Factors That Influence Site Speed

On your Municipal Websites Central, formerly CivicEngage Central, website, there are many factors that can influence the time it takes for a page to load.

There are two types of factors:

• Factors that CivicPlus can directly affect
• External factors that CivicPlus cannot limit

Factors That CivicPlus Can Control

• Server-Side Execution
  • The time it takes for the webserver to process the request and build the page
  • The time it takes for modules to load and access the content
  • The order in which Content loads on a page
• HTTP Requests
  • We have partial control of the number of HTTP requests and can reduce it through the bundling of resources, such as CSS and JavaScript

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Factors That CivicPlus Cannot Control

• Number and size of files and images:
  • The more content (in MB) that is on a page, the longer it will take to load
  • We have implemented image optimization, but its effectiveness is limited
  • We can counter with our Best Practices for Content to minimize the size of images or content on the page
• Third-party integrations:
  • Integrations can include Google Translate, Google Maps, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, and more
  • References to external sites (such as iFrames and embedded video) require additional processing time to access and load content from each external source
  • We can limit calls to external sources, where possible, to counter third-party integration load time
• Local network speed:
  • The bandwidth of local access
    
    Notes:

    • Local Access Bandwidth is the total available speed on your end. The higher the bandwidth, the faster the overall network speed. The more users on the network, the less bandwidth available per user.
    • You have limited control over local access bandwidth. It can be potentially increased by your ISP. Potential solutions include upgrading or reconfiguring network equipment or reducing the number of users or traffic on the network.
  • The more local users there are, the slower the speed
  • Traffic on local networks (VPNs, streaming media, file transfers) will affect speed
  • You must work with your local IT department for further recommendations
• Network topology between the customer and our data center:
  • This has a more significant impact on more distant clients. It can amplify issues caused by the size of the page as well as external references
  • We can reduce page size and the number of page requests to counter slow speeds
• Choice of browser:
  • Different browsers process pages in different ways and certain processes are noticeably faster in some web browsers than in others
  • We recommend Google Chrome, but officially supported browsers are listed in our Help Center

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Site Speed Survey

For more in-depth troubleshooting, please continue to our Site Speed Survey.

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Article Glossary

The abbreviations, acronyms, and terms in this section are presented in alphabetical order.

• CSS: Cascading Style Sheets
• HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol
• ISP: Internet Service Provider
• IT: Information Technology
• MB: Megabytes
• VPN: Virtual Private Network

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Resources

• Best Practices for Content
• Site Speed Survey
• Web Central Browser Support

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