It’s often too easy for me to just sit here, and be happy that I have a blog site up and running. I write, network with my circle of friends, and churn out content on a daily basis. Sometimes I take for granted how my blog is perceived by others. Earlier this year, I started to update the look & feel with a new WordPress theme. Now, I’ll be looking at the web site loading time, or it’s system and network performance.
Using the tools available at my disposable, I’m going to scrutinize my web site. I’ll start with a free Full Page Test tool from Pingdom. Testing my site with it reveals the main blog page loads rather slowly: averaging 6-7 seconds. I’ve noticed the pieces affecting the load times are ShareThis button plugin, graphics, and CSS files.
To confirm, I’m going to use a commercial software from Keynote Systems to provide the numbers from sites all over the world:
- From Toronto (Bell Canada), the average response time is 5-6 seconds.
- Singapore (SingTel), averaging 13-14 seconds.
- London (British Telecom), averaging 7-8 seconds.
There are possible caveats to these simple performance snapshots:
- Time of the Day
Network traffic varies at different times of day. North America can be very active during work day, saturating the bandwidth on the network backbones to my site’s downstream ISPs such as AT&T. - Local Bandwidth
I share my server connection with my outgoing DSL broadband connection. Whenever I use it to browse from home, network response time is going to degrade. - Load Testing
The numbers above are averages from loading the page 5 times. In a real performance test, it has to be scripted to hit various pages (not just one), ramp up with multiple users (depending on requirements), and run continuously over a period of 30-60 minutes. However, since I run a light-traffic site, load testing is not necessary.
In summary, it looks like my blog’s main page is not loading very well. Without changing my server’s network bandwidth, obviously some things on this page have to be changed or eliminated. There are things I can do to optimize this page, which I’ll cover in the next few weeks. It’s going to be an interesting challenge.
How slow is my page loading in your browser?
Tags: hardware, optimization, server
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Your page loads fine. Stop being such a geek.
Although I am on dialup at home here. Internet out in the middle of Cowland is pretty slow.
Periapex’s last blog post..No Problem, No Pressure.
Your page loads fine for me – I have good speed too.
My blogs usually loads between 6-8 seconds… Mostly the images are slowing it down.
Zhu’s last blog post..The Amazing Race
@Periapex:
The ancient Chinese proverb said, “The geek shall inherit the earth.” 😉 Speaking of ancient, why can’t Bell Canada or Rogers wire up your ranch with broadband?
@Zhu:
I’ve pretty much outsourced my images to another offsite (faster, I think) server. I haven’t done all of them, which is going to be part of my optimization plan.
The ShareThis plugin is one of the worst when it comes to slowing load times. For me this morning, your page loaded within 3 seconds. I think mine averages 4-6 seconds and this is after removing plugins I wasn’t using and analyzing my database. I’m on a shared server so moving images wouldn’t work for me since they would all run from the same place. Also, any stats plugins, will slow a site down and I know FireStats’ database tables are huge.
Beth’s last blog post..My Quest Is Still On To Receive A Pep-Talk Phone Call From Diane Sawyer.
Most sites these days seem to have a 6 to 7 second loading time. However I find a lot of us on broad band connections tend to forget that there are still people out there on dial up. Something to keep in mind.
Ben’s last blog post..Improve your site with Robot Replay
@Beth:
Several times connecting to sharethis.com, it was noticeably slow. I think the javascript code they use is bloated. The widget doesn’t get used much anyway, so it’s going to be the first one to go. When I stumble a page, I use Firefox toolbar, which is way faster. I also Google Analytics, which is the only one I use for gathering stats. There’s a temptation to use others, but really, GA is the only one that matters.
@Ben:
I try to keep dial-up’ers in mind, but they’re a dying breed. People on dial-up should be using RSS feed instead. Much faster.
We live too far from the nearest Bell central office and Rogers doesn’t have any cable in our area. I’m telling you, it’s the middle of nowhere.
I’ve tried a couple of different companies to see if they could get me broadband wireless, but we also live in a valley with tall trees surrounding the house. So that won’t work.
The only option is satellite internet (expensive and I’m not sure I want to splurge on that when I get broadband at work). Hopefully we might see some sort of powerline broadband thing one day.
Periapex’s last blog post..American Board of Endodontics Diagnostic Terminology.
Interesting consideration. But your page is just fine. I’m using a school computer and it loaded A.O.K.
Leon’s last blog post..My thoughts on…male breast implants
@Periapex:
Ah, I guess that’s the trade off you have to make when you live way out there.
@Leon:
That’s good to know. Looks like your network proxy is from Florida, but is your school’s computer in Jamaica?
loads pretty fast it seems? what will happen to you if you ever make it to the front page of digg? is that automatic crash status?
turtie’s last blog post..Matlab GUI Tutorial – Mapping a Keyboard Button to Execute a GUI Callback
Hi turtie,
I’ve never thought about getting Slash-dotted or the Digg-effect. But your idea sounds pretty good!