Slow loading site, 70% smaller size than the competition but also 50% slower.

Site URL: https://www.defenda.eu/accessories/p/fender-hooks

Hi, 

I have been running competition analysis on this site:

https://www.defenda.eu/accessories/p/fender-hooks

against other competition. Let's focus on this site:

https://www.superyachtmarinestore.com/fender-hooks/

This site is 5.62mb but has a DOM load of 848ms and Full load of 1.5 seconds. 

The defenda site is 1.74mb and has a DOM load of 1.8 seconds and full load of 3.5.

So the defenda site is 30% (approx) of the size and 50% slower. Not good. Firstly, how might I speed this up please?

Secondly, I noticed https://clanker-events.squarespace.com/api/v1/clanker/events taking 1.7 seconds to load on its own on the Defenda site. I searched but could not find what this was or others talking about it. 

Really hoping the community can help.

Thanks, 

Matt

I have noticed there is no support for things of this nature and so was hoping someone could help here. If not, does anyone know a better place to ask please?

Hey,

Often the reason there's not much support is it can be a difficult problem to address. If you look in Googles tool here at your site:

https://pagespeed.web.dev/report?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.defenda.eu%2Faccessories%2Fp%2Ffender-hooks

You can see what exactly is adding load time.

Thanks CulturalistPress. As an SEO I do use these tools but this is more to do with Squarespace itself rather than how the site is built. I work on a few of these types of sites, webflow, wix etc. It would be nice to have an official standpoint on this issue. I mean the site is simply not performing as one would wish. I am assuming this is bloat due to the complexity of the Squarespace solution. 

The official documentation https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002090267-SEO-checklist does not even mention site speed which is a fundamental part of SEO. Here also https://www.squarespace.com/marketing/seo no mention. It states Squarespace will 'help maximize prominence among search results', while this is true in some respects, considering the search listings are based on mobile experience and how important speed is, this potential 'maximisation' is simply not enough. Do better Squarespace. 

I've just sent a mail to customer care with the above details, will respond back here with the response. Also found this:

https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/206545657?input_string=slow+loading+site%2C+70%+smaller+size+than+the+competition+but+also+50%+slower.

On first inspection this will not help either. 

The issue you're addressing is well known when it comes to Squarespace, sadly.

From what I've come to realize is that it's about how the code of SS is written, which is really messy. When I contact the customer service they only come up with useless excuses and tell me to rank in GT Metrix or Pingdom instead. The site speed and performance of SS sites is really bad, and I really don't like that the SS team doesn't even mention this anywhere, nor do they reply to forum posts. 

It's amazing that this is a public listed company, and the communication and action from the devs is non-existent.

The only solution for me is to migrate to another CMS platform, which I will do once my rankings drop.