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Recommendation For Coding/Wordpress Forums

Mr.Rob

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Hey Fastlaners,

I'm running into some issues in creating a wordpress website for my business and wanted to see if anyone has a good forum they'd recommend for total beginners in the field of Wordpress development.

I'm in the process of optimizing my site for SEO but I'm having trouble getting the bugs slowing down my site speed figured out... This whole tech/coding world is totally above my head atm.

Maybe you guys/gals have a recommendation for a good resource/forum to get some answers to all this?

Thanks,
-Rob
 
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pawon

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If you have specific errors - copy paste them in google. You will probably end up on stackexchange.com

Or, you can browse the Wordpress department of their site: WordPress Development Stack Exchange

Do you have any specific problems showing up? Or you just want to speed up the site?
 

Mr.Rob

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Hey thanks for the reply guys.

@James Gill - Ya I use them quite a bit but still a few unanswered questions from time to time. Thanks tho.

@pawon - good resources there, cheers for that. Basically I'm trying to get my site to rank on pingdom/googlepagespeed/GTMetrix tests to load in less than 2 seconds (or ideally less than 1 second) to be best optimized for SEO.

I'm basically just going down the checklist one by one of the errors these tests are giving me.

Yesterday I tackled the 2 highest ranked errors on Pingdom (1. Use a CDN and 2. Compress files via GZIP). For #1 I got a free Cloudflare account and did the best optimizations recommended AND I also added some code to my .htaccess file to compress files via Gzip).

I did both those things, cleared my cache, and a day later Pingdom still tells me that those are still both the 2 highest errors and the speed hasn't changed a bit :/

Did I do those things wrong or something? Like wtf it was pretty straightforward lol.

Another question... When researching various backend fixes that require code I find that each blog article you read on say for example setting up Gzip compression has a different code to use for the same exact task/function... Why is this? It would seem like there would be only one code that achieves the task but you go on 5 articles and get 5 different codes to copy/paste that claim to achieve the same thing.

How to know which one is the right one to use?

Thanks for any input.
 
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Real Deal Denver

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Hey thanks for the reply guys.

@James Gill - Ya I use them quite a bit but still a few unanswered questions from time to time. Thanks tho.

@pawon - good resources there, cheers for that. Basically I'm trying to get my site to rank on pingdom/googlepagespeed/GTMetrix tests to load in less than 2 seconds (or ideally less than 1 second) to be best optimized for SEO.

I'm basically just going down the checklist one by one of the errors these tests are giving me.

Yesterday I tackled the 2 highest ranked errors on Pingdom (1. Use a CDN and 2. Compress files via GZIP). For #1 I got a free Cloudflare account and did the best optimizations recommended AND I also added some code to my .htaccess file to compress files via Gzip).

I did both those things, cleared my cache, and a day later Pingdom still tells me that those are still both the 2 highest errors and the speed hasn't changed a bit :/

Did I do those things wrong or something? Like wtf it was pretty straightforward lol.

Another question... When researching various backend fixes that require code I find that each blog article you read on say for example setting up Gzip compression has a different code to use for the same exact task/function... Why is this? It would seem like there would be only one code that achieves the task but you go on 5 articles and get 5 different codes to copy/paste that claim to achieve the same thing.

How to know which one is the right one to use?

Thanks for any input.

It astounds me that people are so concerned with speed. I just finished two WP sites and I concentrated on AWESOME content. When someone comes to my site, I want them to have a "Welcome to Disneyland" experience. I want awe.

I'm not selling burgers through a drive through.

I do very impressive one on one direct marketing to get them there. I'm following that up soon with targeted Facebook ads. I rely on recommendations heavily. They want good - they're going to wait an extra 4 seconds for my site to load. That's the breaks! They don't like it - fine - I don't like people that are too busy to wait 4 seconds.
 

rogue synthetic

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Hey @Mr.Rob

Two quick questions for you:

1. Who is your hosting company?

2. Are you using Apache or Nginx?

If you can't answer one or both, that's fine.

If you've got shell access with your hosting account I can walk you through some changes to make your WP site blaze. If not, it's a little tougher to milk the real speed without a terminal, but I might be able to navigate you through some tweaks.

Let me know and we'll see what you can do. If you don't mind sharing, can you either post your results or list your site so I can go check it out? (It's understandable if you're not comfortable sharing.)
 

Mr.Rob

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Real Deal, Ya I agree I think preoccupation with 2 seconds here or there is kinda stupid but since its SEO I'm working on and Google prefers sites that load in 2 seconds or less that is why I'm working on my site speed... if you have some references that show Google actually doesn't care about that I'm definitely open to checking them out.

@rogue synthetic - Hey man, thanks for the offer to help.

1. My hosting company is Blue Host

2. I'm pretty positive Blue Host uses Apache although when I check either through a server check tool or by inspecting the network they both say Cloudflare... so idk for sure.

I just PM'ed you my Pingdom results, so maybe we can go into detail there a bit more!

-Rob
 
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George Appiah

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Maybe you guys/gals have a recommendation for a good resource/forum to get some answers to all this?

Perhaps the most underutilized resource is the official WordPress Support forum.

If you take your time to ask a "good question" and follow the forum guidelines, you'll be amazed at the extent to which forum volunteers, including Yours Truly, will go to help you -- all for free.

The problem is, many people simply do not know how to ask good questions generally, but especially so when it comes to tech support. Every day I see people rant endlessly in the WordPress support forum, without even providing any context about their WordPress setup.

Many do not even understand the fragmented and independent nature of the WordPress ecosystem (WP core, theme vendors, plugin vendors, hosting companies, integrated 3rd-party services, etc) and will spew out all kinds of unsavoury words at you when you tell them you can't help them with something that requires access to their hosting account... because you don't have said access.

To these people, everything is "WordPress", that's why they come to the forum asking us to restore a backup of their hacked WordPress website. And can you blame them? After all their host told them it's a "WordPress problem" and directed them to WordPress.org. (EIG brands: Hostgator, Bluehost, Justhost, HostMonster, etc are regular names that come up in such situations)

And my favourite of all... the folks who threaten to file a chargeback, report you to the local police, or sue you because you defrauded them, their site doesn't work and they're losing "millions" everyday :eek:

On the subject of mastering the art asking questions in a way more likely to get you a satisfactory answer, here is my all-time favourite resource (co-written by Eric Steven Raymond, author of the famous essay and book The Cathedral and the Bazaar): How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
 
Last edited:

OlivierMo

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Real Deal, Ya I agree I think preoccupation with 2 seconds here or there is kinda stupid but since its SEO I'm working on and Google prefers sites that load in 2 seconds or less that is why I'm working on my site speed... if you have some references that show Google actually doesn't care about that I'm definitely open to checking them out.

@rogue synthetic - Hey man, thanks for the offer to help.

1. My hosting company is Blue Host

2. I'm pretty positive Blue Host uses Apache although when I check either through a server check tool or by inspecting the network they both say Cloudflare... so idk for sure.

I just PM'ed you my Pingdom results, so maybe we can go into detail there a bit more!

-Rob

- 2 seconds is pretty slow.
- Nginx would be faster than apache
- You may want to check your own hosting solution where you can specify your packages and tweak your machine. It's not necessarily that expensive with something like Vultr or Linode. SOmething like 10 bucks a month gets you your own box. I know Vultr has an easy way to deploy WP. It's a bit more technical though
 

George Appiah

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1. My hosting company is Blue Host

2. I'm pretty positive Blue Host uses Apache although when I check either through a server check tool or by inspecting the network they both say Cloudflare... so idk for sure.

EIG brands (BlueHost, JustHost, Hostgator, and over 80 other brands) are known for cheap hosting and the promise of unlimited space and bandwidth (until you start to actually use what they promised)... not for reliability, performance or even good support.

I did both those things, cleared my cache, and a day later Pingdom still tells me that those are still both the 2 highest errors and the speed hasn't changed a bit :/

Have you confirmed that these recommendations refer to resources under your control?

These tools are dumb in this respect and may offer optimization recommendations for embedded 3rd-party resources that you can't do jack about (eg Facebook widgets, Google Ads/Analytics scripts, etc).

Another question... When researching various backend fixes that require code I find that each blog article you read on say for example setting up Gzip compression has a different code to use for the same exact task/function... Why is this? It would seem like there would be only one code that achieves the task but you go on 5 articles and get 5 different codes to copy/paste that claim to achieve the same thing.

Whatare the exact "correct" steps to open a document on a computer?

The obvious answer is, "it depends."

First, it depends on the kind of computer we're dealing with: Windows? Mac? Linux? (COMMAND what? There is no COMMAND key on my keyboard!)

It also depends on individual preferences and/or skill level, which may come in two or more flavours: a) open document from the file manager, or from the application), b) use the mouse or keyboard shortcuts, c) press a HOT KEY to fire a macro, etc.

Consequently, five different people could write different code which may accomplish essentially the same thing. But some of these codes may or may not be applicable to you depending on your hosting software and the kind of features and/or privileges you have.

For example, the simple act of increasing the amount of computer memory (RAM) available to your WordPress website could be accomplished in several ways, eg: 1) by editing your wp-config.php file, 2) by editing your .htaccess file, 3) by editing user-level PHP config file... often php.ini or user.ini, 4) by editing PHP's main configuration file, php.ini, etc. Now, you may not have the permission to use one or more of these options (due to restrictions imposed by your host), and if you use Nginx, the .htaccess option will not work for you at all.
 
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Patrick Jones

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Not answering the initial question, BUT: It seems you are spending many hours on this. Would it not be much more economical to have somebody else fix this for you? Takes an experienced developer two hours or less and costs you €150 or less.
 

rogue synthetic

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Have you confirmed that these recommendations refer to resources under your control?

These tools are dumb in this respect and may offer optimization recommendations for embedded 3rd-party resources that you can't do jack about (eg Facebook widgets, Google Ads/Analytics scripts, etc).

This was 99% of his problem.

Everything else checked out fine, even for cheap-o shared hosting.
 

Real Deal Denver

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- 2 seconds is pretty slow.
- Nginx would be faster than apache
- You may want to check your own hosting solution where you can specify your packages and tweak your machine. It's not necessarily that expensive with something like Vultr or Linode. SOmething like 10 bucks a month gets you your own box. I know Vultr has an easy way to deploy WP. It's a bit more technical though

I'd reply to this, but it would take me more than 5 seconds, and I just DON'T HAVE THAT KIND OF TIME MAN!

My time is money dammit! Oh crap, I've already shot 15 seconds of my life. Gone forever. Might as well finish...

This is so hilarious to me. Let me tell you a story about how utterly stupid the much younger generation is, compared to much slower and much older generations.

I order a pizza last Tuesday from Papa Murphy's because they have a Tuesday special of any kind of pizza for $10. I order the Large combo, on thin crust. That's the way I roll. I know good food, and I piss away seconds by the hundreds - just because I can.

So I get there, and I pass maybe 20 people leaning against the walls as I walk up to the cash register to pick up my pizza. My pizza is the ONLY one on the rack, ready to go. I pay and I'm outa there in less than 2 minutes. On the way out, I scan the room to see what everyone is doing. Every single person there is glued to their smart phone. You know the - smart - one, that they - could have - used to do something - useful? Like ordering a pizza ahead of time? Yeah, that one. Every one of them had a phone.

20-25 idiots all standing around. Me, the old guy that wasn't born with, or uses a smart phone every hour of the day - is the one walking out with a pizza. Good thing I don't rely on apps for everything I do, like those - smart - people do.

And this is the generation that doesn't have 3 or 5 or 6 seconds to spare for a website to load? Got 30-40 minutes to wait for a pizza?

I'm gonna incorporate this all into a stand up routine. You can't make this up. I'm sure I was home and had the oven warming up before most of them even had their pizzas made.

And they judge my website on a few seconds? LOL.
 
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