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Resolve errors related to site overload; optimize the site
This guide explains how to optimize the website you manage on a Web Hosting to make it faster and allow all visitors to navigate it from the Internet effortlessly, regardless of their connection speed.
⚠️ For additional help, contact a partner or submit a tender — also read the role of the host
The Role of the Host
The loading speed of a website depends on various factors (server performance, hosting provider's network infrastructure, visitor's internet connection, website optimization, etc.).
As a hosting provider, Infomaniak strives to offer the best in hosting and constantly evolves its products and infrastructure:
- All hosting runs on the latest generation SSDs.
- The infrastructure has over 70 Gbit/s of interconnection and redundancy with top Internet service providers (Swisscom, Cogent, Level3, etc.).
- To handle traffic spikes effectively, servers use Intel Xeon 64-bit processors, regularly replaced, and shared servers utilize only about 40% of their CPU power on average.
Additionally, when you submit a support request regarding slowness, Infomaniak analyzes whether:
- Your hosting server has been functioning normally without issues in the last 48 hours.
- The network infrastructure has not experienced disruptions in the last 48 hours.
The Role of the Site Owner and Webmaster
Infomaniak does not intervene in server content or website development. Creating or maintaining a site is a different profession, although it is related to its activities since tools and services are provided that a webmaster uses to create websites.
Identifying the Cause of Slowness
Here's what you should do if you notice slowness with your site:
- Follow Google's recommendations PageSpeed Insights to optimize your website. These recommendations relate to the website's design rather than server configuration; read this (click here) if the test result prompts you to enable resource compression on your site
- If experiencing slowness from abroad, consider enabling DNS Fast Anycast
- Install and configure a caching system on your site to avoid redundant database accesses and speed up your site's display
- Consider a CDN
- Test the server's response speed (TTFB)
- Scan your hosting for viruses
- Regularly purge databases and remove unnecessary entries
- Use the latest version of PHP compatible with your site/CMS/Web application
- Avoid using images, counters, CGI, or media hosted on external providers, as if they become unreachable, your site may appear slow
- Disable unnecessary extensions consuming a lot of resources in your CMS
- Regularly update CMS/Web applications
- Implement a crawl delay for indexing bots, as some have a very "aggressive" operation; you can limit their impact by setting up a Crawl-delay
- Check any error logs that consolidate all errors generated by your site; correcting these errors will improve your site's performance
- Check any slow logs: they group queries that take more than 5 seconds to execute; it's important to correct the queries listed in this file (SQL optimization examples)
- Add a server cache system (Cloud server only)
- Increase the max_children value (Cloud server only)
If the Problem Persists...
As a site owner, if you are a webmaster or have hired a webmaster who also cannot identify the source of slowness, contact Infomaniak support in writing only after obtaining the following information:
- Hosted site name
- Dates and times of slowness experienced
- Name of the possibly affected database / FTP account
- Your public IP address at the time of tests (visible, for example, on https://www.infomaniak.com/ip)
- Type of observed slowness (site display, FTP transfers...)
- Issues (e.g., slowness) accessing the Infomaniak site intermittently?
- Result of a traceroute to 84.16.66.66 and copy/paste the complete results (screenshot if necessary)
- Result of a speed test by choosing Infomaniak as the destination (http://www.speedtest.net/ — click on Change Server to select Infomaniak)
If Your Needs Expand...
If shared hosting is no longer suitable for your site, consider migrating to a Cloud Server. Your site can be easily moved to this type of server, where it will be alone, and you can install a caching engine, for example.