Learn / Troubleshooting / Slow or stale sites
Slow or stale sites
Site is very slow
Usually: No caching, heavy images, slow queries, resource limits, slow third-party scripts.
- Run a speed test and read the waterfall.
- Turn on page caching.
- Resize and compress images.
- Review plugins and external scripts.
- Compare the slow period with the host's usage graphs.
Changes do not appear
Usually: A cache is serving the old version: browser, plugin, server or CDN.
- Try a private window or another network.
- Purge the plugin and CDN caches.
- Look at response headers for age or hit indicators.
The admin area is much slower than the public site
Usually: Public pages are cached and admin pages cannot be. Heavy plugins, large options tables or slow external calls make it worse.
- Profile the admin on a staging copy.
- Disable plugins that add dashboard widgets.
- Enable an object cache.
- Clean up autoloaded options.
Images load slowly in the gallery
Usually: Original-size images being scaled down in the browser.
- Resize images to displayed size.
- Use responsive image sizes and a modern format.
- Lazy-load below the fold.
Site is slow only at certain hours
Usually: Scheduled jobs, bot waves or busy neighbours.
- Match the slow times with cron schedules.
- Read the access log for the period.
- Compare with the host's usage graphs.
A third-party widget freezes the page
Usually: The external service is slow or blocked, and the page waits for it.
- Load the script asynchronously.
- Remove the widget temporarily to confirm.
- Look at the waterfall in the browser's network tab.