Slow & Steady

September 28, 2009 3:07 PM

Why is my website loading slowly, and how can I fix it?

My blog (linked from my profile page) seems to load incredibly slowly (sometimes taking up to a minute), even though it's not a content heavy site.

Things that may be relevant:

• the blog is Wordpress v. 2.0.4
• the admin page for the blog loads up just fine, with no delay
• it used to be hosted at the .com version of the url, but after a brief scare in which I lost access to that url (though it was later regained) it was switched to .org, and I'm not certain that I changed absolutely everything that ought to have been
• the page displays my Twitter feed, which is the main content that resides on the main page and comes from outside the site itself

Why is it loading slowly, and what can I do to fix it?

posted by ocherdraco to computers & internet (21 answers total)

It seems to be loading at a reasonable speed here.
If I had to hazard a guess I would say it whatever Twitter module you are using or Twitter itself.
posted by errspy at 3:11 PM on September 28, 2009

YSlow might help you find out why.
posted by oxit at 3:13 PM on September 28, 2009

It didn't load slowly for me, but I have experienced Twitter-related slowness before. Have you tried putting your Twitter javascript (JUST the js) in your footer instead? That way, your page will still load even if the Twitter feed doesn't for whatever reason.
posted by katillathehun at 3:13 PM on September 28, 2009

Try disabling Flickr content and comparing.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 3:14 PM on September 28, 2009

I'll just add that while I have an extensive knowledge of HTML and CSS, my web development skills are pretty minimal beyond that. Assume little knowledge of how all these pieces intersect.
posted by ocherdraco at 3:15 PM on September 28, 2009

Civ_Dis, I don't think it's Flickr, as that part of the page has been unchanged for a long time, and never seemed to affect loading time before.
posted by ocherdraco at 3:15 PM on September 28, 2009

Your site loads quickly here -- I notice, however, that you've got your Twitter feed javascript above all your content in the page structure, which means that if the feed is slow to load, it'll slow the rest of the page loading. Maybe see if your individual posts are loading slowly, as well, or if it's only the main page, where the feed is.

On preview: what katillathehun said.
posted by liquado at 3:17 PM on September 28, 2009

Individual posts are loading slowly, too, for me.
posted by ocherdraco at 3:24 PM on September 28, 2009

It is because your links to your lightbox and other javascripts are coded to "example.com" and your domain is "example.org." The browser pauses to look for the .com domain for awhile, then gives up and loads the rest of the page anyway.
posted by spilon at 3:39 PM on September 28, 2009 [2 favorites]

Here's a good place to start.

Do you have firefox? If not, get it.

Get Firebug. Restart Firefox.
Go to your site, press F12. This brings up the firebug panel.
Click on the Net tab and enable it. (There is a small arrow on the tab that will enable it).
Refresh your page.

You'll see a timeline of what resources your page uses, and how long it takes to load, here's an example.

You can start troubleshooting from that.
posted by boo_radley at 3:39 PM on September 28, 2009

Also, there's something called oodomimagerollover.js that can't be found either.
posted by spilon at 3:40 PM on September 28, 2009

Loads quickly for me, both from NY and a Canadian proxy I use for work.

I think it's just you. Have you tried from a cafe or some never-used-by-you-before computer?
posted by rokusan at 4:29 PM on September 28, 2009

The first time I tried loading the site, it took a good 15 seconds. Subsequent loads were quick, even after clearing my browser cache.
posted by zsazsa at 6:15 PM on September 28, 2009

nthing the javascript load timeout because they are linked as www.example.com instead of www.example.org.

Offenders:

script src href="http://www.example.com/css/lightbox.css" type="text/css" media="screen" />

script src="http://www.example.com/js/prototype.js" type="text/javascript">


script src="http://www.example.com/js/lightbox.js" type="text/javascript">

posted by thewalledcity at 8:17 PM on September 28, 2009

(Also the scriptaculous.js?load=effects)
posted by thewalledcity at 8:19 PM on September 28, 2009

Thanks, y'all. I'll try to clean up all the .com offenders, and see where that leaves me.
posted by ocherdraco at 8:20 PM on September 28, 2009

Loads fine for me (<2sec)....you do have a missing javascript file though, as firebug will point out.
posted by Sonic_Molson at 8:38 PM on September 28, 2009

Yep, that's exactly the problem, and lest you think you're crazy because of all these people saying "naw, it's fine, loaded like lightning": No, it took about a minute and a half of waiting for those bad links to time out before the rest of the page would render, then it loaded like lightning.
posted by majick at 5:23 AM on September 29, 2009

I'm having trouble locating the actual callouts. Since Wordpress creates its pages dynamically from php callouts, looking at the page source isn't actually helping me find the file I need to edit (and I formatted the page so long ago, I don't remember what I edited). Anyone familiar with Wordpress who can help me figure out where to look?
posted by ocherdraco at 8:02 AM on September 29, 2009

You may have access to the WP Theme Editor, depending on what kind of installation and host you're using. If you have this, you can edit theme files from within your browser. File permissions have to be set correctly for this to work.

If you don't have the Theme Editor, you'll need to edit your theme files offline using a text editor. Theme files are located in /wp-content/themes/[your-theme-name]. The changes you need to make are most likely in a file named header.php.
posted by expialidocious at 11:23 AM on September 29, 2009

Totally missed the header file when I was looking through the Theme Editor before. I've fixed the offending callouts, and all is peachy keen. Thanks, folks.
posted by ocherdraco at 1:12 PM on September 29, 2009