It sounds like SSGs could be a good option for your use case. They are well-suited to blogs, and content that doesn't depend on a server. I see your site does have a newsletter signup, but it runs...
It sounds like SSGs could be a good option for your use case. They are well-suited to blogs, and content that doesn't depend on a server.
I see your site does have a newsletter signup, but it runs through a third-party so that will still work fine. You also don't have a contact form, so your content would translate well.
SSGs have the advantage of lower TTFBs because they're not built on demand. They're usually not "batteries included", so you're not likely to see extra JavaScript or other content that might slow down your website. If performance is a priority, SSGs are a good approach.
Now with all of that said, your current site is not particularly slow. Most of the heaviest features like the custom web font and reCaptcha library would still be included on an SSG-built site. Additionally, GeneratePress is a very fast WordPress theme. It's modular by design, and most features are opt-in.
If performance is still a concern, I'd start by conducting an audit of your plugins. Plugins are very easy to install, but many do create performance problems. For example I see that both jQuery and Dashicons are being loaded by your site, which means they're probably being enqueued by a plugin. If those features are not needed, cleaning up your unused plugins or finding alternatives might be the best approach.
Actually, why does your site load reCaptcha? I see CF7 is loading as well. Is there a form I'm missing? If not, disabling that plugin will give you an immediate performance boost. Go ahead and disable anything that's not being used.
Earlier I mentioned that SSG pages are generated in advance rather than dynamically. The one plugin I would install is a server-side caching plugin to replicate this behaviour. This will help reduce the time it takes to generate pages, and actually reduce your server resource costs (unlike most plugins). This is the only performance plugin I would recommend - many others create their own problems (such as image lazy loading).
Outside of performance, the other major consideration here is writing. How do you want to write content?
If you enjoy writing Markdown in a text editor and syncing it via git, SSGs are perfect. If you'd like a simple WYSIWYG, there are some frontends that sit in front of SSGs, though your options are more limited. Finally if you want an extensive and powerful editor, then Gutenberg, the default editor in WordPress, is actually a great option.
User experience is an important consideration and I like that you're considering the performance aspect. But your site is actually quite minimal already, and outside of some smaller optimizations I don't think it needs much work. So the writing experience is probably the biggest factor to consider.
I hope that helps. Feel free to ask if you have any questions.
Correct. Sorry for the acronym, I thought it made sense from context. To get ahead of it, the other acronym I used was TTFB which stands for Time To First Byte. It's a combination of a few...
Correct. Sorry for the acronym, I thought it made sense from context.
To get ahead of it, the other acronym I used was TTFB which stands for Time To First Byte. It's a combination of a few different performance metrics: DNS lookup, TLS exchange, page generation, and distance between client and server. But page gen is the easiest factor to control for, without adding a CDN (content distribution network) into the mix.
Thanks much for this thoughtful overview. Just the kind of evaluation and low-level understanding I was trying to get at. Apologies for not responding sooner, was offline all weekend. From my new...
Thanks much for this thoughtful overview. Just the kind of evaluation and low-level understanding I was trying to get at. Apologies for not responding sooner, was offline all weekend.
From my new understanding of SSG I think my interests boils down to also having more control over the website rather than the hodgepodge modularity of Wordpress. I've disabled CF7 now, very nice of you to go into details of my current site.
I don't know why my website loads reCaptcha -- I suspect it might be the newsletter sign-up form anti-spam functionality, but my level of understanding is pointing the Firefox inspector tool around and typically not understanding much of the code it brings to light.
If you happen to know of any good online learning ressources that would equip me to start laying out the basic structure of a site coded with SSG, please drop a link. That would probably be next level of reality check whether or not I should try to learn it or stick to what I know (drag n drop GUI monkey Wordpress).
I expect that any popular SSG will offer a basic template/theme, along with detailed docs detailing how it works. You mentioned an interest in Metalsmith. Their docs include a getting started...
If you happen to know of any good online learning ressources that would equip me to start laying out the basic structure of a site coded with SSG, please drop a link.
I expect that any popular SSG will offer a basic template/theme, along with detailed docs detailing how it works. You mentioned an interest in Metalsmith. Their docs include a getting started guide along with a directory structure for how the files are laid out, and some starter projects below.
While the official documentation is often the best, any popular tool will also have third-party tutorials, videos, etc, to suit your preferred style of learning. I'm afraid I don't have any specific recommendations beyond that.
I don't know why my website loads reCaptcha -- I suspect it might be the newsletter sign-up form anti-spam functionality
Yep, it looks like SendFox is initiating the request. That's valid then. I figured maybe it was all done through network headers, but captchas on forms are unfortunately pretty essential these days.
I run a blog which posts the contents of a weekly radio show to its own website. Currently the site runs WordPress but I am entertaining the idea of transferring the site to something more light...
I run a blog which posts the contents of a weekly radio show to its own website.
Currently the site runs WordPress but I am entertaining the idea of transferring the site to something more light weight, in the spirit of the tiny web. As I post audio and multiple images every week I'm wondering if a static site framework such as for example metalsmith.io would be a realistic choice, given that my content is not just text.
I'm attracted to tiny web sites for the following reasons:
able to create new pages in a text editor even offline
quicker loading times
These aspects of WordPress are irritating
company appears to be engaged in "growth hacking" and we all know how that ends ...
plugins constantly needs updating
site load time is slow (even though I use a decently programmed theme 'GeneratePress')
I am not adverse to learning, but had difficulties learning HTML/CSS. I would be able to write my posts in a simple mark-up language, but would love to work with a paid programmer to establish the framework of the site if I decide on moving away from WordPress.
Your evaluations and suggestions are much appreciated.
So where is the party at these days if you want a tiny web website with frequent content updates?
I recently remade my own site with Quartz, which builds a SSG from plain old Markdown files. I use Obsidian to edit it, and the site is automatically built and published when I push on the master...
I recently remade my own site with Quartz, which builds a SSG from plain old Markdown files. I use Obsidian to edit it, and the site is automatically built and published when I push on the master branch.
As a developer, it was reasonably easy to setup and tweak, but I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, so YMMV.
I have used WordPress with this plugin to publish static pages to an S3-compatible object store. For my needs this was perfect: I ran WordPress locally so it was sandboxed from the rest of the...
I have used WordPress with this plugin to publish static pages to an S3-compatible object store. For my needs this was perfect: I ran WordPress locally so it was sandboxed from the rest of the web, and only the static content was exposed publicly. It was fast, cheap, and sidestepped all of the security concerns that might arise from a standard WP install.
Granted, this was ages ago (I see that plugin hasn't been updated in NINE years, oof) and predated the rise of modern SSGs which are probably great but I don't have experience with them personally. I think my approach would still be feasible today if you were so inclined.
It sounds like SSGs could be a good option for your use case. They are well-suited to blogs, and content that doesn't depend on a server.
I see your site does have a newsletter signup, but it runs through a third-party so that will still work fine. You also don't have a contact form, so your content would translate well.
SSGs have the advantage of lower TTFBs because they're not built on demand. They're usually not "batteries included", so you're not likely to see extra JavaScript or other content that might slow down your website. If performance is a priority, SSGs are a good approach.
Now with all of that said, your current site is not particularly slow. Most of the heaviest features like the custom web font and reCaptcha library would still be included on an SSG-built site. Additionally, GeneratePress is a very fast WordPress theme. It's modular by design, and most features are opt-in.
If performance is still a concern, I'd start by conducting an audit of your plugins. Plugins are very easy to install, but many do create performance problems. For example I see that both jQuery and Dashicons are being loaded by your site, which means they're probably being enqueued by a plugin. If those features are not needed, cleaning up your unused plugins or finding alternatives might be the best approach.
Actually, why does your site load reCaptcha? I see CF7 is loading as well. Is there a form I'm missing? If not, disabling that plugin will give you an immediate performance boost. Go ahead and disable anything that's not being used.
Earlier I mentioned that SSG pages are generated in advance rather than dynamically. The one plugin I would install is a server-side caching plugin to replicate this behaviour. This will help reduce the time it takes to generate pages, and actually reduce your server resource costs (unlike most plugins). This is the only performance plugin I would recommend - many others create their own problems (such as image lazy loading).
Outside of performance, the other major consideration here is writing. How do you want to write content?
If you enjoy writing Markdown in a text editor and syncing it via git, SSGs are perfect. If you'd like a simple WYSIWYG, there are some frontends that sit in front of SSGs, though your options are more limited. Finally if you want an extensive and powerful editor, then Gutenberg, the default editor in WordPress, is actually a great option.
User experience is an important consideration and I like that you're considering the performance aspect. But your site is actually quite minimal already, and outside of some smaller optimizations I don't think it needs much work. So the writing experience is probably the biggest factor to consider.
I hope that helps. Feel free to ask if you have any questions.
What’s an SSG?
Static Site Generator.
Correct. Sorry for the acronym, I thought it made sense from context.
To get ahead of it, the other acronym I used was TTFB which stands for Time To First Byte. It's a combination of a few different performance metrics: DNS lookup, TLS exchange, page generation, and distance between client and server. But page gen is the easiest factor to control for, without adding a CDN (content distribution network) into the mix.
Thanks much for this thoughtful overview. Just the kind of evaluation and low-level understanding I was trying to get at. Apologies for not responding sooner, was offline all weekend.
From my new understanding of SSG I think my interests boils down to also having more control over the website rather than the hodgepodge modularity of Wordpress. I've disabled CF7 now, very nice of you to go into details of my current site.
I don't know why my website loads reCaptcha -- I suspect it might be the newsletter sign-up form anti-spam functionality, but my level of understanding is pointing the Firefox inspector tool around and typically not understanding much of the code it brings to light.
If you happen to know of any good online learning ressources that would equip me to start laying out the basic structure of a site coded with SSG, please drop a link. That would probably be next level of reality check whether or not I should try to learn it or stick to what I know (drag n drop GUI monkey Wordpress).
I expect that any popular SSG will offer a basic template/theme, along with detailed docs detailing how it works. You mentioned an interest in Metalsmith. Their docs include a getting started guide along with a directory structure for how the files are laid out, and some starter projects below.
Most other SSGs will offer similar:
While the official documentation is often the best, any popular tool will also have third-party tutorials, videos, etc, to suit your preferred style of learning. I'm afraid I don't have any specific recommendations beyond that.
Yep, it looks like SendFox is initiating the request. That's valid then. I figured maybe it was all done through network headers, but captchas on forms are unfortunately pretty essential these days.
Best of luck with your new project.
I run a blog which posts the contents of a weekly radio show to its own website.
Currently the site runs WordPress but I am entertaining the idea of transferring the site to something more light weight, in the spirit of the tiny web. As I post audio and multiple images every week I'm wondering if a static site framework such as for example metalsmith.io would be a realistic choice, given that my content is not just text.
I'm attracted to tiny web sites for the following reasons:
These aspects of WordPress are irritating
I am not adverse to learning, but had difficulties learning HTML/CSS. I would be able to write my posts in a simple mark-up language, but would love to work with a paid programmer to establish the framework of the site if I decide on moving away from WordPress.
Your evaluations and suggestions are much appreciated.
So where is the party at these days if you want a tiny web website with frequent content updates?
I use hugo for my site.
I recently remade my own site with Quartz, which builds a SSG from plain old Markdown files. I use Obsidian to edit it, and the site is automatically built and published when I push on the master branch.
As a developer, it was reasonably easy to setup and tweak, but I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, so YMMV.
I have used WordPress with this plugin to publish static pages to an S3-compatible object store. For my needs this was perfect: I ran WordPress locally so it was sandboxed from the rest of the web, and only the static content was exposed publicly. It was fast, cheap, and sidestepped all of the security concerns that might arise from a standard WP install.
Granted, this was ages ago (I see that plugin hasn't been updated in NINE years, oof) and predated the rise of modern SSGs which are probably great but I don't have experience with them personally. I think my approach would still be feasible today if you were so inclined.