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  2. Troubleshooting a Slow Site

Troubleshooting a Slow Site

The first step is to determine the root cause.

Cache and CDN

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Using a caching plugin is one way to optimize site performance: WP Super Cache

With a caching plugin, you can also use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) and/or Cloudflare, Jetpack Photon, to further speed up your site.

Be careful though. Caching plugins also have the potential to cause your site to load incorrectly or not at all, if configured in an incompatible or faulty manner. Confirm settings after implementation.

Host

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Contact your hosting provider and discuss the impact your hosting plan has on site performance. Quality dedicated hosting is preferred over cheap hosting on shared servers. Our recommendations at: WordPress Hosting Solutions.

Images

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A front-end cause of slow site performance is image size. The file size of your product/blog images directly impact the speed at which your site loads. A tool like WP Smushit can help optimize images within WordPress.

Also refer to this WC Image Guide.

Memory

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It might be necessary for you to increase the memory limit as explained at Increasing the WordPress Memory Limit.

Plugins

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A site’s sluggishness could be related to plugin load.

To test, deactivate all plugins and reactivate each one by one until you find a potential cause. You could also use the Plugin Organizer to control the order of activation and toggle plugins on/off on a per page/post basis and by mobile.

Theme

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To test your theme, temporarily switch to the default WordPress theme and navigate through the site. If there is an improvement in performance, the problem is likely related to your theme.

Additional Tools and Tips

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Site analysis

Tips

  • Offload all unnecessary functions from your web server to another server or third party service, such as email being sent through a dedicated SMTP provider.

Resources

Questions and Support

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Do you still have questions and need assistance? 

This documentation is about the free, core WooCommerce plugin for which support is provided in our community forums on WordPress.org. Searching there you’ll often find that your question has been asked and answered before.

If you haven’t created a WordPress.org account to use the forums, here’s how.

  • If you’re looking to extend the core functionality shown here, we recommend reviewing available extensions in the Woo Marketplace.
  • Need ongoing advanced support, or a customization built for WooCommerce? Hire a WooExpert agency.
  • Are you a developer building your own WooCommerce integration or extension? Check our Developer Resources.

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