Optimizing Wordpress

Jeremy

in memoriam 1991-2020
Well, let's just say I'm tired of my site loading quite slowly, so I am working on angles as to how I can optimize the software and increase efficiency. I plan on upgrading to v3.1 as soon as I can do some quality tests and I am looking to see if I can effectively upgrade my server to a 64-bit platform for free. Any thoughts or suggestions?
 
Well, let's just say I'm tired of my site loading quite slowly, so I am working on angles as to how I can optimize the software and increase efficiency. I plan on upgrading to v3.1 as soon as I can do some quality tests and I am looking to see if I can effectively upgrade my server to a 64-bit platform for free. Any thoughts or suggestions?

What plugins are you running at the moment?
 
I am running the following publicly released plugins:
  • Askimet
  • GN Sitemap Generator
  • Lightbox 2 (I'm working to phase this out with custom rewrites using jQuery)
  • Maintenance Mode
  • Regenerate Thumbnails
  • Remove /blog slug for wpmu
  • Smart 404
  • Wordpress MU Recent Posts
As well as 4 custom plugins, mostly used within the backend.
 
I would suggest installing W3 Total Cache. It has a variety of caching options including support of php accelerators. If you don't update you post too much something worth considering.
 
I am running the following publicly released plugins:
  • Askimet
  • GN Sitemap Generator
  • Lightbox 2 (I'm working to phase this out with custom rewrites using jQuery)
  • Maintenance Mode
  • Regenerate Thumbnails
  • Remove /blog slug for wpmu
  • Smart 404
  • Wordpress MU Recent Posts
As well as 4 custom plugins, mostly used within the backend.

WP Super Cache is a must have plugin :)
 
WP Super Cache is a must have plugin :)
We had that installed. I uninstalled it as it decided to only update specific pages at random times, so it wasn't always serving the newest content. It also seemed to be a tad bit faster AFTER the plugin was removed.
 
Okay, couple of thoughts:
  • Make sure you're at the very least on the latest stable release of Wordpress
  • Run as few plugins as possible
  • Definitely install a caching plugin. W3 Total Cache & WP Super Cache are both good iirc, though you could also do the caching manually through htaccess (albeit probably less well)
  • Consider offloading static content
  • Consider poking Cloudflare
  • You may consider cleaning up your WP header code depending on your type of site
  • See this page
If you have a link to your site, I could shoot you some more specific tips ;)
 
hmmmmm .... Are you using any opcode ? APC ??
Using TotalCache or SuperCache without opcode installed is useless ...

64 bit distro WILL NOT speed up anything (only needed if you go beyond 3GB of RAM)

Finally ditch Crapache :D ...
 
Okay, couple of thoughts:
  • Make sure you're at the very least on the latest stable release of Wordpress
  • Run as few plugins as possible
  • Definitely install a caching plugin. W3 Total Cache & WP Super Cache are both good iirc, though you could also do the caching manually through htaccess (albeit probably less well)
  • Consider offloading static content
  • Consider poking Cloudflare
  • You may consider cleaning up your WP header code depending on your type of site
  • See this page
If you have a link to your site, I could shoot you some more specific tips ;)

http://pittnews.com/ I have minimized plugins, and only a few should be functioning within the front end. I'm not entirely worried about the back end. We had Super Cache or Total Cache installed, but it wouldn't update several pages (categories for example).

What would you consider static content, and where would I offload it too?

hmmmmm .... Are you using any opcode ? APC ??
Using TotalCache or SuperCache without opcode installed is useless ...

64 bit distro WILL NOT speed up anything (only needed if you go beyond 3GB of RAM)

Finally ditch Crapache :D ...
The upgrade isn't necessarily for the "speed" boost for WordPress. It is more for the updated backend & services that I will gain by doing a server upgrade. I'm also hoping that having a 64bit could possible allow for more space for the random memory issues that we get (services'll shut down).

I believe that I did look into installing APC, however, I'm rather novice at this server management stuff. Is there an easy way to install this on a CentOS 5 system?
 
http://pittnews.com/ I have minimized plugins, and only a few should be functioning within the front end. I'm not entirely worried about the back end. We had Super Cache or Total Cache installed, but it wouldn't update several pages (categories for example).

What would you consider static content, and where would I offload it too?
Woah, lots of stuff to optimize there. 50+ kb to save with just basic optimizations alone :p
You have msn or Skype or something? It'd be a whole lot easier to discuss it there. ;)
 
Woah, lots of stuff to optimize there. 50+ kb to save with just basic optimizations alone :p
You have msn or Skype or something? It'd be a whole lot easier to discuss it there. ;)
Skype: King Kovifor
Thanks. I'm looking to remove quite a lot of random things (lightbox) and such and consolidate thsoe.

Site just ran fine for me.
It felt lightweight and peppy.
TPN = Total Parenteral Nutrition.
TPN is The Pitt News, but you knew that. :P You came on a lucky day then... It can be extremely slow at times (late night usually).
 
Surprised no one had told you this yet.

Install PageSpeed on Firefox. Follow what it asks you to do. I can list so many things looking at your site, but you can discover them yourself when you run pagespeed.

If you need some benchmarking results, go to http://www.webpagetest.org/ It uses Pagespeed suggestions as well.

Or even easier, visit: http://gtmetrix.com to get the best of both worlds.

I've done an analysis for you.

http://gtmetrix.com/reports/pittnews.com/PBeOaGkN
 
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