W3C Validation & Page Speed Issues
 

Hello everyone!

I'm having some trouble figuring out where and how I need to go about cleaning up the code that's in the header of www.everlastingdecking.com.

The site is under-performing, so I ran a test through WooRank to see if there were any on-page SEO issues. The report highlighted there were some markup/w3c compliance issues. So, I ran a test using w3c's Unicorn service (here's the link to the report). Turns out there are quite a few issues that I need to fix. SO, here are my question; What X-cart 5 file(s) do I have to edit to fix these issues?

Also, I've been reading that having too many CSS files can put a damper on your rankings. Turns out the site was coded with 13 css files. What's the best way of consolidating them?

Last, but not least, which .htaccess file do I have to edit to leverage browser caching. I was able to figure out how to add gzip compression, but turning on browser caching is proving elusive.

THANKS SO MUCH IN ADVANCE!

Re: W3C Validation & Page Speed Issues
 

With X-Cart 5 you don't modify any core files. You only modify files in your custom module to override the core.

I looked at your code, and 6 of the CSS stylesheets have been added by whoever customized your site. Maybe more. I think that 6 different included fonts, is pretty excessive.

Looking at how custom the site is, I wonder what version are you running? Has it been upgraded to the latest?

Re: W3C Validation & Page Speed Issues
 

The site's using 5.1.9.

Re: W3C Validation & Page Speed Issues
 

Hi!

As I see, your pages are loading within 1.5 sec (first byte time), which is quite good. Could you please let me know what expected result you are trying to get?

Tony.

Re: W3C Validation & Page Speed Issues
 

Hi Tony!

I ran a test using Google's Page Speed tool and the results were not very good:

https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/?url=http%3A%2F%2Feverlastingdecking.com

I'm quite concerned given the site is well optimized for our main keywords and sites that don't even have a 1/10th of the relevant content that we do are outranking us by a lot. If there are w3c validation issues I'd like to clean them up as soon as possible.

Re: W3C Validation & Page Speed Issues
 

everlasting, are you in touch with your original developer? Or are you looking for a new one? I can certainly look at these issues for you. It would be an honor to work on such a nice looking site.

Re: W3C Validation & Page Speed Issues
 

@everlastingrox, I just checked the results here:
https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/?url=http%3A%2F%2Feverlastingdecking.com

and what I see here:
1) Enable gzip or mod_deflate. This is a great suggestion and you should do this on your server.
2) Remove JS files from top of the page that blocks the display of the page.
These JS files are not default, so you should contact the developer of your skin in order rectify this problem.
3) Optimize CSS files. Most of the files in the subject are on 3rd party server (http://fonts.googleapis.com) and references to these files do not exist in default X-Cart. Again, contact the developer of your skin and ask them to optimize the code.

and so on.

I do agree that there are things that X-Cart could do better, primarily optimize CSS and JS code. We do have plans of adding JS/CSS minifiers that will solve the problem. But most of the problems in that report are caused by the custom code that does not exist in default X-Cart.

Please, let me know if my comments help.

Re: W3C Validation & Page Speed Issues
 

Thank you both for your assistance and review. Unfortunately, the original developer is no longer in the picture (We did hire SpurIT who were truly wonderful to work with. They did a great job!), but our budget has run out for any future modifications and fixes. That's why it falls on me to address/fix these issues. :?

Re: W3C Validation & Page Speed Issues
 

Your host can help you with the server side compression. The rest is something you need to do yourself or hire a professional. As for the validation errors - I doubt they have anything to do with page speed or Google ranking

Re: W3C Validation & Page Speed Issues
 

I do agree with Steve that fixing all these problems (except enabling gzip) will not necessarily bring you speed or ranking.

Moreover, as I see your page speed is quite good even now: 1.5 sec for first byte.