Website Slow? Here are a few tips.

Ok.  So you have a slow website.  Depending on the architecture, there are a couple of different ways we can speed it up.  We need to remember that the technology you’re riding on is going to make a big difference.

There are many factors that can make your website slow.

1. Inefficient Code
2. Large Graphics files
3. Bad Internet Connection
4. Underpowered server.
5. Wrong Technologies chosen
6. A server that has been incorrectly configured.

These are all issues, but the one big one is usually the good one and that is you’re just getting too much traffic and you just can’t handle it!  (That’s a good thing)

There are many solutions to making your website faster.

1. CDN: Otherwise known as a content delivery network.  It caches your website and delivers your content to your user using high speed internet connections and of course, geo-location technologies.

2. Proxy / Caching:  The other way to do this is to cache your site and serve up the pages from the cache so you’re not hitting your server so much saving CPU cycles.

3. Heavy graphics / multimedia:  Did you consider that your graphics are just not optimized for a website?  This is a big mistake and one that can make a huge difference.  GIF files are light, but not exactly the highest quality.  JPEG files need to be tuned.

4. Underpowered CPU or bad bandwidth:  If you’re hosted in a place with a horrible bandwith connection (oversubscribed), there’s very little you can do, but to move your site or use a CDN.

5. Inefficient code:  This is the biggest one of all.  I’ve seen this happen many times.  Many websites are interfaced to a database, but if the SQL code is inefficient, it’s going to be a nightmare.  Good clean and efficient code can speed up your website several hundreds of times.

The only way to know is to get an assessment.  I can help you if you’d like.  Just contact me and let’s see what we can do about your situation.