Speed Up WordPress Page Loading Times By Removing l10n.js

I recently noticed that my WordPress blog’s page loading times increased through the roofs which made me reevaluate everything that contributed to the loading times of the website. I implemented a few changes on the blog to improve page loading times. I first got rid of the three social networking buttons pointing to Google Plus, Facebook and Twitter, and replaced them with the Add This script instead. The benefit here was that it reduced the external JavaScript code that needed to be loaded for the functionality from three to one.

I also noticed that articles with hundreds of comments were loading significantly slower than pages with less comments. This made me reduce the number of comments per page to 50 root comments (plus their answers).

Today I noticed that WordPress added another JavaScript to ever page. The script in wp-inlcudes/l10n.js that is related to the admin bar that the WordPress developers added to one of the recent versions of the blogging platform.

While it is a small file with a size of 233 bytes it is still a script that is loaded by anyone, not just the admin of the blog. This somehow does not make a lot of sense. The important thing here is that the blog needs to make the request to load the element, not the time it takes to load the 223 bytes.

WordPress administrators may want to remove the JavaScript element from being loaded by every blog visitor to speed up the blog’s page loading times. The easiest way to remove the l10n.js from being loaded with WordPress is to unload it in the functions.php file in the WordPress theme folder.

All you need to do for that is to add the following line of code to the end of the functions.php file.

wp_deregister_script('l10n');

Please note that this may disable part of the admin bars toolbar functionality. Users over at Stack Exchange have found a way to keep the JavaScript loaded for administrators of the blog.

if ( !is_admin() ) {
function my_init_method() {
wp_deregister_script( ‘l10n’ );
}
add_action(‘init’, ‘my_init_method’);
}

Just add this code instead to the functions.php file.

---

© Martin Brinkmann for gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials, 2011. | Permalink |
Add to del.icio.us, digg, facebook, reddit, twitter
Post tags: page load, speed up site, webmaster, wordpress, wordpress tips

MobiTest, Test Mobile Website Performance

The rise of smartphones and other mobile handheld devices has increased the importance of optimizing websites for smartphones and other mobile devices. There are three core aspects that need to be taken into consideration. The size of the display which is often a lot smaller than standard desktop display resolutions, the technologies supported by those devices and the bandwidth which often results in slower connection speeds and as a result page loading times.

MobiTest is a free online service that webmasters can use to test the performance of websites on mobile devices. The service is completely free and requires no registration.

Webmasters find the options of the screenshot above on the frontpage of the service. All that it takes to run a test is to enter a website url into the form on the start page. The remaining options are completely optional. They include a menu to select a specific mobile device for the test (several iPhone and Android models mostly from Canada but also the Netherlands and United States), the number of runs, video capturing of the loading and whether the results should be made public or private.

Tests are then started with a click on the Run Performance Test button. The service will add the speed test to the end of the queue. Information about the test’s status are always displayed on the screen.

The developers suggest to bookmark the unique page address to come back later if a lot of websites are listed in the queue.

Each test result highlights several important information. Among them a screenshot of the website and how it is displayed on the selected mobile device, the page loading time and the total size of the page in Kilobytes. MobiTest grades each tested web page and displays a waterfall chart that highlights all connections that were made during the test.

Especially the ability to create a video snapshot of the page loading time on the selected mobile device is handy. As are the different locations and devices that webmasters can choose from. An option to run tests with all supported devices would have been handy.

Webmasters who want to test their website’s mobile performance can head over to the Blaze MobiTest website to do so.

---

© Martin Brinkmann for gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials, 2011. | Permalink |
Add to del.icio.us, digg, facebook, reddit, twitter
Post tags: mobile devices, mobitest, page speed, webmaster, website performance

Google Adds Site Health To Webmaster Tools

I have only a good dozen websites listed under my Google account in Webmaster Tools. In case you do not know what that is, it is a service for webmaster to verify domain ownership to get additional information about the status of each website added in the Google search engine. You can manage crawl rates, see errors, get suggestions and can look at the latest important issues that Google identified while crawling the site.

Those information previously were only available after clicking on a site in Google Webmaster Tools which was not a issue for webmasters with one or two domains listed there, but could very well have been a deal-breaker for webmasters with dozens or even hundreds of verified domains. Imagine having to click on each domain to check their health status.

Google yesterday made the announcement that they have redesigned the Webmaster Tools start page. Instead of just displaying a list of domains there, the page is now showing site health for every domain right on the homepage.

Webmasters now see on first glance if something’s wrong with one of their websites. Sites with health problems are listed at the top of the list. Warnings may include that malware has been detected on the site, that important pages have been removed or that the robots.txt file is blocking important pages.

Each site is displayed with a thumbnail screenshot and link to manage the site in Webmaster Tools. A click on a problem opens additional information about the problem detected on the site.

Susan Moskwa, Google Webmaster Trends Analyst, notes that Google is using the display currently only for accounts with less than 100 sites listed. Webmasters with more than 100 sites will see site health at the top of the Dashboard for each site. While I’m not 100% certain it seems to suggest that accounts with more than 100 domains still have to use the old way of verifying that everything’s all right with their websites.

Google plans to expand the site health notifications in the future to include additional issues (currently only malware, removed urls, blocked urls are reported).

I personally like the new layout, as it speeds up the process of making sure that no potential issues are missed when using Webmaster Tools.

---

© Martin Brinkmann for gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials, 2011. | Permalink |
Add to del.icio.us, digg, facebook, reddit, twitter
Post tags: Google, google search, google webmaster tools, webmaster, webmaster tools