Load time on HubPages

1. 79

   wildernessposted 13 years ago

   Playing around with webmaster tools, I find that my hubs are loading in a little over 5 seconds and that 77% of sites load faster - this doesn't sound good, but I don't really know if it's a problem or not.
   
   I realize that my hubs are on the longish side, but I try not to simply pad them with words to increase their length and don't want to shorten them just to increase load speed.
   
   I usually have 5-10 high resolution photos on most hubs, and these are usually a part of the information I offer, not just placed there to increase readability.  They are intended to be blown up to full screen if it will help the reader understand better and I'm loathe to decrease the resolution.
   
   I use only a few videos - less that 1 per hub on the average.
   
   Is this long load time a problem?  If so what can I do?  Or is it just something that HP needs to address in general?
   
   Thoughts, comments and suggestions would be appreciated.

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   1. 79

      wildernessposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      *bump*
      
      Is no one knowledgeable about this?

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2. 70

   skearposted 13 years ago

   There are a lot of variables that affect page load speed but it is very dependent on the content of the page itself.  As you pointed out your hubs do have a lot of images.
   
   If HubPages had slow servers I would expect more people to see slow load times in Google WMT.
   
   Google doesn't have a graph for my subdomain yet, probably because it wasn't added that long ago.
   
   I ran a couple of your pages through an online speed test.  You can see the results from your Sheetrock Repair Hub below.  The load time on this test was 8 seconds.
   
   http://www.webpagetest.org/result/11092 … 1/details/
   
   What's interesting is some of the really slow loaders were the images and the flash items for the full page Drano Snake Plus ads. 
   
   It's probably related to the nature of your content but I did notice that a lot of your hubs are receiving those massive ads, maybe this is having a negative affect on your times.
   
   If you look at your site performance graph has your page load time always been slow?
   
   You might consider doing some testing on your hubs that have fewer images and comparing the results.

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   1. 79

      wildernessposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks.  That's pretty much what I expected; slow loaders for those high res photos and of course the big Drano ads.  A good many of those ads show up on my hubs; they are being put onto everything (I think) in the "Home" category, which most of my hubs are.  I won't knock them either, as I credit them for large HPad income figures.
      
      I can't look over time; like you I'm pretty new to WMT and it only shows a couple of months, all of which show about the same load time.
      
      Your link there is great; two more tests showed around 9 seconds, with ads taking a good portion of it.  I'll have to look around at some more hubs.
      
      Thanks, Skear - maybe I can figure something out here (if I can figure out what all the things in the test are!)

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3. 76

   Aficionadaposted 13 years ago

   On Alexa (which I understand as a ranking site is not as reliable as Quantcast) they say that HubPages in general has a load time of 1.97 seconds, which means 66% of sites are faster.  So I infer that our pages start out slower than some (elsewhere) do and some of the things we add will make them even slower. 
   
   The bottom line, I assume, is how helpful everything is to the reader.  When I myself am viewing or reading, I prefer a fast load time; but if the result is superior to something that is faster, I can accept a somewhat slower time.
   
   @skear, that is really helpful information!  Thanks for posting it.

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   1. 79

      wildernessposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      True, I'll wait a little longer for something that looks good.  Once it crosses 10 or 15 seconds, though, I'm gone without ever seeing it.
      
      I believe that google cares a considerable amount about load times, though, and will penalize us for being too long.  When 77% of sites load faster, that could affect our SERPs.  Add in that if I have long load times it will hit my subdomain harder than HP in general and it concerns me.

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4. 73

   David 470posted 13 years ago

   Lately, when I click "publish," it takes about 10-30 seconds to load - while in the past it was instant pretty much.
   
   I don't know if my slow load times are because of HubPages bandwidth or it's just because I am using an old Dell Inspiron (2005) computer.
   
   I really need to get a new computer, especially considering I work on the computer often.
   
   Sometimes there is a delay when I login to HubPages too, but once I am logged in, everything seems clear.

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   1. 79

      wildernessposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Or it could just be your net connection.  Lots of variables here, but when google says it's loading slow I think it behooves us to listen.  Plus, of course, the other sites that measure it say the same thing.

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5. 72

   earnestshubposted 13 years ago

   I have found it to be as slow as hell, often not loading the comments on my hubs and unreliable for weeks now.

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   1. 79

      wildernessposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I haven't noticed any changes, except that I sometimes get signed out of HP for no apparent reason.  Load times don't seem to have changed much if any.

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   2. 69

      brakel2posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Many times my comments and page disappear just as I am about to enter submit. I thought it might be better to use a browser other than Internet Explorer. I have also noticed slow loading time.

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      1. 79

         wildernessposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         IE is known to have problems on HP, and it is probably best to avoid it.
         
         I have FireFox to work well, and others report good luck with Chrome.

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6. 89

   Maralexaposted 13 years ago

   Thank you Hubbers, that was good information for me too.  I like to use visuals and am concerned about slow load times.  I still feel like such  newbie so this info helps.

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7. 79

   sunforgedposted 13 years ago

   Hubpages has a reasonable load time. It is slower than what most would aim for with a smaller site, but considering its scope and all the scripts they have running, it does pretty well.

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   1. 87

      Marisa Wrightposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I find the whole question of slow and fast loading quite mystifying.
      
      If I test my websites in Google Webmaster tools, I'm told my sites load slower than a high percentage of other sites - which makes me worry.
      
      But I use the Firebug add-on in Firefox, and all my sites score in the mid-80's.  I've tested a lot of other sites and many high profile ones score down in the 70's.  And I've tried replacing my themes with "fast" themes like Frugal and Thrift, and my scores don't improve.  So in all, I've stopped worrying about what Webmaster tools says!

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      1. 79

         sunforgedposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         comparing to other high profile sites and your direct competitors is probably best practice. Your wordpress site will never be as fast as some html blog with no pictures from 1998 - but the web is filled with those sites.
         
         If you yourself wouldnt be turned away with the load time, its reasonable to expect that neither will your viewers. Just be sure your checkig/testing with a clean browser (no-cache of the site) and that you use multiple browsers

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         1. 79

            wildernessposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            That's what my thinking was when I found WMT saying that 77% load faster; there are a LOT of little blogs and such out there that will load in jig time and isn't a real comparison to an HP hub.

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8. 60

   Cuttersposted 13 years ago

   I started off using IE and had mjr issues with it. So I switched to Chrome and never looked back. I hope this helps!

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