Consider Your Bandwidth Usage and Server RAM

Consider your bandwidth. Do you have enough? How much are you using? Every site has a limit on their bandwidth because the server has a limit. Think of bandwidth like the water that travels through a hose. The hose represents your bandwidth limit and the water represents all of the computers connected to your site.

If you’re running out of bandwidth, there are some ways to fix it. You can avoid letting people hotlink your images. You can block spiders or site harvesters or you can cut back on the number of large files (e.g. mp3 files, video files) you have on your site. You can also contact your host and ask for more bandwidth. Sometimes, it's very inexpensive (e.g. $5-10/month extra).

Another important thing to consider is your server's RAM. Just like the computer you're using right now, your server has RAM. If it doesn't have enough, it'll run slowly. How can you know if you have enough? Visit your web site and click a link and see how fast the page loads. Click another link and see. If you have a good computer that usually opens pages quickly and your pages are taking a long time to load, then the server load is likely too high. You may need more RAM.

Your visitor and page view count effect your server's performance. If you have a lot of visitors visiting at certain hours, they may experience some slowing. Try visiting your site at peak times (e.g. late morning and early afternoon) to see how quick it is. Visit some other sites and compare it. If you think it's too slow, then contact your host and ask for more RAM.