Why Is My Website Slow?

Snail

This is a question we are asked by people on a regular basis: “Why is my website slow?” The answer provided here, since 2012, is generally speaking in a WordPress context – because we are WP specialists – but a lot of the rules will apply to really any website, particularly one which runs on …

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Minimum Requirements for WooCommerce

Below are the minimum requirements for WooCommerce and (by extension) WordPress. Some are taken from WooCommerce, some from WordPress, and also, some, we are adding as recommendations. It should be apparent, below, which is which! Before getting started, if you’re here to assess a WooCommerce host, then you may be interested to check out our …

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Installing XCache on Amazon EC2

We’ve been benchmarking Amazon EC2 server instances for some highly complicated PHP applications over the past week. During this time, we’ve discovered that XCache is perhaps the best opcode caching product for our purposes. If anyone would like a walkthrough for installing XCache on an Amazon EC2 instance, simply leave a comment below and we …

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WooCommerce Hosting – Best Hosts for your Store

Clients often ask for our recommendation when buying web hosting for WordPress and particularly WooCommerce websites. Here, WooExpert Robin Scott gives guidance on choosing the right home for your WP site. The below will be updated in future as recommendations are updated. Best Hosts for WooCommerce Here’s a list in order of my personal preference …

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How to Safely Update Linux in AWS EC2 Micro Instance – Using Yum

Often, when logging into via SSH to an Amazon EC2 instance, you are told that there are several updates (usually including security updates) waiting to be updated on your system. The panel on Amazon Linux even goes so far as to explain how one might go about updating to this version. HOWEVER, as this may …

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Give your WordPress website some TLC this Valentine’s

Every WordPress website needs tender loving care, to keep up with the latest versions of software, new browsers & devices and the latest security patches. To give your users the best experience possible, make sure your website gets the TLC it deserves with our checklist below: The Silicon Dales WordPress TLC Checklist Backup your website. Update to …

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Big WordPress Problem – Slow WP Admin / Uncached Pageloads Slow

Some problems are first world problems. Other problems are big WordPress problems. Slow WordPress Admin? Slow uncached pageloads? We deal with some big WordPress customers, and often their sites can become slow. There’s sometimes a myth floating around that “WordPress doesn’t scale” or, more specifically, that “WooCommerce doesn’t scale” but there’s a reason I call …

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Find out Apache, MySQL, PHP (etc) versions via Plesk

Are you running Plesk on your dedicated server or VPS? Do you want or need to know what version of MySQL, PHP, Apache – or anything else – your box is running, to relate to a client or stakeholder? If you would like to find your Apache version and you do not have Plesk, click …

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How Do You Pronounce “MySQL”?

We sometimes talk on the telephone with various technology companies, and their representatives. Two camps, both alike in dignity The people on the telephone fall into one of two camps: technical and non-technical. Nobody, however, seems to be sure exactly how to pronounce the abbreviation “MySQL”. The people who made and host MySQL have been …

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