New Look With A Faster Loading WordPress Theme

Tee Riddle Old Archives

Feb 09

image - thumbnail of old themeI feel like I lost a lot of weight when I look at the new theme the Extreme Ezine is using. Just the other day I was on the new blog of Dennis Edell and commented about load time. I’ve known for a while that the Extreme Ezine blog was far too heavy and to long to load. I decided to get that corrected yesterday.

The first thing I did was run a few tests. I compared the Extreme Ezine with a few other sites and it wasn’t pretty. I ran five (5) tests in a row using iWebTool.com’s Website Speed Test. You can see the complete results here but here are the averages:

Domain name      Size      Average Load Time

http://csc4u.com/ 9.73 KB     0.39 seconds (basic HTML site)
http://kikolani.com/ 40.27 KB     0.77 seconds (Thesis Theme)
http://www.dailyblogtips.com/ 25.53 KB     0.92 seconds
http://www.copyblogger.com/ 28.11 KB     0.99 seconds (Thesis Theme)
http://www.dennisedell.com/ 21.13 KB     1.77 seconds (not complete)
http://www.problogger.net/ 52.04 KB     1.23 seconds
http://thatsrightisaidit.com/ 41.28 KB        4.23 seconds (micro-blog)
http://wassupblog.com/ 85.33 KB     5.12 seconds
http://www.youradtracker.com/ 27.63 KB     5.26 seconds
http://extremeezine.com/              52.55 KB       5.44 seconds

As you can see the Extreme Ezine came in dead last (with our previous theme). Just by choosing a lighter and cleaner theme we were able to cut the load time in half to 2.72 seconds. That’s still too slow so now comes the work of cleaning up the code and dropping a few plugins. My expertise is very limited in this area so I may need to hire a pro.

I like the clean look and it seems easier to navigate. I will miss a few lost features but we can’t have it all. I’m still trying to get a decent photo gallery plugin working. I love the photo gallery running on ExtremeJohn.com but I can’t get it working for some reason. Hopefully we’ll see those promotional button pics rotating soon.

What are your thoughts about the change and new look? Is load time a big factor to you? Go ahead, I can take it ;)

A quick note about the Thesis Theme: Kristi of Kikolani kicked everyone’s tail with respect to load time in my test. She’s using the Thesis Theme (her affiliate link). I ran a separate test with five sites (Kikolani.com, ChrisBrogan.com, CopyBlogger.com, SugarRae.com and LaughingSquid.com) that are using the Thesis Theme. I ran the test five (5) times and ended up with an average speed of 1.4 seconds with all the sites. That’s very impressive so I think I’ll end up using the Thesis Theme in the end.

About the author

Tee Riddle wrote 33 articles on this blog.

Tee Riddle is a social media enthusiast and co-founder of a weekly Twitter chat, dubbed #gardenchat. He has many hobbies and also blogs about vegetable gardening at Veggie Gardener.

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  • Wordpress Constructor Theme, it's many-in-one theme (six layouts, configured colors, fonts and slideshow, widget ready). Build your own theme on settings page.
  • The most irritating thing about a blog is its too much loading time. So from my point You did a great work.
  • 153.83 KB 1.89 seconds 0.01 seconds
    this is mine :)

    heheheh....
    nice tool dude...thanks for sharing....never had an experience of it ...
  • Just checked my blog speed. The results was:
    Load Time: 2.33 seconds
    Avg. Speed: 0.06 seconds

    You can also try this service which checks your website load time from 9 different location each with different speeds..

    http://internetsupervision.com/scripts/urlcheck/check.aspx

    I hope it will be interesting for you.
    .-= Typhoon@make money online´s last blog ..Blogging From A Newbies Point Of View – What Do I Do Now? =-.
  • That's pretty good Typhoon, you have an awesome site | Blogging and Make Money Online Tips for your success.
    .-= Brian D. Hawkins´s last blog ..5 Money Making Tips For Newbies =-.
  • Hi Brian,

    I went to check out that website and it keeps popping to some sex stuff after trying to load the main site. Looks like it's been hacked, unless I went to the wrong place.

    I like the new theme; very clean indeed.
    .-= Mitch´s last blog ..It Takes Guts To Have An Opinion =-.
  • That's strange Mitch, are you talking about iWebTool.com’s Website Speed Test? It seems fine now, maybe they were hacked and got it back together now.
    .-= Brian D. Hawkins´s last blog ..Do-Follow Community For Bloggers =-.
  • My very first thought was it looked like it was completely drained of blood. This is a WHITE blog. LOL. I like it. ;)

    Hmm, 1.77 seconds with a virtually empty theme, that can't be too good, huh. Individual computer speed has to play a factor of some sort, it load in the blink of an eye for me.

    Thanks for the link!
    .-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..UPDATED – Here We Go! Theme Construction Part 1 – Your Participation Is Wanted-Needed! =-.
  • "Completely drained of blood" sounds like a great blog title Dennis. lol

    You have a good point about individual systems, I was reading somewhere that the majority of internet users now have high speed internet.
  • True, however we must never forget those in the smaller more rural areas who are lucky to even have dial-up.
    .-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Theme Construction Part 2 – What Should Go WITHIN The Blog? This Is The FUN Part! =-.
  • Streamlining my blog has been on my project list for quite a while. Removing one plug-in has already made a huge difference on my load speed, but I can see some continued tweaking will be beneficial. Thanks Brian!
  • I like your site Heather. It loads fast on my system. I really like your main pages too, Heather Dugan - Female Voice Over Talent.
  • I noticed the difference as soon as your site started to load in my reader bro, wow that's unreal. Thanks for the mention and link luv I appreciate that bro.

    Now on to other things, you are having a problem with NexGen? Shoot me an email and let me know what the issue is, I'll help you get it fixed :)
    .-= Extreme John´s last blog ..A Day in the Life of.. Episode 1 [video] =-.
  • Thanks John, I appreciate that. I'll reactivate the plugin so you can see what it's doing. I'll send an email. Thanks
  • Hey Brian, I just look at the age of the blog owner & figure that is why some load so slow. Hate for the blog to load so fast it scares some of you old guys.

    Oh, I would have checked my blogs load speed but, the test site was to slow loading & timed out. Pretty ironic eh?

    Only problem with your new theme is...I don't know where I am without the red.

    Just make sure if you use Thesis that the page is not to wide. Many of those I go to I have to scroll right to see the whole page.
    .-= Sheryl@Marketing Forum´s last blog ..Craig Ferguson is now on Twitter Whadadoo =-.
  • It's true Sheryl, fast can be scary for us old folk. That's pretty funny that the tool site timed out. I should have included them in the test. I might not of came in last that way :)

    I've always loved red, almost as much as green, but I guess it's not a recommended color. I'm good with any color other than color background behind text. It's too hard for us old men to read.
  • Good call, Brian. This theme looks cleaner than the other but not as clean as Thesis. If you wanna test it, just let me know.... let's just say that I do have access to pretty much all the themes for WP.

    Yan
  • Thanks Yan. Nice to see you buddy :)
  • Hey Brian, nice tool.. but each time I use it it give a little difference on the speed! I think it's acceptable anyways.

    I have tested my blog and it's using Thesis as well, the results is: 48.87 KB 0.68 seconds ... Cool!
    .-= Hesham @ FamousBloggers´s last blog ..How to add a stylish sidebar image buttons to Thesis Theme, get PSD and Sample Files for FREE =-.
  • Hi Hesham, You have a lot on there too and it still loads fast. I'm pretty impressed with that Thesis theme. I noticed that site load tool would very a lot too so I ran each test five times and averaged them out for the results.
  • First of all when they create Thesis theme it was a very clean design, empty with out any images or anything that slow the load!

    For me, I put so much attention to the images I add and I use cashing plugins, I also have removed lots of the plugins that increase the load of the blog!
    .-= Hesham @ FamousBloggers´s last blog ..How to Create a Bookmark website using Wordpress, TDO Mini Forms plugin, Thesis Theme =-.
  • Nice Change Brian. I think your content will stand out much better with this theme. I've been looking to change mine for a long time but I can't find anything I really like. (the free ones anyway).

    I just checked a few of my sites using the tool you linked to and they all came under 2 seconds. So I can't really complain.

    Steve
    .-= Steve@ Bissell Carpet Cleaner´s last blog ..Bissell Cleaning Products =-.
  • Hi Steve, under 2 seconds is pretty good. It looks like you got your theme from DailyBlogTips.com too, that's where I found this one.
  • You're right Anne, unless I can get this one optimized better I'll be switching. I should do like you and get a cup of coffee when I go to Sire's site. I've been taking a nap :)
  • I love themes that are clean and lack clutter. I've spent some time cleaning up widgets and plug-ins on my site and am still not satisfied. Yeah, I know there is a joke about women in there somewhere. ;) I also like symmetry. The sidebar stuff below would look better going across the bottom in four columns as opposed to its current format. Then again, you're going to be switching themes so I wouldn't worry about it for now. As for load time, 5 seconds is a lot, but not near as much as some sites I've come across. After all, I still visit Sire. I just go make a cup of coffee while I wait for his site to load.
    .-= Anne´s last blog ..More Snowy Shots From Ye Olde Homestead [A Photo Journal] =-.
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