My website is running slowly - what could be the issue?

There are a number of reasons a website runs slowly including:

• Ensure when you upload image files to your server they are each less than 100kb in size - the smaller the better. Large images cause web pages to load slowly.
• If you experience issues like a blank page when you install or configure software on the site, ask your host to check how much memory is allocated to your website (they usually configure this in the php.ini file).  This is especially applicable for large software packages such as CiviCRMwhich needs a minimum of 128mb.  Alternately if you are installing new software, extract the zip files and upload them to your temp directory and install the software from there.
• Ask a colleague or associate with a different internet connection to you to try accessing your site as it could be an issue with your home/work internet connection. You can also check your internet speed with the free Speed Test website.
• Your website may not have been optimised for performance. Depending on the options you selected during website development you may or may not have opted into the performance option. Feel free to submit a support request for a free assessment of your website performance.
• The website host has overloaded their server. This is usually a temporary and/or intermittent issue.  If the problem appears suddenly and continues and the host does not action your request to fix the issue it might be time to change hosts!