Discussions

Have you noticed how often widgets placed on your site slow down the pages?

Posted by compassionc • 8/19/07 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: buttons, problems, slow loading, slow pages, widgets

Today, Sunday, the Blogcatalog buttons on my blogsite took almost a full minute to load, leaving my entire content down for almost a full minute each time I would load my site. On and off all day until I just decided to take them off, the blogcatalog widgets and most of my other 'blog search/community buttons.' Do others experience this? Why would these companies believe anyone wants to keep promoting them on their personal blog sites if they are disabled at least once a week and bring the speed of your site down with them? All comments are welcome, including ways to fix this situation that may not involve me simply removing the widgets from my site, which I am more than happy to do if they can't perform.

User Comments

8/20/07

cooper

yes that is why I never use them they really mess up the load time for my blog. It's horrible at times. Think what it does to the people trying to read it.

[reply]
8/20/07

Zmoney

Visit www.zm0ney.com The sidebar takes a while to load but I think the widgets I got on there are worth it.

[reply]
1. 8/20/07
  
  clioandme
  
  You might think the load time is worth it, but it's never a bad thing to consider the issue from the point of view of a new reader. I'll give the blog a second or two, but if it looks like nothing is coming, then I close the window.
8/20/07

cooper

yea I can see it is personal preference. I would not use the blog catalog thing, new readers passing from google won't wait for it to load, I can guarentee, eight percent of the time. The calender is a do without and the blogroll well I am big on a separate, pages for the blogroll and the archives and listing them on the menu on top. It is so much more organized and since I did that I have more people reading the archives and the blogroll than when it was on the front page side bar.

[reply]
1. 8/20/07
  
  compassionc
  
  great idea. Thanks for the info.
2. 8/20/07
  
  bnsullivan
  
  Speaking of a separate page for links, has anyone ever tried putting a BC or MBL widget on that separate page for links -- or, for that matter, anywhere else but the index page of a blog?
3. 8/20/07
  
  clioandme
  
  What would the purpose be, Bobbie?
4. 8/20/07
  
  bnsullivan
  
  Mark - same purpose as having a separate links page, I guess. A place away from the index page to display things like that.
  
  I've never seen such a widget on a links page. Maybe it doesn't make sense if it (the widget) is not prominently displayed on the front page of the blog?
  
  (Just musing...)
5. 8/20/07
  
  clioandme
  
  That's kinda what I was thinking, Bobbie. On the other hand, who is most likely to visit your links page? Bloggers! So maybe you're onto something.
8/20/07

achmedrauff

Your back ground image puts a lot of payload on bandwidth. Perhaps you can make do with a simpler image.

[reply]
8/20/07

Zmoney

are you referring too me. I have a problem with the size and alignment of my widgets headers. They are too big and should be centered but being new and all I'm glad for the reviews xD

[reply]
1. 8/20/07
  
  clioandme
  
  I'm not sure if its the widgets or background image, but they all took a little too long for me. So you know, I have one of Verizon's cheap DSL connections, sort of medium fast.
  
  I have no idea how to speed things up, though I'm guessing the image file might be bigger than it needs to be. (I'm not talking about the size of the image on your page, but the size of the file you uploaded.) Those widgets might be too much too.
  
  You can find out about your visitors internet connections by using Google Analytics, which doesn't seem to slow anything down.
  
  Nice clean design though. Looks like a ton of work.
8/20/07

cooper

Really you should go read some blogs of people who are more expert than us.
Lorelle has some good design tips as do a lot of the standard large design blogs which have been around awhile. I don't follow their advice either but it's worth a look see.

[reply]
8/20/07

ender

if you need to include the widgets, put them in the end of your code. for most, that means putting them in the right sidebar where they will load after your content. unfortunately, however, i just visited a nice looking blogger site with a classy template ... the widgets were in the right sidebar ... but however the code is written, the widgets are being called before the content. it took over a minute for the content to show. only the fact that i was doing something else at the time and was nicely distracted from the slow-loading site actually allowed me to wait. generally, if i don't see content in the first 15-20 seconds, i'm outa there.

anyhow, if you're having these issues, get with a coder who can re-arrange your code so that your content is called before those widgets. and ... if it's possible, download buttons and store them on a server which isn't as slow as the one currently feeding your buttons and such. for example, any traffic exchanges - don't hotlink to the image they provide. instead download it to your computer, then upload it to wherever you store images. change your code to reflect the new image location. that should load faster.

[reply]
1. 8/20/07
  
  compassionc
  
  How come sometimes the right side bar does indeed load last but other times it holds up the content as well? The left hand sidebar always loads immediately but sometimes the posts are held up as well as the right hand sidebar. Also, if you know, where would I begin to do some research on how to place my code to ensure my content loads first, and what would I call such a thing when searching, etc?
  Thanks.
  Everything. has been quite useful so far.
2. 8/20/07
  
  ender
  
  my understanding is that it's how your site is coded if the css and the HTML call the sidebars before they call the content. fastest load is to call the content as soon as possible.
8/20/07

MelissaF

I have notice that the blogcatalog widget messes up my site. However, I have not had a problem since I made the faces small.

[reply]
1. 8/20/07
  
  compassionc
  
  I made the faces smaller and still have had problems. But, if it works for you that's what's important.
8/20/07

WokeupToday

I got rid of all my widgets. I still belong to all the sites. Both blogs are loading faster - at least for me.

wokeuptoday.blogspot.com/

diner-roadhouse-joint-dive.blogspot.com/

[reply]
1. 8/20/07
  
  bnsullivan
  
  Danny, I didn't recognize you! Where's your very cool guy-with-the-hat avatar??
2. 8/20/07
  
  WokeupToday
  
  you mean I'm not very cool? :-D
  
  I not only got rid of my widgets, I traded my hat and Italian movie star looks for Minnesota backwoods charm. :-)
8/20/07

Jaya

I like having the BC widget
so I can see who's visiting
my blog. A lot of times they
are not coming directly from
their own blogs, so I can't
tell they were there just by
looking at my stats...

[reply]
8/20/07

compassionc

My MBL widget has always loaded immedaitely but my BC one has stalled my site on several different times to the point where I took it off. You haven't had such things happen?

[reply]
8/20/07

ladynada

Last week I moved my sidebars to the right side, because of slow loading widgets. now the content shows right away, and they can read while wating for the widgets.

nada

[reply]