame post. I LOVE Pagelines - I've been a customer for more than 3 years. 

 

I'm not a WordPress expert, but it seems like many of the glitches highlighted by this report should be fixed by Pagelines. See the site report here: 

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It seems like these are coding problems by Pagelines:

• Combine images using CSS sprites
• Specify image dimensions
• Use efficient CSS selectors

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13 very inefficient rules, 5 inefficient rules, and 8 potentially inefficient uses of :hover out of 26 total rules.

 

Other problem areas that I don't know how to fix include: Leverage browser caching. Should this be handled by a caching program or automatically set within the theme? Many of the site components that are highlighted as problems are in the theme files.

 

I would love some input on this. Last month, I was billed over $40 surcharge for the processing overages. I switched from Host Gator to Media Temple because HG was taking my site offline every time it "over-used" system resources. At least now the site stays online. 

 

Can anyone give me some insight or advice? 

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

{Here is debug report:}

 

 

 

WordPress Version : 3.4.2 Multisite Enabled : No Framework Path : /nfs/c06/h04/mnt/156399/domains/gringosabroad.com/html/

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Framework Version : 2.3.6 Framework Build : 2.3.6 PHP Version : 5.3 PHP Open basedir restriction : Yes! PHP Magic Quotes gpc : Yes PHP memory : 99 Mysql version : 5.1.55-rel12.6 PHP type : Cgi-fcgi PHP User : Bloggerabroad.com OS : Linux Launchpad : Logged in ( bryanhaines ) Licence : Dev Plugins : 3
akismet/akismet.php
blogvault.php_/blogvault.php
wp-super-cache/wp-cache.php

 

[James B]

Hi there, I'm not a developer so I'm unable to answer a majority of the above unfortunately, but I will speak to them regarding this and someone will come back to you with an update.

 

What I can say is that in the latest update 2.3.6 we've enabled LESS_FILE_MODE as default. This tells the framework to write a physical css file, which can then be cached with CDN's and is loaded instantly, which will make the site much quicker. Updating to the latest version should definitely improve things speed wise.

 

You can enable leverage browser caching in the .htacess file as far as I'm aware, an example of which can be found here -

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Someone will be back to you with some more info on the other questions you've raised shortly.

[Simon_P]

James is right, you need to add stuff to .htaccess to add expires headers, DEFLATE and vary etc etc.

 

Sounds to me like you have outgrown the shared hosting. Time to look at a VPS

[bryanhaines]

Thanks Simon and James - I appreciate your responses. The site is actually hosted with Media Temple - on their grid service - and the site doesn't even come close to consuming the allowed bandwidth. There are excessive background processes running that are using their resources (and costing me money). This hosting package is much stronger than a typical HostGator shared hosting plan. 

 

I will be launching a new site over the next four weeks and, while this service can handle multiple sites with more traffic than I have, I can't if these processes can't be controlled. Is there any way to track down the cause of these processes? Because the problem continued even after I disabled all plugins it makes me think it is the theme. I have almost 300 posts and 4000+ comments.

 

Can you recommend a plugin or a WP expert to review my database? 

 

Thanks!

 

Bryan 

[Simon_P]

i would use wp-super-cache with .htaccess mode. 

[bryanhaines]

I'm using wp-super-cache. I don't know what you mean to use .htaccess mode. Is this a setting inside of the plugin? I checked the settings and can't see that? 

[bryanhaines]

Simon - why didn't you address my comment about the theme being the possible culprit? It seems to point to that.

 

Bryan 

[bryanhaines]

Hey Simon - I was reading on the forum and this moderator post by One Smart Egg recommends against expiring headers by means of .htaccess

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but you recommend that? Should I or shouldn't I?

[Simon_P]

1. its under advanced settings.

2. What shows anything is the frameworks fault?

3. Expires tell the browser to cache whatever the expires header is added to. Do a google search for .htaccess deflate expires and do some reading

[bryanhaines]

Thanks for responding Simon_P. 

 

1) I don't see it under advanced setting. .htaccess is only referenced once on the Advanced Settings Page: "Remove UTF8/blog charset support from .htaccess file. Only necessary if you see odd characters or punctuation looks incorrect. Requires rewrite rules update". Are you sure that it is on WP Super Cache? I'm using version 1.2 (the current version). 

 

2) I'm guessing that you didn't read my initial post? With no plugins installed, what else can be causing errors on the site? I'm not a WordPress expert, but it seems like many of the glitches highlighted by this report should be fixed by Pagelines. See the site report here: 

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 If you look at the report, you'll see many of the file problems are inside of the theme. 

 

It seems like these are coding problems by Pagelines:

• Combine images using CSS sprites
• Specify image dimensions
• Use efficient CSS selectors

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has 13 very inefficient rules, 5 inefficient rules, and 8 potentially inefficient uses of :hover out of 26 total rules.

 

3) I understand what "expires" means. I was (am) questioning why you are recommending something the forum moderator is recommending against. 

 

Hey Simon - I was reading on the forum and this moderator post by One Smart Egg recommends against expiring headers by means of .htaccess

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but you recommend that? Should I or shouldn't I?

 

Please take the time to read my posts before responding.   It just wastes both of our time when you guess at what I wrote... 

 

Bryan 

[Simon_P]

Bryan, i dont have to respond here at all, especially on a saturday.

 

Robs reply in that other post was someone elses site having issues with quickslider, and in my opinion ( and I know a LOT more about optimisation than any mod on here ) there is no reason to not add expires headers especially when your site suggestion thing advises it.

 

As I have already suggested, twice, add DEFLATE headers to, that enables compression. Thats the two major things that mark a site down.

 

I cant comment on the CSS, as Im a bit of a css noob, PHP and BASH is my language, but since when has a site ever been mark down in ranks for inefficient use of :focus?

 

Combining images into sprites.

There are some plugins out there that con do this for your post images etc. By default the only images that are displayed on the page are the feed images at the top and the leaf.

 

The image dimensions are specified in the css file, not hardcoded on the page, if they were hardcoded it would be impossible for you to change the size if required.

[bryanhaines]

Simon_P, I'm not sure if you are getting paid for your outstanding responses, but I think Pagelines needs to rethink you being on the front end...

 

 

What kind of a response is this?  

Bryan, i dont have to respond here at all, especially on a saturday.

 

Respond or don't - but don't make it look like a favor. If you don't feel like, want to, or need to respond - don't. Your responses haven't been helpful anyway. You just fire off whatever comes to mind without even reading my full posts. And why didn't you respond to point #1 about .htaccess modification? 

 

I am disappointed with your arrogant manner on the forum and you aren't serving as an ambassador for the brand. In fact, I was hesitant to post my question because of how you have responded to other customers. You do realize that people have other options than Pagelines, right? 

 

I posted my concern, looking for some direction. You now have me thinking about switching to another theme/platform - one with better (less arrogant) support. I've been with Pagelines for 3 years - and I have been an ambassador for the brand - as an online business journalist. This is the first time I've seen a troll as moderator in a commercial forum. 

 

Please don't mix-up your Saturday by responding. 

[Simon_P]

I am trying to be helpful, as ive said before you need to add an expires, looking closer it seems your using cloudflare? So you can adjust the expires from inside their control panel.

 

I always read the opening post.

 

You could add this to add expires, but i think cloudflare overrides any setting locally:

 

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Nobody called you a troll.

 

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