Resolve errors related to site overload; optimize the site

This guide explains how to optimize the site you manage on a Web Hosting to make it faster and allow all visitors to browse it from the Internet without difficulty, regardless of their connection speed.

The role of the hoster

1. … your hosting server is functioning normally and has not encountered any issues in the last 48 hours.
2. … the network infrastructure has not experienced any disruptions in the last 48 hours.

The role of the site owner and the webmaster

Infomaniak does not intervene in the content of the servers or the development of websites. The creation or maintenance of a site is a different profession, although it is related to its activities since the tools and services that a webmaster uses to create websites are offered.

Analyzing the cause of slowdowns

Here is what you should do if you notice slowness with your site:

1. Follow the Google PageSpeed Insights recommendations to optimize your website... The points highlighted concern the design of the website and not the server configuration; refer to this other guide if the test result suggests enabling resource compression on your site.
2. In case of slowness from abroad, consider activating DNS Fast Anycast.
3. Install and configure a cache system on your site to avoid redundant access to databases and speed up the display of your site.
4. Consider a CDN.
5. Test the response speed of the server (TTFB).
6. Scan your hosting for viruses.
7. Purge the databases regularly and delete unnecessary entries.
8. Use the latest PHP version compatible with your site/CMS/Web application.
9. Avoid using images, counters, CGI, or media hosted by external providers, as if they are unreachable, your site will seem slow.
10. Disable any unnecessary WordPress extensions that consume a lot of resources in your CMS.
11. Keep your CMS/Web applications up to date regularly.
12. Implement a crawl delay for indexing bots, as some have a very "aggressive" operation; it is possible to limit their impact by implementing a Crawl-delay.
13. Check the possible error-logs which group all the errors generated by your site; by correcting these errors, your site will be more performant.
14. Check the slowlogs: they group the queries that take more than 5 seconds to execute; it is important to correct the queries listed in this file (SQL optimization examples).
15. Add a server cache system like Memcached (Cloud server only).
16. Increase the max_children value (Cloud server only).

If a problem persists...

As a site owner, if you are a webmaster or have hired a webmaster who also cannot find the cause of the slowdowns, contact Infomaniak support in writing only after obtaining the following information:

1. Hosted site name.
2. Dates and times when the slowdowns were encountered.
3. Name of the potentially affected database / same for FTP account.
4. Your public IP address at the time of the tests (visible for example on https://www.infomaniak.com/ip).
5. Type of slowness observed (site display, FTP transfers...).
6. Issues (such as slowness) accessing the Infomaniak site intermittently?
7. Result of a traceroute to 84.16.66.66 and copy-paste the complete results (screenshot if necessary).
8. Result of a speedtest by choosing Infomaniak as the destination (speedtest.net — click on Change Server to select Infomaniak).

If your needs skyrocket…

If shared hosting no longer suits your site, you should consider moving to a Cloud Server. Your site can be easily moved to this type of server where it will be alone and on which you can install a cache engine, for example.