Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Blog Load Time


For a long time now it seems this blog has been loading slowly on all three of my computers. One or two people have also told me the load time was so slow they had to start reading F&F through Feedblitz. I've also noticed some other blogspot blogs that I like to read load slowly. So I did a little investigation through googling to find out what's up with these trouble blogs. Keep in mind I'm no blogger or html expert.

I found this very helpful blog analyzer tool through WebsiteOptimization.com. Just type in the URL for your blog or other site and this tool will analyze how long it takes to load. Most importantly it will give you a list of Analyses and Recommendations, coding various elements of your blog green (doing fine), yellow (cautionary) and red (fix it!).

Yikes, I came up with quite a few reds. I immediately took some unnecessary widgets and links off the sidebar, and I reduced the number of posts that show at a time to four. Soon as I did just these two simple things, F&F loaded faster for me. How about you? Did you notice it loading any faster?

There are still a couple red items in my template that are beyond my fixing, what with my limited knowledge. Are there any blogger professionals out there who can be hired to fix these issues for me? They have to do with overall page size and image sizing. If you know someone, please leave a comment or email me. Perhaps F&F is loading quickly enough now and no more needs to be done. But that'll depend on your feedback. I appreciate your comments.


9 comments:

Georgiana Daniels said...

That was super fast! Another thing that many bloggers have in their sidebars that slow the loadtime is the blogging chicks. Glad you got it fixed =)

Anonymous said...

It's fixed.

Grady Houger said...

Your blog has been working well for me, though it was slower at times over previous years. A person's internet connection, browser, and computer speed all affect how a site and its inefficiencies are processed, so the user experience can be good for some and not others. Its good to hear you're improving things 'under the hood'.

Richard Mabry said...

Thanks for the information. I hadn't experienced that much trouble downloading F&F, but this will force me to look at my own web site and blog.

The Encourager said...

Your tweaking has made a 100% improvement for me. Before now, your page would appear but not finish loading for as much as a minute. The lag was so great I could read the displayed text and then wait to scroll down until the load finished. Now it loads immediately and I can scroll up and down the page.

Thanks!

Pam Halter said...

You know Bonnie Calhoun, right? She can help you with blogger.

Anonymous said...

I haven't noticed any problems at all. But thanks for the website referral. I'll keep that handy in case I need it in the future:-)

Merrie Destefano said...

Yes, it loaded SO much faster for me this morning. I confess. I am a lurker who reads your blog everyday, but the slow load made it difficult. I had to find something else to do while I waited.

Your blog is that good, Brandilyn. It's worth waiting for.

(But I'm really glad I don't have to wait anymore.)

Lori Benton said...

Much faster for me now, too. Thanks!