If Your Site is Slow
We know it can be very frustrating when you're trying to load your site, which runs slowly! There are a few things to consider when determining what could be causing it to act sluggishly.
'Slow' is a relative term. What may seem slow to you could be fine for another customer experiencing the same site speed. Since it's impossible to determine what is slow for everyone, it may be more helpful to fine-tune your site to be as fast as possible.
Connectivity
Connectivity issues often cause sites to appear slow when they may not run slowly. We have a resource that we suggest to help you determine if there is an issue with your connectivity or if there is another issue.
Internet Supervision
Internet Supervision is a free website testing tool. You enter your website URL into the provided field and select 'Check URL.' It will then connect to your site from various places worldwide so you can see if it is your connectivity or something more.
If your site promptly connects to other locations worldwide, it is most likely your connection or route to our servers. Either way, you must contact your Internet Service Provider (ISP).
TraceRoute & PingPlotter
If you want us to help you find the location causing your site to appear slow, contact Support and include your traceroute. Our Linux Administrators will then review the route, determine exactly where the lag is coming from, and let you know where to point your ISP.
Run a Windows TraceRoute
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Go to dos prompt by clicking START > RUN, type in cmd, and hit ENTER.
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Type in "tracert yourdomain.com" and hit ENTER. Change yourdomain.com to your actual domain name.
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When it has finished, and even if it looks as though it is going to hang, allow it to finish, right-click in the window, and select MARK.
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Then select all of the text on the dos screen and hit ENTER.
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Paste the reply into your ticket to us.
Run a Mac OS X TraceRoute
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Go to Applications -> Utilities folder.
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Open Network Utility.
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Click the Traceroute tab and enter your domain.
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Paste the output in your ticket to us.
Site Design
Site design is one of the biggest culprits behind a site running slow. Since we are not a web design company, our expertise here is limited; however, we can suggest a resource to help you find out how your site measures up to average speeds.
GTmetrix
You can use a tool called GTmetrix. Enter your site URL into the Analyze Performance field and select Go! GTmetrix will then analyze your site and grade you for general page speed and Yahoo!'s YSlow tool. You can also see your exact page load time.
You can also get more details on exactly why you received the grade you received for both page speed and YSlow, as well as a timeline of how long it took each aspect of the page to load and when, in your history, your best load time.
Using this tool, you should easily be able to optimize your site to be as fast as possible. GTmetrix will also show you any site flaws so you can adjust your coding and condense large files, causing slow speeds.
Server is Running Slow
Our goal is to have every server running perfectly; however, sometimes, a server may run slower than normal for various reasons. You can rest assured we are aware of all of them and are constantly monitoring them to ensure your server is running at its optimal level at all times.