[Resolved] Translated site much slower on PageSpped than the original
This thread is resolved. Here is a description of the problem and solution.
Problem: You are experiencing slower PageSpeed scores on the Polish version of your site compared to the English version, despite using the Litespeed Cache Plugin and both versions being identical except for the language. Solution: The discrepancy in speed between the English and Polish versions of your site is likely due to the additional processing required by WPML for translated pages. WPML needs to handle and filter translation layers, which involves accessing, processing, and displaying content based on the selected language. This necessary process introduces a slight overhead, which might affect the load times and PageSpeed scores of the translated pages.
If this solution does not resolve your issue, or if it seems outdated or irrelevant to your case, we recommend opening a new support ticket. Additionally, we highly recommend checking related known issues at https://wpml.org/known-issues/, verifying the version of the permanent fix, and confirming that you have installed the latest versions of themes and plugins. For further assistance, please visit our support forum at WPML Support Forum.
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Background of the issue:
I am trying to optimize the site using the Litespeed Cache Plugin. When testing the site with Google PageSpeed, I get 98-100% on the English version and only 39-68 on the Polish version. The versions are identical, just translated. Link to a page where the issue can be seen: hidden link
Symptoms:
I get 100% in the pagespeed test on the EN site and from 39 to 82 on the PL site.
Questions:
What seems to be the problem with the Polish version's speed?
Why is there a discrepancy in speed between the English and Polish versions?
Yes, I have optimised it even futher. The second language version gets at most 92 now, which is still 10 pecent slower than original. This seems strange, because as far as I understand the second language page is just a new page with a new id copied from the original with translated text. So it should be the same.
The site is ona Litespeed server and I optimised it using a dedicated official Litespeed Cache plugin. I optumise the whole site, there is no section for one or the other language.
The Polish version of the site is slower on PageSpeed and if you change why, then you will see these are the things that LiteSpeed should speed up, but with the Polish version it seems not to be doing it in the same way as with the original. Perhaps some options cannot be applied to the copy for some reason?
Languages: English (English )German (Deutsch )French (Français )
Timezone: Europe/Zagreb (GMT+01:00)
Could you please check the sizes of images being used, particularly in translated content? Sometimes, unoptimized images are served at full size instead of scaled versions, which can increase load times. Regenerating thumbnails and verifying how images are loaded may help optimize this.
Additionally, there can be some performance differences influenced by the theme, page builder, and WPML, as content filtering is required for translated pages. These factors can sometimes add slight overhead to load times.
Let us know if you have any questions related to this!
Images are the same, you should also be able to download them with your browser and compare. Theme is a basic empty Hello Elementor and everything else is built with elementor on top of it.
Languages: English (English )German (Deutsch )French (Français )
Timezone: Europe/Zagreb (GMT+01:00)
While the Hello Elementor theme is minimal, WPML still needs to handle and filter additional translation layers for translated pages. Each translated page requires WPML to access, process, and display content based on language, which can introduce slight overhead. This additional work WPML does with filtering and processing translated content is an essential part of delivering a seamless multilingual experience, though it may cause a minor difference in load times compared to the original content.
