12 Effective Ways to do Divi Performance Troubleshooting

There are so many wheels in motion or spinning plates when it comes to websites, especially WordPress websites. When something stops working or isn’t behaving exactly as you would expect, it can be incredibly frustrating and time-consuming to figure it out. Following these standard troubleshooting tips will speed up the process in trying to diagnose the root cause.

Some issues as easy resolve by simply clearing the cache. Other issues require you to deactivate plugins one-by-one to see if a recent update is causing all the drama. The good news is that once you go through this process enough times, you’ll be faster I detecting the problem and finding a solution. Of course, we hope that your Divi website doesn’t routinely present problems you have to solve, but it is nice to know that not every problem will ruin your day.

Let’s dive in and save yourself a headache or two.

Key Takeaways

• Start troubleshooting Divi performance issues by identifying the problem—display issues can often be fixed by clearing caches, while code conflicts may require enabling Safe Mode.
• Investing in high-quality hosting and optimizing your database are crucial steps for improving Divi site speed; avoid shared hosting and regularly clean up unnecessary data.
• Utilize built-in features like Dynamic Module Framework and lazy loading images to enhance your site’s performance, and consider using a CDN to reduce loading times for global visitors.

How do you do Divi Performance Troubleshooting?

Troubleshooting performance issues on your Divi website starts with identifying the core problem. Is it a code conflict or a visual display issue? One effective way to check for display issues is to view your site in a private browsing window. This helps you see if the problem persists without cached data interfering with the site.

If the issue is visual, your first step should be to clear all website caches. This includes the Divi Static Cache if enabled. Clearing the cache often resolves common issues related to the Divi Builder or Theme.

For code conflicts, enable Safe Mode under Divi Support. This mode disables all plugins, child themes, and custom code for your view, helping you determine if an external element is causing the problem. When Safe Mode is enabled and the issue disappears, it indicates a plugin conflict. Disable your plugins one-by-one to identify the problematic one.

If no plugin is causing the issue, custom code might be the culprit. Disabling optimizer plugins and adjusting their settings can also help resolve conflicts. Some plugins do not like deferred loading or execution, and you will need to exclude them so they can run properly.

Common Divi Performance Issues

One of the most common culprits behind a slow Divi site is budget hosting. Cheap or shared hosting services can significantly reduce site performance and exacerbate issues. Investing in high-quality hosting can make a substantial difference in your site’s speed and reliability.

Complex layouts with multiple modules and excessive animations can also hinder Divi site speed. While these features make your site visually appealing, they can lead to slower site performance. Keeping your designs simple and minimizing animations can help improve load times.

Plugins are another major factor affecting page load time. Each plugin adds resources and increases the overall load on your server. Removing unused or outdated plugins can help streamline your site and improve performance. Additionally, excessive CSS and JavaScript can lead to PageSpeed errors and slow down your website.

1. Clearing Cache to Fix Display Issues

Clearing the cache is a crucial step in resolving display issues on your Divi website. Cached data can interfere with the latest updates and changes, leading to visual discrepancies. To ensure that your site loads the most recent content, it’s essential to clear various types of caches, including the browser cache, Divi’s static CSS file generation, and caching plugins.

Clear Browser Cache

Clearing the browser cache is a simple yet effective way to ensure that updated content is loaded correctly without any old cached data interfering. Visit Refresh Your Cache and select your browser to follow the specific instructions. This helps resolve display issues and ensures your Divi site shows the latest updates.

Browser caching can sometimes cause outdated versions of your web pages to be displayed. Clearing the browser cache forces the browser to load the most recent versions of your site’s pages, improving the user experience and resolving potential display issues through automatic caching.

Clear Static CSS File Generation in Divi

Outdated cached CSS files can prevent visual updates from appearing on your Divi site. Navigate to Divi, go to Theme Options, then Builder, and select Static CSS File Generation. Click the ‘Clear’ button to remove outdated cached CSS files. This step ensures that the latest CSS changes are implemented, improving the overall look and feel of your site.

Static CSS file generation in Divi helps to speed up your site by creating static versions of dynamic CSS. However, it’s important to clear these files regularly to avoid issues with outdated styling that can affect the site’s visual presentation.

Clear Caching Plugins

Caching plugin play a significant role in speeding up your website by generating and storing static HTML files. However, it’s crucial to clear the cache in these plugins regularly to ensure that your site displays the most recent updates. Popular caching plugins for Divi include LiteSpeed Cache and FlyingPress, which are known for their excellent performance.

Some caching plugins, like WP Rocket, may not perform well with certain metrics like LCP, TTFB, and mobile speed, making them less favorable for Divi. Instead, using plugins like FlyingPress, LiteSpeed Cache, and Perfmatters can help remove unused CSS and enhance performance. Additionally, utilizing Cloudflare’s CDN can further reduce page load times and latency. Furthermore, considering WordPress performance plugins can also contribute to optimizing your site.

Clearing the cache in your caching plugins helps resolve display issues and ensures your site runs smoothly. Keeping your cache updated provides a better user experience and improves overall site performance.

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2. Optimizing Hosting for Divi

Optimizing your hosting environment is crucial for achieving a fast-loading Divi website. Good hosting, combined with effective caching and a CDN, is essential for optimal performance.

Let’s explore the benefits of upgrading to high-performing web hosting and increasing your PHP version and memory limit.

Upgrade to High-Performing Web Hosting

Upgrading to high-performing web hosting is critical for ensuring your Divi site runs smoothly. Managed WordPress Hosting is tailored specifically for Divi, providing specialized support, updates, and speed optimizations. LiteSpeed hosting with NVMe storage is another excellent option, offering significant performance benefits for Divi sites.

Cloud hosting is ideal for Divi performance, offering flexible and scalable resources with consistent high speeds. This type of hosting ensures that your site can handle traffic spikes without compromising on speed. Additionally, VPS hosting provides dedicated resources, ensuring fast loading times and making it suitable for those with technical expertise.

Traditional shared hosting can lead to slow loading times, potential site downtime, and resource-sharing issues. Investing in high-quality hosting solutions like Siteground, which optimizes specifically for Divi, can make a substantial difference in your site’s speed and reliability.

Increase PHP Version and Memory Limit

Using the latest PHP version is crucial for optimal performance. PHP version 7.4 or higher is recommended for better compatibility and speed. Updating to the latest PHP version can significantly enhance your site’s performance and security.

A memory limit of at least 512 MB is crucial for optimal Divi performance. Ensuring that your hosting environment meets these requirements will help your Divi site run smoothly and handle complex layouts and multiple modules without issues.

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3. Safe Mode and Plugin Conflicts

Safe Mode in Divi is a powerful feature that disables all plugins, child themes, and custom code for the user activating it, without affecting visitors. This mode allows you to troubleshoot issues without third-party plugins or custom code interfering with your site.

If an issue disappears when enabling Safe Mode, it indicates a plugin conflict. To identify the problematic plugin, use the Health Check & Troubleshooting plugin to deactivate all active plugins while testing for issues. Then, enable each previously active plugin one at a time while in Troubleshooting mode to find the culprit.

Inspecting the site’s console can reveal JavaScript errors that indicate conflicts between plugins and themes. Additionally, it’s advisable to test new plugins on a staging site before using them on a live site to prevent conflicts. Following these steps helps identify and resolve plugin conflicts, improving your site’s performance.

4. Checking System Status in Divi Support Center

The System Status section in the Divi Support Center is an invaluable tool for monitoring your site’s health. It checks PHP, CSS, JavaScript, and WordPress core files to identify any issues. Divi uses a color-coded system where green indicates no issues, yellow suggests potential concerns, and red signals immediate problems.

Click the ‘Show Full Report’ link for a comprehensive analysis of your system’s status. Common issues in the System Status include low memory limits and outdated PHP versions. Regularly checking your system status helps ensure that your Divi site runs smoothly and efficiently.

5. Utilizing Divi’s Built-In Speed Optimization Features

Divi offers multiple built-in speed optimization features designed to enhance your site’s performance. Features like the Dynamic Module Framework and dynamic CSS and JavaScript libraries help reduce backend bloat and improve page load times.

We’ll explore each of these features to understand how they contribute to a faster Divi website.

Dynamic Module Framework

The Dynamic Module Framework in Divi reduces backend processing by executing only the necessary PHP functions for the modules displayed on the page. This feature ensures that Divi processes and loads only the elements and CSS required for the modules in use, improving overall performance.

Minimizing backend bloat, the Dynamic Module Framework helps your site run more efficiently. This means faster load times and a smoother experience for your visitors, enhancing your site’s usability and engagement.

Dynamic CSS and JavaScript Libraries

Divi’s dynamic CSS system significantly reduces the size of stylesheets by loading only the CSS needed for the specific modules used on each page. This feature improves speed by eliminating unnecessary CSS loads, ensuring that your site runs faster and more efficiently.

Dynamic JavaScript libraries in Divi further enhance performance by reducing unused scripts and code processing. For example, if the lightbox is disabled on the image module, the Magnific Popup JS library does not get loaded or run on the page. Additionally, excluding Divi’s dynamic stylesheets from cache plugins can prevent issues with unused CSS removals and improve performance.

Enabling the Defer Gutenberg Block CSS option lazy-loads Gutenberg block CSS, preventing render-blocking and enhancing page speed. These dynamic loading features help ensure that your Divi site loads quickly and efficiently, providing a better user experience to improve google fonts loading.

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6. Minifying and Deferring Assets

Minifying and deferring assets are essential techniques for improving your Divi website’s performance. Minification involves reducing the file size of CSS and JavaScript by eliminating unnecessary characters, such as spaces and comments, without affecting the functionality. This process makes resources more compact, leading to quicker loading times and better web performance.

Divi dynamically minifies and combines JavaScript and CSS by default, ensuring that your site runs efficiently. Tools like Cloudflare can automate the minification process for additional CSS and JS files, further enhancing performance. Popular WordPress plugins like WP Rocket and Autoptimize can also facilitate the minification of these assets.

Deferring assets means delaying the loading of non-essential CSS and JavaScript until after the main content has loaded. This technique prevents render-blocking and improves metrics like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), which gauges the speed at which page content becomes visible to users. Minifying and deferring your assets significantly enhance your Divi site’s load speed and user experience.

7. Image and Video Optimization

High-resolution images can drastically slow down your website’s load times, making image optimization crucial for Divi speed optimization. Using excessively large images can kill page load time, so optimizing your images is essential for maintaining a fast Divi site.

Optimize images by using JPGs for most and reserving PNGs for those requiring transparency. The ideal dimensions for full-width background images in Divi are approximately 1920 pixels in width, and for 1-column images, a width of 1080 pixels is recommended. Additionally, using WebP images can yield file sizes that are about 25% smaller than traditional JPGs.

Image compression reduces file size without significant quality loss, improving loading speed. Aggressively compressing images can lead to file size reductions of up to 98%. For videos, utilizing tools like Handbrake is recommended for efficient optimization. Lazy loading can enhance initial loading speeds by preventing all media from loading at once.

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8. Implementing Lazy Load for Media

Lazy loading images can significantly minimize the number of images loaded initially, enhancing page speed. The purpose of lazy loading images and videos is to improve page load time by loading content as needed. This technique ensures that only visible media loads first, while other media loads as the user scrolls down the page.

For videos, it’s best to host them on services like YouTube or Vimeo to leverage their delivery network and reduce server load. Divi does not support lazy loading of background images by default, but optimization plugins can enable this feature. For above-the-fold images, exclude them from lazy loading and preload to ensure quick visibility.

Self-hosted background videos should be kept under 5MB to prevent slow load times. The a3 Lazy Load plugin allows specific images and videos to be excluded from lazy loading, offering more flexibility. Implementing lazy load for media significantly enhances your site’s performance and user experience.

9. Using Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)

Using content delivery networks (CDNs) can improve site speed for global visitors by distributing content across multiple servers. CDNs minimize the time it takes for data to travel from the server to the user, enhancing overall website performance. By reducing latency, CDNs can lead to significant reductions in page load times, often by 50-70%.

CDNs also help alleviate the load on the origin server, improving responsiveness and reliability. Modern CDNs provide robust security features, such as DDoS protection and web application firewalls, to safeguard websites.

Advanced features of CDNs include edge computing and serverless functions, which enhance functionality and reduce latency. Utilizing CDNs often results in an improved user experience, reflected in higher engagement and lower bounce rates.

CSS files can be cached for extended periods, reducing server load during website visits. Using a CDN ensures your Divi website performs well for users around the world.

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10. Regular Database Optimization

Cleaning and optimizing your WordPress database is essential for improving performance and stability by removing unnecessary data. A cluttered database can increase loading times and lead to potential errors or crashes on your WordPress site. Regularly deleting spam comments and unused plugins is critical for maintaining database efficiency.

Optimizing database tables can enhance query performance, making data retrieval faster when users visit your site. Setting a routine cleanup schedule can prevent performance issues and ensure that the database remains efficient. Utilizing plugins such as WP-Optimize can assist in identifying and cleaning unnecessary data from the database.

After performing a cleanup, testing website speed is essential to ensure that performance standards are being met. Educating team members about database maintenance can help them understand its impact on site performance and encourage regular optimization practices. Maintaining a clean and optimized database significantly improves your Divi site’s performance.

11. Browser Extensions and Their Impact

Browser extensions can cause conflicts with loading in the Divi Builder, leading to performance issues. If you encounter problems while working with Divi, a recommended troubleshooting step is to disable your browser extensions. This can help identify if an extension is causing the issue and allow you to address it accordingly.

Using tools like Chrome Dev Tools can help diagnose and resolve these conflicts by providing insights into the performance and behavior of your website. Awareness of the potential impact of browser extensions ensures a smoother experience when building and optimizing your Divi site.

12. Contacting Elegant Themes Support

If you’ve attempted all preliminary troubleshooting steps and still face issues, it’s time to contact Elegant Themes support. They can assist when you suspect the problem is specifically tied to the Divi theme. Ensure that you provide a comprehensive description of the problem to facilitate a quicker response from support.

Presenting relevant details to the support staff can expedite the resolution process. Keep in mind that high demand for support may lead to delayed responses, so patience is key.

You can reach Elegant Themes support via their website and initiate a chat for assistance.

Summary

In summary, optimizing your Divi website for speed involves a multi-faceted approach. From troubleshooting performance issues and clearing caches to upgrading your hosting and leveraging Divi’s built-in speed optimization features, each step plays a crucial role in enhancing your site’s performance. By implementing these tips, you can ensure that your Divi site runs smoothly and efficiently.

Regular database optimization, image and video optimization, and using CDNs further contribute to improving site speed and user experience. Additionally, being mindful of browser extensions and knowing when to contact Elegant Themes support can help resolve issues quickly and effectively.

Remember, a fast-loading website not only improves user experience but also boosts SEO and engagement. Take the time to implement these strategies, and watch your Divi site transform into a high-performing, user-friendly platform.

Frequently Asked Questions