Hi
I think you need to comment out the section in functions.php which calls the Google fonts. Simply put // at start of each line for the Google fonts section 🙂

Varnish is often used at server level, and that is the Dreamhost interpretation. You often need to let them know you’re running a WordPress site, or visit your control panel to tweak the settings for the cache. Since this runs on server “above” the typical second-tier plugins like W3 or Total Cache, you should not have to use the plugins stuff at all.

However, with mod_pagespeed running also, there are some things you will want to tweak (you can see my settings in the pagespeed sticky topic; but Dreamhost will likely have some things which can/cannot be set to “on” by using either your control panel or .htacess file declaration at top — again, see my settings in the forum pagespeed topic here).

Also, remember when testing that a page is slow first time when being cached, then subsequent visits are cached on server.

However, I’d likely
1) do a Google search for
Dreamhost DreamPress Varnish + Mod_Pagespeed + WordPress

2) check with your hosting provider (Dreamhost) for optimum setup for Varish and mod_pagespeed for WordPress, since they deal with that all the time and may even have a support FAQ on the right settings to use.

The combination of Varnish and mod_pagespeed is truly awesome. We are using APC opcode cache + mod_pagespeed on our server.

Normally the main issue is connecting mod_pagespeed to Varnish for caching so that mod_pagespeed can see updated content properly, but I’m certain DreamHost would have that properly connected by default or nothing would work right.

Hope that helps.

Upshot: with Varnish and Mod_pagespeed (aka “GPS”), you should not need to run a caching plugin (in theory).

• This reply was modified 11 years by simchris.

@shashank
when you have time, I do recommend going through all the documentation and tutorials, as they do provide a lot of “oh yeah” info, that I missed myself thinking I could figure it all out myself 🙂

https://forum.tagdiv.com/newspaper-documentation/

These are actually very close to the same buttons used with the theme for the social sharing buttons without the number/shares info. 🙂

Most folk are just hacking that file in the theme to add more buttons.

Well, I’m not doing it on a WordPress site …

here is the basis for what I’m doing on our business site:
(tutorial, one of several out there with this specific code)
http://www.himpfen.com/social-sharing-buttons-bootstrap-font-awesome/

You can see how I’m using that code, slightly tweaked for our site here; scroll to very bottom of page (this is **NOT** using WordPress! — this is hand-built static code, based on Bootstrap 2 for compatibility with old folk running WinXP/IE6-7-8 in addition to all modern browsers):
http://www.send2press.com/services/press_release.shtml

As to social buttons, I’m actually favoring this layout at top of posts on CNET, as an example of “nicely done” …

http://www.cnet.com/news/mozilla-expands-advertising-experiment-to-many-more-firefox-users/

I actually thought the speed booster plugin was supposed to do that, but I’ve not been working on page speed for our magazine website lately; been working on redoing our main business site which pays the bills — so, dunno on that last one, sorry.

That code actually ended up being a bit “weird” with Bootstrap, as I tried implementing it on another site and it failed to work consistently. I’m now using pure CSS buttons with Font Awesome and works just fine. The responsive problem was conflict with bootstrap code, etc. (This theme also has bootstrap 3 in its DNA.)

I would likely start with the big one (130kb?). Obviously the small ones likely don’t need it. Ideally, go by the list of “recommended minify javascript” from doing GTMetrix scan for a good pointer as to which actually need to be minified or not. I’d also likely test one at a time to make sure nothing breaks.

Hi, Mehedi
I usually try to use the js and css minifier links I’ve posted couple of times in the pagespeed topic …

You can also “try” to use the GTmetrix optimized versions they do for you, but I usually only minify the main couple of files (don’t recall which ones at the moment)…

You can try these

http://javascript-minifier.com/

http://cssminifier.com/

I use the CSS one all the time.

Default compression for images is managed by wordpress unless you’re using a plugin of some kind; not the theme; the default “quality factor” is 90 but can be increased to 95 or 100 (no compression) by adding line in functions.php to set that. But not recommended. We typically change our compression level to 60, for faster page speed.

Be aware that jpeg images with a lot of “reds” don’t compress well ever, sadly to do how lossy jpeg/mpeg compression works.

Also, if you upload an image with very low quality the quality only gets worse.

For charts such as you’re using on your sample page, it’s best to use PNG files vs jpeg and embed those directly into the page so they are not resized/resampled to new sizes except for thumbnails. Try saving it as PNG file and place in the post, and you’ll see a HUGE improvement.

Nothing with reds/orange/dark pink compress well with jpeg — it’s nothing to do with the theme 🙂

@Manuel Fink
1) you have graphics loading from another website as part of your “network”
2) you don’t have the option in mod_pagespeed to insert image dimensions, if you’re using mod_pagespeed

ModPagespeedEnableFilters insert_image_dimensions

• This reply was modified 11 years by simchris.

Make sure your posts have a featured image set per post. I just set this up on my site 10 minutes ago, actually.

HI,
no you need to actually look at the “page source” of the page on the web (built in feature of IE and Chrome, also Firefox) … basically LOOK at the actual rendered page code to see what is actually being rendered online.

See your web browser help for how to “view page source” … simplest way to debug a page is to look at what is actually under the hood as far as the HTML being served up on the web. 🙂

Check your post page source to ensure the titles are actually showing in the meta data and og:tags. If tags are properly there, it is likely problem with Facebook.

HI, JBH
I will be offering this service again soon, but I’m knee-deep in redoing our sites, and was sick (with it turns out onset diabetes) and so I was REALLY REALLY sick for 2-3 months (April to early July). I’m waaaaaay behind on my own stuff, sadly.

Also my note about the functions.php compression setting should have said change to “60” not “6” … which obviously would not work.

Also, I charge $60/hour for this stuff, so not cheap. But I’ve been doing design for 30 years, webdev since 1994, and WordPress since 2006.

Anyway… “optimization” is a process. Do what you can in baby steps. From your test page, the Yslow stuff might be addressed first.

@JBH
Hi, looks like setting proper folder permissions on your site really helped to start 🙂

But, looking at your example post page you have a LOT of work to do.

most of your errors have nothing to do with the theme; so you’re going to want to address all that stuff first. Possibly find better solutions for what you’re doing with some of those external systems. Basically you’re loading too many things from external sites, which will lower your scores; more than 5 external things is bad for speed.

For example – this is crazy:
This page has 29 external Javascript scripts. Try combining them into one. This page has 13 external stylesheets. Try combining them into one. This page has 7 external background images. Try combining them with CSS sprites.

Note you can’t do much about the stuff you’re loading from other sites/servers, but you should
1) remove “versioning” — implement the .htaccess (if running Apache) and functions.php suggestions which I’ve posted, especially for the remove of the version tags. If running child theme you may need to put in child version; not sure on that.
2) optimize javascript delivery; use the td speed booster plugin to help with theme resources; but it won’t help with external stuff you’re loading
3) you cant do anything about the image dimensions of the things being loaded off external websites
4) prefer async – you’d have to hack whatever plugin you’re using for Facebook to load that as async
5) optimize images – be sure what you upload is already as small as possible; also use something like smushit or similar; possibly use my functions.php code for setting smaller default compression size for WordPress built in function (e.g., change from default 90 to 6); then do regenerate thumbnails — boom everything 20% smaller!
7) consistent URL errors coming from your “leadpages” stuff
8) vary encoding errors – coming mostly from leadpages
9) redirect issues – whatever you’re doing with Facebook and Google generating errors
10) bad request with favicon

(etc.)

What’s the link ?

Please post the link to the GTmetrix report for your page. Also, try testing a post page, NOT the home page.

@JBH
address all the server related issues FIRST (marked “server” in the results table). Then move on to the next things.

Actually …. I’m going to chime in here and say this would be a great feature for the theme (or basically themes in general) for a site to be able to turn off all advertising on “pages” such as “about the site” or “staff” or “privacy policy” etc. — basically an option to not have any ads for pages at all.

Way down on the to do list of suggestions I’m sure, but I think that ability as well as “remove ads from the 404 page” on by default, would be likely popular enough requests now to add to possible feature requests.

– oops; my thought was not applicable to video thumbnails. Ignore this post!
(removed)

• This reply was modified 11 years by simchris.
• This reply was modified 11 years by simchris.
• This reply was modified 11 years by simchris.
• This reply was modified 11 years by simchris.

@anastasios

my pleasure. Glad I could help. I have extra time right now to pop in here, which will be ending again soon; so glad I could pass along some of my own “been there solved that” suggestions. I should put a “tip jar” on here 😉

Best fix is to manually edit the style.css file and search/replace the default font stacks with the font stacks you want (we did this to use the Gill Sans font stack). You have to do this with each theme update, but it ensures only the desired fonts EVER load.

3.6 to 4 is simple; follow the manual upgrade option
https://forum.tagdiv.com/how-to-update-the-theme/

Be sure to update the plugins found in the themeforest “all items” download for the theme, in the plugins folder after theme files updated.

be sure to

First make BACKUP of your dbase, and any special files you’ve modified; turn off all caching, clear caches, clear cache on CDN if using one; turn off mod_pagespeed if using it.

1) switch to main theme, NOT the child theme if using one
2) turn off all plugins while doing update
upload theme files via FTP
3) turn on ONLY the plugins included with theme after upgrade of both theme and plugins
4) if sidebars disappear you can usually just go to appearance and resave them and then back
5) turn on any “extra” plugins

Hope that helps! 🙂