In this article we will cover some of the reasons why your website loading is slow.

Unoptimized Images
A large volume of unoptimized images is usually the most common reason behind website slowness. High-resolution images can consume lots of bandwidth while loading. Uploading larger sized images and then scaling them down can unnecessarily increase the size of your web page – causing your website to load slowly.

The image format is another important factor to consider. For example, JPEG images are much smaller in size compared to other image formats like PNG or GIF. Quite naturally, your web page will load faster if you are using JPEG images instead of PNG/GIF.

Solutions:

– Check the file size of your images, anything above 1MB is really unacceptable.
– Use JPEG instead of PNG, especially for larger images. Icons are ok.
– Use waterfall tests to easily scan image sizes and take corrective action.

JavaScript Issues
The availability of JavaScript/jQuery plugins has made it really convenient to add dynamic content to websites. However, if implemented incorrectly, JavaScript can cripple your website’s page load speed.

Solutions:

– Audit your JavaScript scripts to see what you really need and remove the rest.
– Consider using something like Google Tag Manager – a single script for all your tools.

Excessive HTTP Requests
Having loads of JavaScript, CSS, and image files can lead to too many HTTP requests. When a user visits your web page, the browser performs several requests to load each of these files – which can significantly reduce the page load speed.

Solutions:

– Reduce the number of files on your pages where possible. Includes CSS, images, javascript.
– Minify your CSS and Javascript files reduces the number of total files users will have to download.

Not Making Use of Caching
Whenever you visit a website, certain elements are stored in a cache, so the next time you visit the site it can easily access those parts and load much faster. With caching, instead of your browser having to download every single resource, it only has to download a few of them.

By turning on caching you can considerably improve your site’s loading for return visitors. If you’re using a CMS like WordPress you can install a plugin like W3 Total Cache, either of which will let you enable sitewide caching, or caching of certain site elements.

Another great tool for speeding up dynamic database-driven websites is Memcached. Memcached reduces that load by storing data objects in dynamic memory.
For more details see the following articles as well:

– How to use Memcached? 
– How to Enable Memcached on WordPress? 
– How to Enable Memcached on Joomla ? 

Too Many Ads
No doubt display advertisements are great for monetizing your websites traffic.

But that shouldn’t come at the cost of compromised performance or user experience. Don’t let too many ads be another reason why your website is slow!

The most obvious impact of overloading your website with advertisements is the addition of HTTP requests, which would need additional processing time.

Especially the rich media ads – like pop unders, interstitials and auto downloads – may create hundreds of HTTP requests making your website unresponsive.

The Memcached system is used by some of the most traffic heavy sites such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter.

It is also supported by some popular CMSs such as Drupal, Joomla, and WordPress.

To use Memcached with PHP, please enable memcached extension from the control panel at Advanced -> PHP Settings -> Edit php.ini -> memcached On.

To have Memcached enabled your plan needs to have Memcached instances available. In case you need to add one or more, you can purchase it as an upgrade from the Add/Upgrade service(s) section in the hosting control panel.

Each instance goes with 16 MB of memory which is why the Memcached instances go with Memcached memory.

Important: many applications require host and port to link them with Memcached. On our system the Memcached works on a Socket instead of Port.

In this case you need to use

Memcached hostname(IP): unix:///home/sys/memcached.sock
Memcached Port: 0

Example: $memcached->addServer(‘unix:///home/sys/memcached.sock’, 0);

In this guide, we’re going to use the free extension W3 Total Cache to configure WordPress with Memcached.

If you’re already using another extension such as WP Super Cache, you’ll need to deactivate this and install the W3 Cache in order to follow this guide.

Here are the steps to follow to configure W3 Total Cache with Memcached:

1. Sign in to your WordPress dashboard
2. In the main menu, go to Performance then click on General Settings
3.  Activate Memcached for the following options:

– Page Cache Method
– Minify Cache method
– Database cache method

-> Save the settings

For Memcached hostname:port / IP:port use: /home/sys/memcached.sock:0

Save the settings and you’ve successfully enabled memcached on your WordPress website.

You can speed up your Joomla site by using memcached.

To enable memcached on Joomla, you need to modify a few settings in your Joomla configuration.php file first.

You can find this file in your Joomla site’s root folder. Using your favorite FTP software, edit this file and find the following lines:

public $caching = ‘0’;
public $cache_handler = ‘file’;

Change these lines to the following:

public $caching = ‘2’;
public $cache_handler = ‘memcache’;

Then, immediately after the two lines you edited, add these two lines:

public $memcache_server_host = ‘/home/sys/memcached.sock’;
public $memcache_server_port = ‘0’;

After you are done making all the changes, save the configuration file.

Configure Memcached in Joomla Settings

Now, we will configure memcached on our Joomla-based website.

Login to your Joomla site’s admin panel and navigate to System -> Global Configuration.

Click on the server tab at the top and scroll down to Cache Settings. From the drop-down menu select Persistent(Memcached).

Note: Make sure to enter the correct Memcached server host and port for your server.

Memcache(d) Server Host: /home/sys/memcached.sock
Memcache(d) Server Port: 0

Save the settings.

You’ve successfully enabled memcached on your Joomla website.

SSL is used to secure the connection between your website and the customer’s computer. It is recommended when you have an online form which gathers personal or sensitive information from your website users, such as billing and registration details, for example.

Although it is not a definitive requirement to have SSL in such cases, it is a way to protect the data of your users and it is valued and even demanded by many customers.

To activate SSL for your domain (or subdomain) you need to install an SSL certificate for it. To be able to install SSL for any domain it must have a dedicated IP address. Learn how to get a dedicated IP in this article: How do I get a dedicated IP for my domain/subdomain?

Assuming that you already have a dedicated IP for your domain, here is what you must do to activate SSL:

Step 1: Purchase an SSL certificate
You can purchase an SSL certificate by going to My Domains > SSL Certificates > Order SSL Certificate button on your web hosting control panel. Input the following details in the order form:

CSR Details

Hostname: Select a domain name from the drop-down list for which you want to order a certificate.
Organization: Type in the exact legal name of your organization. Do not abbreviate the name of your organization. 
Organization Unit: Specify the exact department of your organization (optional).
Country: Select your country from the list.
City: Type in your city.
State: The state or province where your organization is legally located. It should not be abbreviated.
E-mail: Type in your personal e-mail address.

Note that none of the following characters can be used in the details: < > ~ ! @ # $ % ^ * / ( ) ?.,& 
 
Contact Info

All fields are pre-filled with the details you provided for your hosting account.

*If you choose to use a different hostname, you must select an “Approver E-mail” at the bottom, which must be an e-mail account hosted here (one created in the E-Mail Manager on your web hosting control panel).

Purchase Details

Choose a shared IP address or a dedicated IP for which the SSL certificate will be issue.

Select the registration period – 12 months.

Make sure you read the User Agreement and select the checkbox next to “Accept User Agreement“, then select a payment method and finally click on the “Continue” button at the right. You will be forwarded to a billing gateway page to submit the payment.

Once your payment has been submitted, you will be able to see your newly ordered certificate in My Domains > SSL Certificates menu in your web hosting control panel. As soon as the status is changed to “Active” you can apply the certificate to your domain.

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Step 2: Install an SSL certificate

a) Install an SSL certificate purchased from us

Go to My Domains > SSL Certificates and find your domain (or subdomain) in the list (Domain column) and click on the View SSL Certificate link (Action column) on the right. On the new “SSL Certificate Configuration” popup window, select the domain for which you want to install the certificate.

After that you must select IP from the drop-down list.

When ready, press “Activate SSL certificate” button.
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b) Request Let’s Encrypt certificate

Go to My Domains > SSL Certificates and find your domain (or subdomain) in the list (Domain column) and click on the Add  SSL Certificate link (Action column) on the right. On the new “SSL Certificate Configuration” popup window, select the “Request Let’s Encrypt certificate” option.

After that you must select IP from the drop-down list.

When ready, press “Activate SSL certificate” button.

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c) Install an SSL certificate if you already have one

Go to My Domains > SSL Certificates and find your domain (or subdomain) in the list (Domain column) and click on the Add SSL Certificate link (Action column) on the right. On the new “SSL Certificate Configuration” popup window, select the option to “Upload SSL certificate” – as soon as you select this option, 3 text fields appear under the form:

Private key
SSL certificate
CA

After you fill in all fields, you must select IP from the drop-down list.

When ready, press “Activate SSL certificate” button.

If you have followed this tutorial strictly, now you should have SSL activated for your domain.

If you are running low on certain resources in your account, you can explore the options for upgrading.

You have two basic options – to upgrade just certain features of your plan (such as disk space, the number of hosted domains, email accounts, etc.) or upgrade to a more advanced package (if one is available).

You can find both options in the My Plan area on the left side of your Control Panel.

* If you do not see the Add or Upgrade Services menu at all, please go to Help -> My Tickets to open a ticket (or use the button below) and request assistance from our support staff.

The Change/Upgrade Plan option allows you to upgrade to a more resource-rich package. All available packages are displayed together with a list of the features they are offering and their price.

Once you choose the package that you want to upgrade to, you have to select it, then choose the payment method you would like to use and then click on the Continue button to proceed to the payment page where you will have to fill out your payment information. If none of the payment options listed is suitable for you, please refer to this article: Alternative payment options

The Add or Upgrade Services link will take you to a page where you can upgrade certain features of your current package. Here is a list of all available upgrades:

• Hosted Domains – this upgrade allows you to host more domain names in your account
• Subdomains – this upgrade allows you to create more subdomains; (For more information, refer to: What is a subdomain and how do I create one?)
• IP Addresses – this upgrade allows you to purchase a dedicated IP address. (For more information, refer to: What is a dedicated IP and do I need one?)
• SSH – this upgrade allows you to have SSH access to the server; (For more information, refer to: What is SSH?)
• MySQL Databases – this upgrade provides you with additional MySQL databases. (For more information, refer to: What is a MySQL database?)
• MySQL Quota – this upgrade provides you with additional disk space for your MySQL databases
• PostgreSQL Databases – this upgrade provides you with additional PostgreSQL databases. (For more information, refer to: What is a PostgreSQL database?)
• PostgreSQL Quota – this upgrade provides you with additional disk space for your PostgreSQL databases
• Disk Space – this upgrade provides you with additional storage on the server for your files and emails
• Traffic – this upgrade allows you to increase the monthly traffic limit
• Email Addresses – this upgrade allows you to create more e-mail accounts
• FTP Accounts – this upgrade allows you to create more FTP accounts. (For more information, refer to: What is an FTP account and (why) do I need different FTP accounts?)
• Backup – By default, we keep a backup of your account only if the data is below 5 GB. This upgrade allows you to increase the backup limit
• Cronjobs – this upgrade allows you to set up more cron jobs. (For more information, refer to: What is crontab?)
• CPU Usage – this upgrade allows you to increase the CPU usage limit of your account. (For more information, refer to: What is meant under CPU usage and how do I monitor it?)

Next to each feature, there is a drop-down menu that allows you to choose the quantity that you wish to purchase. Next to it you’ll also see the monthly price, the remaining period and the total price that you’ll have to pay for the particular upgrade. You can make multiple upgrades at the same time.

Once you select all the services that you wish to add, you have to choose the payment method you would like to use and click on the Continue button to proceed to the payment page where you will have to fill out your payment information. If none of the payment options listed is suitable for you, please refer to this article: Alternative payment options.

The EPP code, which may also be called a domain password or an authorization key/code, is a special code that is required in order to transfer a domain name from one registrar company to another.

You can obtain the EPP transfer authorization key from the company you registered the domain name with.

If you want to transfer a domain name to us, you will be required to enter the code during the order process.

If you are trying to transfer a domain name away from us or you simply want to acquire the EPP transfer authorization key of a domain name that is registered with us, you can do that via the Domain Manager section (My Domains > Registered Domains) of your Control Panel.

Next to each domain name there are three icons – you must click on the EPP icon.

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Once you click on the EPP icon you will see a small pop-up window with the following text “From here, you can request the EPP Key for your domain name. This key is needed if you want to transfer your domain name to another registrar.“, click on the button Request EPP.

After you click on that button, the EPP key will be sent via email to the registrant contact email address specified in the WHOIS record of the domain name.

If you do not receive the EPP transfer authorization key within one hour, please make sure that you have provided a correct e-mail address in the WHOIS record.

If you need to change that e-mail address, please refer to the article How to change the WHOIS details of a domain name?.

You cannot obtain the code and transfer a domain that you do not own already.

Generally, there are two cases in which your domain name may appear with the red X mark in the Hosted Domains section of your Control Panel: either the domain name does not have the required name servers set or the DNS update has not been completed yet.

Domain name registrations and DNS modifications could take up to 24 hours to update after they have been initiated.

You can find the name servers that you should use for all your domain names above the hosted domains table.

If you’ve registered your domain with us and you haven’t made any changes to the name servers yourself, it should already be using our name servers.

However, if the domain was registered or added to Hosted Domains more than 24 hours ago but you still see a red  mark indicating that the name servers are not correct, you can try to refresh the name servers’ status manually. 

You can do that by clicking on the NS status icon in the first column of the table of hosted domains. 

If this does not work, you will need to check if you have the correct name servers set for your domain.  

To do that, in the Registered Domains section right click on the given domain name and then select the NS status option. 

This will bring up a window with two fields (one for each name server). These fields show you the two name servers that the domain name is currently using. 

To change the name servers, just type in the ones that are featured in the Hosted Domains section and click on the Change NSes button.

Make sure that domain names registered with another company and added to your Hosted Domains here are using our name servers – usually you can do this from the domain management panel provided by your registrar (the company you registered the domain(s) with).

If you are sure that your domain is using the correct name servers and more than 24 hours have passed since you registered/hosted the domain or updated the name servers, then it is most likely our system that hasn’t “noticed” the change yet.

If that’s the case, we can force the system to check the name servers of your domain.

To request this, please open a ticket from the Help center or the button below.

When you register a domain name you reserve the name for a period of time (usually a year or two).

It is not necessary to have your domain name registered with the same company that would be hosting your website (and thus your domain).

However, you have to point the domain to your hosting space to make it work properly. This is done by applying your hosting company’s name servers to your domain name.

Inside the domain control panel provided by your registrar (the company you registered the domain with) you should have the option to change the name servers, which may also be referred to as NS or DNS change.

To properly host a domain registered with another company with us, you must:

1. Add the domain to your Hosted Domains list (My Domains > Hosted Domains)
2. Set our name servers for your domain
3. Wait for the name server change to propagate (usually within 12-24 hours)

Additional information and instructions could be found in the following articles:
– How do I host a domain name?
– What are the correct name servers (DNS) for my domain?

With the growing number of websites on the Internet, it is becoming harder and harder to find a suitable domain name to register – one that is short, simple, to the point, and easy to remember.

That’s why, if you come across such a domain name that is suitable for your business or personal website, it is recommended that you register it right away.

Even if your website is not ready yet. You can register unlimited domain names through your account with us and there is no need to host them all. To find more information on hosting a domain name, please refer to the article: How do I host a domain name?

You can easily register a domain name via the Registered Domains section (My Domains > Registered Domains) of the Web Hosting Control Panel. Once you open that menu you should click on the Register/Transfer Domain button on the right-hand side.

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To find our Domain Search form, click on the Domain Search button on the left sidebar of the page. This form will help you find an available domain name for you to register. In the section that is titled Search for a domain: you should input the domain name that you would like to register (what you enter will replace the predefined text my-best-domain.com).

Below that you have a list of all domain types (TLDs) that we can register and you have the option to select and deselect any of them. That way you will be able to choose what domain TLDs to search for.

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After that you must click on the Search button. That will execute a search based on the parameters that you have provided and you will be forwarded to the next page Domain Search Results to see the results.

If a domain name is available for registration you will see a Register button next to it. If you are trying to register a domain name, yet only a Transfer option appears, this simply means that someone else already owns the domain name and it is not available for registration.

If you own this domain name you can transfer it to our company by selecting the Transfer button. For more information on transferring a domain name, please refer to the What is a domain transfer? article. If you find the desire domain(s) you have to click on the Proceed with the order button.

On the next page, you also have the option to make a new search if the results from the initial one are not satisfactory. You can keep modifying the search parameters until you find a domain name that you wish to purchase.

There you will find a checkbox named Host this domain name with us. This gives you the option to immediately host the domain name after you submit the payment for the registration. If your current hosting plan does not allow hosting more domain names, you will be provided with the options to purchase an additional hosted domains upgrade or upgrade to a higher package, if one is available.

As soon as you find the domain name that you are looking for and you are ready to proceed with the registration, you must click on the Register button. That will take you to the next step – the contact information for the WHOIS record. Please make sure that you provide accurate contact details. This information will be publicly available.

For some domain TLDs you can purchase an additional service – WHOIS protection (also called ID protection) – that will conceal and protect your contact information. For detailed information about that service, please refer to the What is WHOIS ID protection? article. Once you fill out the registrant section, and if you wish to use the same contact information for all the other sections, there is an option to copy the same information in the other sections as well.

Before proceeding any further, you must agree with the Domain Registration Terms, the Domain Resolution Policy & the eNom Registration Agreement. It is recommended that you familiarize yourself with these documents.

And last, but not least, you need to choose the payment method you would like to use and then click the Continue button on the right to proceed to the payment page, where you will enter your payment information. If none of the listed payment options is suitable for you, please refer to the How to Pay Without a Credit/Debit Card or PayPal article.