Performance Impact

Hi Julian,

Thanks for using Independent Analytics!

This is definitely unusual. Independent Analytics makes a REST API request that should only take 200-400ms. Please note that this runs asynchronously, so it affects the total load time but the page will already appear fully loaded to visitors before the request begins.

I see another plugin making an AJAX request that takes a similar amount of time, and that should be much faster too. It could be a server issue, but most likely, there is a plugin greatly slowing down these types of requests. I would recommend temporarily deactivating all plugins on the site besides Independent Analytics and running another test. If the /search request from Independent Analytics returns to a normal 200-400ms, then we know the issue is stemming from another plugin on the site. You can reactivate them until you see this issue return, and then you may be able to find a particular setting to change in the offending plugin.

I’d also recommend checking how fast the request runs in your browser’s developer tools (screenshot) instead of GT Metrix. GT Metrix is a good tool, but this process can be much faster if you check in the browser.

Hey Ben,

Thanks for your detailed explanation, I appreciate your time and help.

I troubleshoot the plugins as you described, disabled all plugins except for the Cloudflare, Jetpack, SiteGround Optimizer, WooCommerce, WooCommerce PayPal Payments, WooCommerce Shipping & Tax, WooCommerce Stripe Gateway, Wordfence Security and WPBAkery Page Builder plugins. I don’t want to mess with these plugins so I won’t disable them for any reason.

Running performance tests through GTmetrics and in the browsers developer tools still yielded long search request from Independent Analytics with all the above plugins disabled.

My site is hosted with SiteGround and I’m using their SiteGround Optimizer plugin with settings to combine CSS and JavaScript, etc. I suspect the SiteGround Optimizer plugin may be the cause of this excessive loading time issue.

The Request Initiator Chain is:

cloudflare-static/rocket-loader.mini.js
  siteground-optimizer-combined-js.js
    wp-json/iawp/search

I can exclude assets from combination in the SG Optimiser plugin. The effect would be to allow Independent Analytics search requests to initiate normally. What do you think, Ben? Can you advise which Independent Analytics assets I can exclude from combination?

Independent Analytics actually doesn’t load any assets. The tracking script is inlined with the HTML and makes a REST API request and that’s the part that is taking 3-4s right now.

I think it would be helpful to use SiteGround’s staging tool to set up a temporary staging site. Then you can deactivate every plugin and test thoroughly without worrying about affecting your live website. There is a good chance that one of the plugins still activated is the reason for the slowness of the request.

Hey Ben,

I setup the staging site, disabled plugins then run GTmetrix tests after activating each plugin one by one.

Search request from Independent Analytics loading time increased incrementally after each successive plugin activation, with a little fluctuation up and down. That is, each plugin activation caused longer Independent Analytics loading time. Nothing popped up as a clear cause of the excessive loading time.

Analysing the REST API request itself, typically, it’s taking 4.3 seconds waiting and 1ms receiving.

There doesn’t seem to be a clear answer, unfortunately. As for my hosting with SiteGround, I’m on the GoGeek plan which is their top/best shared hosting plan with pretty good resources.

Independent Analytics plugin is pretty darn good so I’m disappointed to have to let it go.

I’m sorry to hear that didn’t help. I don’t want to take up too much of your time, but if you’d like, we can continue the debugging process. Given some more time and access, we will ultimately find the root cause of this performance issue and will be able to resolve it one way or another.

Please reach out to me at [email protected] to look into this further, as we’ll need to discuss sensitive data that can’t be posted here.

G’day Ben,

I’ve sent you an email as requested.

You may now wish to edit your previous message, removing your email address so you don’t get spammed.

Cheers!

After further debugging, the issue was SiteGround connecting very slowly for all AJAX and REST API requests on the site.