Website optimization tests

[Mister.T]

Hi,

I'm looking at optimizing my website, I've come across, a website called "gtmetrix" but is it any good at giving advice on optimization and speed? I've also come across some others that people use on XF.

Thank you

 

[Jeremy P]

PageSpeed Insights and GTMetrix both use Lighthouse so their advice will be more or less the same. GTMetrix does provide some additional bells and whistles though.

 

[KensonPlays]

What @Jeremy P said is true. I use GTMetrix myself because it gives some extra data points to improve things, but it gives primarily the same info as Google PageSpeed.

 

[Mister.T]

Thanks.

 

[Mister.T]

How do I make my scores better on mobile, I'm getting some low scores, see image please.

If I use a CDN such as cloudflare, do I have to point my website to there nameservers, as I'm wanting to keep my own?

 

[Jeremy P]

Screenshots of scores alone don't really mean anything. If you scroll down, specific diagnostics which explain the scores are already provided. You have to address those, or provide a link to the results at a minimum for anyone else to help.

 

[Mister.T]

Okay

 

[Anatoliy]

Fix everything in red.
Largest contentful paint - 8 sec!

 

[Mister.T]

Fix everything in red.
Largest contentful paint - 8 sec!

How, by making the JPG image smaller in size? as its 4838 by 3225?

 

[Jeremy P]

Google fonts and the entirety of the Font Awesome CSS can be heavy:


The largest paint takes 1.5 seconds and seems to be a huge background image:


Using images with appropriate dimensions and converting them to WebP or AVIF may help reduce the overall payload:


Set explicit width and heights on all <img> tags, and lazy load them:


Cache static assets for a year and use cache-busting techniques (query strings, etc):

 

[Mister.T]

What would be a good size to lower the background-1.jpg to it's at 4838 by 3225, 321kb in file size at the moment?

 

[Jeremy P]

The largest size you expect it to be intrinsically displayed at by the vast majority of your visitors. It's rendered at less than 2000px wide for me. You might also consider creating separate images for mobile and swapping them with media queries.

 

[avalanch]

It looks like you need to use a cdn, it will help with your server load & caching.

WebPageTest

View this on WebPageTest.org...

www.webpagetest.org

As for images, if you go to the link above, click on image analysis from the results list you'll see something like this.

Website Speed Test by Cloudinary

Optimized images improve page load time and user satisfaction. This tool provides measurable and actionable info about how to go beyond simple compression.

webspeedtest.cloudinary.com

Not too big of a deal for your site but here are sample results:

 

[Mister.T]

Can I use a CDN without changing my nameservers to that provider? as it looks like Cloudflare nameserver change is needed?

 

[avalanch]

Yes cloudflare typically does want you to change to their nameservers but it's quick and easy and everything will function as normal after the dns resolves. Don't be scared of it.

 

[Mister.T]

Is there a CDN service where I don't need to change my name servers?

 

[Old Nick]

I'm not a specialist but you are asking if it is possible to use a VPN to change your IP address but without changing your IP address...

 

[Mister.T]

I'm not a specialist but you are asking if it is possible to use a VPN to change your IP address but without changing your IP address...

No, no, in order to use a CDN (never used one before), I'm assuming I must change my name servers from ns1.website.com to the name server of the CDN, no matter if its Cloudflare or another CDN provider?

 

[Old Nick]

That's it, that's how it works, so I'm making the metaphor with the VPN and the IP... You can't, unless I'm wrong and it wouldn't be the first time, use a CDN without changing your nameservers since that's exactly what a CDN like CF does...

 

[Old Nick]

But this is valid for a CDN which manages all your traffic, there is also the possibility of using CDNs for part of your data, such as for emojis, fonts, coding languages, etc...