Performance Hacks

Posted on July 25, 2007

The following performance hacks are now implemented to improve the involution experience for the kids. Most of these were suggested to me by YSlow and Matt Mullenweg at Wordcamp.

  • Installed wp-cache
  • Enabled mod_deflate for gzip compressed html, javascript, and css
  • Disabled ETags
  • Added Expires headers
  • Moved CSS to the top of the <head> container
  • Removed the AJAX calendar wordpress plugin (this was hammering the database)

The front page now renders in about 1.5 seconds instead of the 4 seconds that it used to take. The next step is to remove all of the little mini icons in the sidebar and replace them with sprites which will reduce the number of HTTP requests from 21 down to 10. Running JSMin on my Javascript probably wouldn’t hurt either.

UPDATE: Apparently, you should only disable ETags if you’re running a server farm. Doing so for a single server installation probably does more harm than good.

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  1. Mrs. Brince Bedward Wed, 25 Jul 2007 21:40:33 MDT

    Hi Tony,
    Are you afraid of the paparazzi? That can’t be your best picture. Do you need my photographer to fly out for a photo shoot? Please tell Rachael, “HI” from us.

  2. Jochen Thu, 26 Jul 2007 01:25:10 MDT

    Glad you’re looking into the performance of websites … good work!

  3. Mars Sat, 28 Jul 2007 00:46:52 MDT

    Sprites!

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