Need a web designer

Diddums · 2 Oct 2014 at 13:26

Anyone know of any small companies / freelancers who do web design? I have a small site which needs some work but I'm rubbish at this so will pay someone to do it. The site is running and working fine, but needs lots of optimization according to Google Pagespeed, and it does feel slow so I'd like to get that done.

Any ideas?

Mynight · 2 Oct 2014 at 15:53

http://www.feedthebot.com/pagespeed/

Chuck it into that and copy the results here. Most page speed issues are an easy fix(assuming the site isn't garbage which I doubt it is).

Or just give us the url so we can try and help.

Gornall · 2 Oct 2014 at 16:06

http://www.peopleperhour.com/

Diddums · 2 Oct 2014 at 17:01

Cheers guys, the url is http://forevergaming.co.uk

I've tried some things myself but last time I did any coding it was in Turbo Pascal 6

If anyone wants to give me any ideas or pointers, I'd appreciate it, otherwise I'll have to find someone who is a wizz with these things as according to Feedthebot I'm in for one hell of a ride...

Whoop · 2 Oct 2014 at 17:14

I really don't know where OcUK stands on this and advertising.

But I do know of a one man setup in Leicester - http://www.kerfdesign.co.uk/

As well as a very small team around the same area - http://dscm.net/

They are friends/family respectively and also heavily into retro games (well one of them is).

Mynight · 2 Oct 2014 at 17:26

The simplest one would be to enable compression as feedthebots recommended;

http://www.feedthebot.com/pagespeed/enable-compression.html

After doing that test it again and see if it improves(it should).

You're hosting on fasthosts.co.uk aren't you?

Diddums · 2 Oct 2014 at 17:39

Yessir. No idea how to enable compression though

antijoke · 2 Oct 2014 at 17:41

Just let me know if you want to look at it.

Do you have a copy of all the files/the site you could send?

Diddums · 2 Oct 2014 at 17:42

Ok, got it. Trying that now.

Diddums · 2 Oct 2014 at 17:42

anticonscience said:
Just let me know if you want to look at it.

Do you have a copy of all the files/the site you could send?

No sir, but I can get them if it helps. I can also share my FTP details if it makes life easier?

Diddums · 2 Oct 2014 at 17:54

Crikey, I added that compression code and although the site *feels* snappier (probably a placebo) Google's results are now showing a point less.

This confuzzles me.

Mynight · 2 Oct 2014 at 18:00

I'm fairly sure it is a placebo mate as both bots don't recognise the compression. I don't think you've done it right sorry.

Diddums · 2 Oct 2014 at 18:04

Great, thanks.

I'm getting frustrated already, I'd rather just pay someone who knows about this. Give me a broken car any day of the week

Mynight · 2 Oct 2014 at 18:07

Haha sorry.

If you take anticonscience up on his offer I'm sure you'll be fine otherwise there's not much that can be done without server access.

Diddums · 2 Oct 2014 at 18:10

Ok, I don't understand this at all. I inserted the code according to Feedthebot and it seems to have had no effect at all. Where does HTAccess belong, in HTDocs, right?

This is my HTAccess file:

## EXPIRES CACHING ##
<IfModule mod_expires.c>
ExpiresActive On
ExpiresByType image/jpg "access 1 year"
ExpiresByType image/jpeg "access 1 year"
ExpiresByType image/gif "access 1 year"
ExpiresByType image/png "access 1 year"
ExpiresByType text/css "access 1 month"
ExpiresByType text/html "access 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/pdf "access 1 month"
ExpiresByType text/x-javascript "access 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/x-shockwave-flash "access 1 month"
ExpiresByType image/x-icon "access 1 year"
ExpiresDefault "access 1 month"
</IfModule>
## EXPIRES CACHING ##
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization},L]
</IfModule>

antijoke · 2 Oct 2014 at 18:13

If you want to send me a zip file with all the files/file with the access details on it I'll have a look at it this evening for you.

Mynight · 2 Oct 2014 at 18:15

You've added caching not compression there mate. That should speed up loads on browsers the second time they access your site.

This is compression;

http://www.feedthebot.com/pagespeed/enable-compression.html

Diddums · 2 Oct 2014 at 18:18

That's exactly what I added, made no difference. I've sent Anticonscience my server details, hopefully he can help out, otherwise I might have to employ Rashnid from India

Mynight · 2 Oct 2014 at 18:28

Rashnid is great really knows his stuff

.

Diddums · 2 Oct 2014 at 20:00

Just spoke to Fasthosts and unless I go for a virtual box, they can't support Gzip.

Bloody great! :rolleyes: