Static Versus Dynamic Website - SEO

[Shelldon]

Hi all. I'm looking for a little advice.

I have a website (I'm a tour guide) that basically brings in all my business. The website is hosted on Afrihost and I use WordPress. Over the years (say 6 or so) the site has become so slow, taking 7 seconds or longer to load. I understand SEO, and so have tried to target keywords in content, and I try to update regularly.

However I've been thinking lately that maybe using a static theme, and only using wordpress for the "blogging" part might be a better way to go? It means the main site loads faster and I can rather use a basic wordpress theme for the blogging. Or perhaps maybe even use tumblr or something like that for the blogging.

Would this be a viable option to using WordPress? And I only bring this up because of website speed which I'm told Google is adding more weight to.

Thanks in advance.

 

[halfmoonforever]

Hi,

The issue here isn't with your website, but your host. CPanel (if you have) shows you what resources your site is using etc.

I would suggest loading your site on a host like elitehost.co.za or domains.co.za as a test to see how fast the loading is (an account is cheap enough for a test like this, and I believe both companies will help you migrate your site for a test, something like test.yourwebsite.co.za)

You can also look at caching plugins, but I firmly believe your host is what is slow, not your site.

Website speed has always been a factor in weighting.

You know what. Maybe PM me with some details and I'll evaluate it for you for free and maybe suggest a path which doesn't lead away from afrihost (if that is your desire)

I've optimized many-a-site

 

[chopsky]

Firstly, have you updated your Wordpress, theme and all plugins to the latest versions?
Run your website through the speed test tool at www.gtmetrix.com and follow their recommendations to speed up your site.

Using Wordpress should have zero affect on your SEO efforts. In fact, in some cases it might even help. The fact that your site takes 7+ seconds to load indicates an issue with your setup, rather than an issue with WP itself. Get that sorted out.

There's tons of other variables that can contribute to ranking success, over and above than simply site speed and keywords in your content i.e. backlinks, domain age etc., Get your speed fixed first, then focus on the rest.

 

[Shelldon]

I did the test with gtmetrix and it was even worse that I thought! 16 sec loading time! Will try to follow and deal with the report. Thanks Chopsky and halfmoonforever.

 

[Shelldon]

Hi,

The issue here isn't with your website, but your host. CPanel (if you have) shows you what resources your site is using etc.

I would suggest loading your site on a host like elitehost.co.za or domains.co.za as a test to see how fast the loading is (an account is cheap enough for a test like this, and I believe both companies will help you migrate your site for a test, something like test.yourwebsite.co.za)

You can also look at caching plugins, but I firmly believe your host is what is slow, not your site.

Website speed has always been a factor in weighting.

You know what. Maybe PM me with some details and I'll evaluate it for you for free and maybe suggest a path which doesn't lead away from afrihost (if that is your desire)

I've optimized many-a-site

I thought it was Afrihost but it's actually hetzner if that makes any difference?

 

[halfmoonforever]

I thought it was Afrihost but it's actually hetzner if that makes any difference?

PM me your site etc. I want to do a few tests on my side to determine where it's slowing down. Could be a rogue plugin or something silly. If it's not afrihost, but hetzner, do you know what kind of hosting account you have? do you have Cpanel?

 

[chopsky]

It's not the host. It's the site. 99.999% guaranteed.
Also Hetzner don't use cPanel, they use konsoleH.

 

[halfmoonforever]

It's not the host. It's the site. 99.999% guaranteed.
Also Hetzner don't use cPanel, they use konsoleH.

If it's not the host, then explain why it takes 1.2 seconds to get DNS information and getting served the site (wait time to first byte received)

 

[shadow_man]

If it's not the host, then consider:

* Upgrading WP / plugins.
* Putting a caching server in front.

 

[chopsky]

If it's not the host, then explain why it takes 1.2 seconds to get DNS information and getting served the site (wait time to first byte received)

1.2secs is very different to 16secs.
You're welcome to PM me the URL and I can take a look.

 

[halfmoonforever]

1.2secs is very different to 16secs.
You're welcome to PM me the URL and I can take a look.

The 16 seconds referred to earlier is the entire payload. I'm currently helping the OP optimize his stuff. TTFB is what is important for Google (anything above 200 ms they consider something to look at)

 

[chopsky]

The 16 seconds referred to earlier is the entire payload. I'm currently helping the OP optimize his stuff. TTFB is what is important for Google (anything above 200 ms they consider something to look at)

What do you mean by "anything above 200ms they consider something to look at" ?

Also, what tool are you using to measure TTFB?

 

[halfmoonforever]

What do you mean by "anything above 200ms they consider something to look at" ?

Also, what tool are you using to measure TTFB?

PageSpeed Insights
Pingdom Tools
YSlow

All of them report on how fast the DNS Server resolves the request for your IP
How fast the server responds (Wait time) before anything is starting to send (time to first byte) etc.

PageSpeed reports checking the server response if it takes longer than 0.2 seconds to respond.

https://developers.google.com/speed/docs/insights/Server