Slow site

I did a GTmetrix page performance test, and found the server response time is terrible. 4.4s waiting time just to get server response, I am testing it from Vancouver, BC.

You can’t do much about this, but to change your hosting. Or contact your hosting company, and see if there is a problem with the very server that hosts your site.

Other than this, I found simply increasing memory limit for WordPress installation can have positive impact on performance. All you need to do, is to add following code in WP-CONFIG.PHP:

/** Increase WP memory limit **/
// Front-end
define( 'WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M' );
// Back-end
define( 'WP_MAX_MEMORY_LIMIT', '512M' );

There are other ways to improve your site performance. But as you mentioned, W3 Total Cache didn’t help. You need to solve server load problem first.

Hello mlapointe64,

As 2bearstudio mentioned, your server response time is indeed slow, 4.4 seconds.
but some of the recommendations given on gtmetrix can be solved with W3 Total cache Eg –

Enable gzip compression
Leverage browser caching
Minify CSS
Enable Keep-Alive
Defer parsing of JavaScript
Optimize the order of styles and scripts
Minify HTML

check your W3 Total cache settings once again, I am linking to a blog post which gives step by step demonstration of the essential settings for this plugin, check here

Which hosting company do you use? My websites were very slow. After I moved to a better one, I saw significant improvement. So I keep trying and moving to a good hosting. And it even faster after I installed W3 Total Cache. My website’s gtmatrix score is A (91%) and C (78%).

Nikschavan has suggested good setting, but I recommend to test the minify options before you really enable it. Because minification may cause conflict with certain plugins or themes. I think your appearance issue (color of my site from blue turn to red) is caused by enabling the minify options.

Thank you ALL very much for your responses.

I doubt that my hosting company is the issue as I have many websites hosted there (Joomla, plain html, WordPress) and this issue is only with this site.
I think it could be something with the WPML, which had been optimized as per some of their suggestions (I might have to write them back again).

2bearstudio: I changed the wp-config.php file but no luck with the speed.

Nikschavan/Handoko: As expressed, I cannot install W3 Total Cache as it destroys my theme, changing the blue to red (?!?). I did try a bunch of things with it (with and withouth minify and it did not help the speed issue).

Any other suggestions?

Many THANKS again ??

@mlapointe64

I just did another test, the waiting time for server response is 5.72s. You may have other sites with the same hosting company, but this site maybe hosted on a different server.

Ping other sites and boutfils.ca, and find their IP addresses, this will tell you whether all your sites are on the same server. It will be a surprise they are all on the same server. No matter what, contacting your hosting company will help, especially when boutfils.ca is hosted on a different server.

I have sites with WPML, and I don’t see performance hit on those sites.

In your case, no matter how you tune up plugins, theme, code, it won’t help much. The server response time is the bottleneck.

The server belongs to a good friend. He owns 2 servers (1 linux and 1 windows) and I have the IP’s for both. It is the same server.

I’ve checked my sites on the Windows server and they are definitely running faster (1s loading times versus 4s on Linux).
He will check the Linux settings, just in case.
Servers are in Montreal, you get 5.72 from Vancouver, I get 10.75 out of Ontario..lol. Boutfils (at 10s) is definitely much slower than all other Joomla and WP sites (4s).

I’m going to try WP super cache (suggested by WPML). I think it’s a combination of server settings and some settings at my end.

Anyhow, if you have any more clues (either for my friend to check on his Linux Settings in Plesk or myself, I’m open).

Thank you!

The caching plugin Hyper Cache Extended has a “Cache status”, where you can find a Server Load index number. This will tell you whether the server is overloaded.

Your friend should have more ways to access server log, to pinpoint the bottleneck.

I don’t have much experience on Linux server optimization, only limited practice on VPS. But would recommend your friend do some database optimization. Both Joomla & WP are database driven. MySQL is better to tuned up to tip-top shape.

Good luck!

Thank you!
I’ve gone plugin by plugin and it seems to be more like WooCommerce is the culprit. Trying WP Super cache and will try Hyper Cache Extended AND will try contact WooCommerce as well (I think it could be Canada Post’s plugin).

I will come back with solution once I find it (YES I WILL find it) ??

WP Super Cache Settings has helped and is not changing the color of my site ??
I’m now testing at 3.5s at my end, instead of the 7s-10s I was getting before.

Now I’ll leave the rest to my hosting friend to check his Linux server for even better performances.

Thank you everyone!

Just FYI, I have WooCommerce & Canada Post’s plugin, it shouldn’t be the cause. The Canada Post plugin is activated only on checking out page, to calculate the shipping rate.

Thanks.
WooCommerce plugins was the only thing, once deactivated, that would make make the site run faster. Anyhow, just really glad that WP Super Cache did the trick.