Lately I've noticed that my Homenotion WordPress blog has been slow to load, actually taking forever would be more accurate.
At first I thought it was my computer, but as I checked the load time from other computers and had friends also check it out, it was in fact pretty slow.
But what really got my attention was an email I got from a very nice reader who politely told me, "Your blog is too slow, thought you'd want to know". Yes, I was happy to know, but what could I do about it?
To my dismay I took some time out of my schedule to check into the problem. I learned that it could be a number of things, but through my research travels I also came across some information at WebProNews. There was an article by Chris Crum titled 'Google: Page Speed May Become a Ranking Factor in 2010'. The article pointed out that Google Caffeine, Google's new algorithm change, will be using page speed as one of its ranking factors for websites.
Ok now I'm getting nervous. All the more reason to get this fixed and fixed fast.
I found lots of technical information on how I could possibly fix the problem but since I'm a little dangerous behind the technical wheel, I'm not always excited about making code changes. I've messed up my blog before and that's not a fun place to be. My Hostgator hosting service has been a lifesaver when it comes to fixing my mistakes but why go there if you don't have to.
So I’m back to the original question, what do I do?
While reading about slow loading blogs, I came across a WordPress plug-in that sounded like it would fix my problem. The plug-in was WP Super Cache. So I went ahead and plugged it in and to my delight I did see a small difference in load time. However, the next day when I went to make a change to my sidebar, the changes wouldn't take. Ok, what now?
It just so happens that a few weeks prior I needed some header changes made and was referred to an outstanding Blog designer, Revka Stearns. Revka owns Berries & Cream blog design and she's wonderful. I can say that because I bug her quite a bit and she's always pleasant and responsive, but I'm thinking did Revka’s change create a problem or was it the plug-in?
I emailed Revka and she explained that most of the cache plugins don't make any exceptions, such as for logged in users, and continue to show a cached page until it has expired. If you understand that, I'm proud of you 
Anyway she went on to say that there's a superb cache plugin that will tremendously speed my page loading times and would also help avoid the problems I've been having. The plug-in is called W3 Total Cache Plugin. So I went ahead and made the plug-in change and to my excitement this time I could clearly see a difference in load time. Ahhh, much better. Thanks Revka!
So if your WordPress blog is slow to load like mine was, try using W3 Total Cache. It should help you 
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{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
Twitter: revkastearns
May 7, 2010 at 5:02 am
I’m so glad I stumbled across W3 Total Cache and that it solved your problem as well.
Thanks so much for the mention and link.
It’s my pleasure to be of service to you.
No Problem Revka, I deal with many services online and so many of them just aren’t what you would hope for. It’s not always easy to find good recommendations, so when I find helpful resources such as yourself, I’m happy to share
I just downloaded W3 Total Cache. What settings are recommended? It’s all very greek to me!
Amy, I sent you an email on this.
Thank you for your email. I did change those settings, for the advanced settings I found another article that was very helpful. It does seem to be better, but could be more faster in my opinion. Let me know if you would like the link to that other article I found.
Hey Amy, a link to the article would be great, thanks!
I followed the advanced setting instructions from: http://zemalf.com/1443/w3-total-cache/
it was still soooo slow. I knew something else was wrong. Then I found this article on uninstalling the OLD cache plugin: http://zemalf.com/1442/how-to-uninstall-wp-super-cache/
This old cache file in the directory was still there, so I deleted it per the instructions in step 4.
“4. Check that the directory wp-content/cache/ has been deleted.”
It’s much better now, still not a 2 second load but with my idx integration I’m not sure if it can load that fast. To me a 5 second load is still better than the 15-30 it had crept up to. Thanks for all your help Liz!
Hey Amy, glad you got if figured out and thanks for the articles, that’s good information to have
Hi Liz – I had to switch to a dedicated server. I was on a shared plan. Even after those cache changes it was still intermittently slow this whole week. Grrrr!!! Guess the website just got to big for it’s britches, lol.
Hi Amy, I had a look at your site yesterday, which BTW I love, but I did notice it was still quite slow. It’s sure working great now though
This plug-in REALLY helped my blog, thank you for the writing on this, I really appreciate the way you write
Hey Danielle, so glad it helped you! Thanks for your feedback
Twitter: techvivekparmar
March 21, 2011 at 12:12 pm
w3 Total Cache plugin is a paid plugin (as far as i know) and many blogger do not afford it. Instead of this you can use wp super cache which is being powered with CDN
Hi Vivek, Actually both plugins are free and you can download them here:
w3 total cache plugin is free
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/w3-total-cache/
wp super cache plugin is free
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-super-cache/download/
Thanks for the help. I was having speed problems with my blog, and the plugin made it much quicker. I noticed that when you create a new Wordpress blog now, the plugin comes installed automatically. However, the blog I was working on did not have it and the difference is nigh and day. Thanks again.
Hey Adam, so glad that helped
Twitter: IamFaris
April 10, 2011 at 7:22 pm
While you used super cache plugin, and the changes you made to sidebar is not visible because, after making changes, you need to clear the cache files, by going to that plug in settings page.
hi may i know is it a plugin you use at the side for tweet, like, digg…. i’ve been looking for something like this, but not sure what is it.
Jenny, It’s called ShareBar, here’s the link http://devgrow.com/sharebar-wordpress-plugin/
Twitter: bollywooddilse
October 9, 2011 at 5:16 am
I quit my previous wordpress blog due to several reasons, slow speed was one of them, thanks for the tip.
I couldn’t agree with you more. W3 super cache is the best plugin when it comes to speeding up a website. I’ve had problems similar to this before(seriously who hasn’t?) and I’ve tried a few methods but nothing worked except for this one. Also now, I have reduced the amount of plugins that I use as to help with its loading speed. Especially now that Google takes into account the speed of our sites for SEO, we should pay more attention to it.
Plus it’s not only bad for SEO, but for our reputation and audience as well. No one wants to visit a slow site, let alone be a regular subscriber of it.