I’ve been playing around with optimizing the performance of my store. I’ve enabled gzip, installed Smartoptimizer and altered my htaccess file. GTmetrix now gives me a B (86%) for both Pagespeed and Yslow. But on the initial load my page still takes between 9 and 12 seconds to render.
Looking at Webpagetest I see that time to first byte looks like the issue. My first response is to find better hosting - go for VPS and see if that helps. But I’ve also read that it can be a software issue - that the cart is building the page on the server before sending any data to the browser.
So I’m looking for advice on how to proceed.
Thanks
Bruce
Have you also used the compression/optimisation attributes in the config file?
I haven't - and I don't know what they would be. Could you point me in the right direction?. Looking at the waterfall on Webpagetest it looks like its lots of javascript loading first meaning the page doesn't start rendering for over 4 seconds and its the time to first byte of each component. Probably the next thing to look at is moving the javascript or at least defering the parsing of the javascript.
In the root of your store you have a file named config.local.php, within that file are some optimisation features:
$config['tweaks'] = array (
'js_compression' => false, // enables compession to reduce size of javascript files
'check_templates' => true, // disables templates checking to improve template engine speed
'inline_compilation' => true, // compiles nested templates in one file
'anti_csrf' => false, // protect forms from CSRF attacks
'disable_block_cache' => false, // used to disable block cache
'join_css' => false, // is used to unite css files into one file
'allow_php_in_templates' => false, // Allow to use {php} tags in templates
);
Change the values as appropriate, js_compression will make a big difference in itself.
Thanks for that - I remember now I did do something in there - possibly joined the css and compressed the javascript.
B.
When you access your website on a non-cached browser. Does it take 9 - 12 seconds?
I happens a lot that it's a facebook or twitter plugin that's taking a while to finish loading, and thus test results might not always be correct.
[quote name='idg' timestamp='1341508037' post='139996']Try using a cdn like maxcdn.com or cdn77.com for your site assets. It great reduces pageload time.[/quote]
How much does a Cdn usually cost you a month?
MAXCDN is cheap around $39.95/TB . I am using this for Wordpress but also want to use on csc…
Thanks I may check it out.
[quote name='solesurvivor' timestamp='1341634667' post='140094']
Thanks I may check it out.
[/quote]
You can vote for CDN addon here - http://cscart.uservoice.com/forums/40782-professional/suggestions/1913479-cdn-addon-for-cs-cart-professional
Or even try something like cloudfare. Google and you will know.
[quote name='StellarBytes' timestamp='1341372026' post='139860']
In the root of your store you have a file named config.local.php, within that file are some optimisation features:
$config['tweaks'] = array (
'js_compression' => false, // enables compession to reduce size of javascript files
'check_templates' => true, // disables templates checking to improve template engine speed
'inline_compilation' => true, // compiles nested templates in one file
'anti_csrf' => false, // protect forms from CSRF attacks
'disable_block_cache' => false, // used to disable block cache
'join_css' => false, // is used to unite css files into one file
'allow_php_in_templates' => false, // Allow to use {php} tags in templates
);
Change the values as appropriate, js_compression will make a big difference in itself.
[/quote]
Will the above tweaks be of any use even if I have enabled Gzip or mod_deflate on my server?
[quote name='jain1980' timestamp='1346427012' post='144062']
Will the above tweaks be of any use even if I have enabled Gzip or mod_deflate on my server?
[/quote]
Yes, and don't be overly afraid to do some quick experimenting with these settings on your end
I'll have to try this out.
I did a lot of small changes which helped but setting up Amazons CDN service enables us to have about a 1 second load time world wide on a photo heavy site. Cost around $4 per month.
But it is a self service CDN you need to know what you are doing to set it up or get some help.
yes maxcdn rocks
do any off you have expirience using [url=“https://www.cloudflare.com/”]https://www.cloudflare.com/[/url] ? thay hae a free version that seams to work. i used it on my store before and i am going to again wen it is all done.
If you have an SSL, I think you have to use the paid version of Cloudfare.