How to Address Poor GTMetrix Scores Windows 7

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[IreneLinda]

Hi Loungers,

This is likely the most technical question I’ve asked here. Hope someone can help me with it despite my lack of extensive technology knowledge.

Our WordPress business site seemed slow to load. Thanks to this lounge, I knew to run GTMetrix to get its score, which I’ve attached. It’s awful! The issues seem to be primarily “Defer parsing of JavaScript” and “Leverage browser caching”, with some “Minimize redirects”.

When I click the down arrows beside each (see attachments), I’m lost and have no idea how to fix any of this. Reading the “What’s this mean?” beside each item doesn’t help me much.

A few months ago, our host suggested plugins to speed up the site. I downloaded “Heartbeat Control by WP Rocket” and “Leverage browser caching”. The latter seems not to be doing much given the caching score! I also hate to keep adding plugins because they slow things down as well.

Can a Lounger suggest or provide a link to a step by step method for addressing these issues? If I can fix them, can I then remove those 2 plugins?

Any advice would be hugely appreciated!

Thanks,

Linda

• This topic was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by IreneLinda.

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The javascript issue seems to be that you need to parse a lot of data before being able to display a page, mainly a youtube js file. Can you remove the youtube links to test?

See if that helps, then we can look at the others.

cheers, Paul

 

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Huh. Okay, I’ll try.

To clarify which video links to tackle …

Is it just the home page that is causing the issue or all the site pages?

We have one video linked to YouTube on the homepage, and a separate page of videos linked to YouTube accessed via a menu tab. Currently there are 8 videos on it, all installed using All in One Video Gallery plugin.

Thanks for your help on this!

Linda

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The “base,js” file is the biggest file and that seems independent of the vids.

Can you disable javascript on your browser and compare load times with it enabled?

cheers, Paul

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I found how to disable it and thought I’d try it on our stage site instead of the live one to be safe. The sites are not quite identical, but close. What’s weird is that the Defer Parsing of JavaScript had an A on the stage site! Now I’m really stumped.

However, the sites aren’t completely identical so …

Will I hurt anything to disable JS on the live site and check load times?

Linda

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Does the stage site have the same base.js loading?

You can check by using the “right click > Inspect” option in Chrome.

cheers, Paul

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Sorry, Paul, but I can’t figure out how to find base.js in Inspect. Can you tell me where to look?

Linda

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Linda, run the Firefox browser, and install the NoScript extension. Now browse to your site via Firefox, and click the NoScript button (probably upper right in your browser window). You will see what is trying to run in the background (all is blocked by default, you have to enable it for it to be able to run).

You will probably notice that browsing to your site is fast. Enable one script at a time (actually, one script provider at a time), and see what slows everything down. After checking a script, disable it and enable the next one, to see if there are more than one.

I started using Firefox with NoScript when I found that it was super slow browsing the web. If you enable only the necessary things, most sites will work and will be fast.

Maybe this process will help you home in on what is slowing down your site.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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Hi Jim,

Sounds like a great idea. I’ll do that now and see what I can find out. Will post results as soon as I have them.

Thanks!

Linda

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Jim,

I just tried it on homepage with the attached result. Not sure how to tell what’s trying to run in the background. Sorry.

On all site pages I noticed videos were there, but most images were not; one or 2 were. That seems strange. On Contact page, there’s a message saying I need to enable JavaScript to complete form.

I didn’t really notice much site speed improvement after activating NoScript … ???

Maybe this is too technically advanced for me??

This seemed like such an easy way to figure things out, but it’s beyond me right now! Duh.

Linda

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The four web sites shown in your screen clip are trying to run scripts in the background:
— paypal.com and youtube.com are specifically allowed to run scripts – that is, you have told NoScript to allow those sites to run scripts;
— mygoforthegreen.com and doubleclick.net are not allowed to run them by default – that is, you haven’t told NoScript to allow those sites to run scripts.

On mygoforthegreen.com, click the clear “S”, and it will be marked as a trusted site, allowed to run any script in the background when you are browsing that site with Firefox and NoScript.

Click the “S” with a line through it on the doubleclick.net line, and you will be explicitly telling NoScript not to allow any scripts to run from that site.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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To follow up on my earlier post, it’s either youtube.com or doubleclick.net that is slowing your site down. Or perhaps neither of these sites is the culprit; something else (e.g. javascript) may be slowing your site down.

My guess is that it is something else.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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Thanks so much for your explanation. Makes it clear what I’m looking at. I see no reason for Doubleclick to run so I can leave that blocked, correct? Not sure why it is even there on our site since I’m not tracking visitors. Can/Should I delete it? If so, how?

From GTMetrix info, yes, you’re right: it’s JavaScript causing the main issue. I got an F due to “defer parsing of JavaScript”. I’m now trying to understand how to correct it by reading the linked “what’s this mean” info on GTMetrix. It’s pretty techy, but I’ll see if I can make some sense of it.

Will post back how I do.

Linda

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I want to be clear that Firefox with NoScript does not do anything with the way your site is set up to run; the only thing it does is give you information. (Well, it keeps unwanted scripts from running when YOU visit the site, because you have them blocked; but it doesn’t do that for anyone who does not have them blocked.)

So if you find that blocking doubleclick.net results in better website performance, then you could try to find out how to block it, if that is even possible. (I suspect that your web host is the one running it in the background, which means that you probably have no control over whether or not it runs.)

Here’s a thought – you might get better website performance if you switch to a different web site host. They might provide a more efficient, more configurable web environment than the one you currently are using.

If you are using a free service, then they will likely run stuff in the background, so that they can gather data on those who visit your site, so that they can then monetize that data. However, if you are paying for the web hosting service, you will have a better chance of not having all of that junk (er, stuff) running in the background.

doubleclick.net is the only stuff running in the background that I would consider “junk”. In other words, it isn’t much. So I think something else is slowing you down. Perhaps switching to another web hosting service would be an improvement from a speed perspective.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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Update: yikes, way too techy for me! Not sure quite where to turn now. Not in a position to hire outside help right now. Sigh.

Linda

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Thank you for your detailed message, Jim. I do understand what NoScript does now that I’ve tried it on our site. As you confirmed, it’s a tool for me to use on other sites not to control the JS on ours!

We are with a paid host I’m pretty happy with. They have really good tech phone support so I’ll go back to them first and see if they can help with this JS issue.

Once I have their input, will post back.

Linda

 

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I doubt your host will be much help, it’s your site that contains the javascript links. If this is really a problem you need to limit / remove the youtube content from your site.

cheers, Paul

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Hi Paul,

Sorry to be slow in replying … took a “digital holiday” over the weekend!

Appreciate your input on calling our host. I suspected JS would not be something they could help with and you confirmed it. Saved me a call!

Re. YouTube: to test stage site speed more fairly, I uploaded/linked all our YouTube videos (1 on homepage; 9 on Videos site page) to the stage site. When I ran the speed test, it was much better (see attached). Most noteworthy: JS went from F to A.

Does this mean the linked YouTube videos are not the issue?

If so, can you suggest a next step?

Thanks for your ongoing help,

Linda

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I would try disabling plugins one by one to try to determine if one is causing the issue.

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Appreciate the suggestion. Could a plugin be creating “defer parsing of JavaScript” errors?

Linda

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Plugins add code to your page(s) If one of them is responsible for the slowdown you have a place to start looking and optimizing.

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Okay, I see. Will give it a try and report results.

Thank you!

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Okay, I’ve tried deactivating most plugins one at a time and running GTMetrix after each deactivation. I did not try deactivating essential plugins such as Gutenberg, WooCommerce, Memberships, Yoast or our premium GP theme.

The results seem weird to me. Several plugins when deactivated improved “fully loaded page time” dramatically (i.e., from 19 seconds to 7.4) but the “page speed” was worse (C) than it was originally (B+).

Does this tell you anything? I hope.

Linda

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I’d search for any broken links/missing files. Xenu link sleuth has woked well for me. http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html

That seems to be exacerbated when using cloudflare.

Search for cloudflare slow. You’ll find a bunch complaining their sites were slower after switching to cloudflare.

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I’d look for any missing links/files. That seems to be exacerbated when using cloudflare. Do a search for site slow on cloudflare for some ideas.

If you have a managed hosting account and your provider is good they should be able to point you in the right direction. Good luck! TBH I would not normally have waited for your site it took so long to load.

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The page loads less data, 1.2 vs 1.5MB. That doesn’t make sense given base.js is 1.2MB.

I suspect what you are seeing is the speed of loading external data, e.g. base.js.
Can you remove all external links on the test site and compare?

cheers, Paul

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Tried to follow your earlier suggestion:

Can you disable javascript on your browser and compare load times with it enabled?

Disabled JS, but discovered GTMetrix won’t run unless it’s enabled. Sigh.

Happy to try removing external links, but not sure how to determine which links to attack and how.

Can you clarify this for me so I can give it a try?

Thank you,

Linda

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Unfortunately, the software used to serve websites inevitably accesses / uses external sites as part of their software delivery, e.g. the avatar on AskWoody comes from Gravatar.

Determining which component is slow is the difficult bit and test speeds will vary from week to week as the load on the internet changes. Testing at different times of the day over a week or two should give you a more reliable indication.

The best way to test your server is to run the test from a machine in the same location, eliminating host comms links from the speed test. If you have remote access to your server you may be able to load a browser and run the test from there.

What you are seeing as poor performance might be an aberration. Is the test site with the same host / IP range?

cheers, Paul

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Positive comments all, Paul. You’re right: I’ve been running lots of speed tests and can really see how the scores vary from test to test and day to day.

Our site is a WordPress one. Found a premium plugin called WP Rocket that should address our 2 key issues (JavaScript parsing deferral and server caching). Think that will be the simplest (though not cheapest) solution for me. It has a 14 day free trial so can be returned if it doesn’t correct the issues.

Also found an excellent Crazy Egg blog which outlines a wonderfully understandable and step by step way to tackle the whole speed issue. It’s very easy to follow even if you aren’t very techy and offers lots of suggestions.

So I have a path to follow and I’ve learned a lot along the way, thanks to all the knowledgeable loungers who frequent this Lounge. Thanks for all your help … and patience!

Linda

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Hi Paul,

Happy New Year, Paul.

Thought I’d provide an update (a little after the fact) because the most fantastic thing happened re. our site’s speed.

Our site is a WordPress one. I’ve been a member of WPApprentice.com for several years (though not quite as long as I’ve been a Woody’s member!). Kirk Biglione started this “learn to use WordPress” site quite a while ago and is as helpful as this Lounge whenever I get stuck. I posted my speed issue to his new member forum to add his input to yours.

Kirk wrote back to ask if he could use our live site to teach how to fix speed issues for a new course he was planning. Of course, I jumped at the chance. We worked together by phone and email for a few weeks. The results? Kirk created a new course and he raised the GTMetrix score for our site from an F to an A+! He corrected some server issues and installed WPRocket for some others as well as lots more fine tuning “under the hood”.

So good news all around. Our site loads fast now and I can fix issues that pop up going forward, thanks to his speed course. What a great way to head into a new year! And aren’t I lucky (not to mention super grateful)?

It’s a wonderful feeling to have 2 fabulous resources to call on when I am overwhelmed by tech issues: Woody’s Lounge and WPApprentice.

Thanks as always for your help and advice,

Linda

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Paul T

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