If you are experiencing slow page load speed use the following checklist:

• Are static files, e.g. images and CSS slow to load or just dynamic pages?
• Are both public and secure page slow or only secure pages?
• Is the web or database server under any kind of load – e.g. other processes running
• Copy a page which is slow and remove everything apart from some text and see if still slow to load. If not then add items back in until you find what is making it slow.
• Page size – are there large JS/CSS/Image files etc.
• Check if there is a slow running JS file preventing the page from loading – if there is one put it at the bottom of the page if possible
• Do we have a set of test pages that have static content, database content and CRM data that can be used to compare load speeds
• Is it is slow because the site is compiling (typically this would be a slow first page load after a compile – it then speed up and then goes slow again if someone edits a page)
• Where are files located – SAN versus local storage – if SAN we can use junction points to move to local storage and use SSD hard drives for extra speed
• Caching – do we have this enabled
• Are there slow running database queries? E.g. cross-linking or searching
• Check database indexes are not fragmented
• What volume of web requests are being made – look in IIS logs – we should try and so some load testing before launch so we catch these things before the site goes live
• Install tools to monitor the site – StatusCake can monitor page load speed, New Relic can provide additional metrics including slow queries