Any website/Wordpress experts?

[PH]

My local Member group have put together a new website, using Wordpress, a template and a front page editor
http://www.derbyctc.org.uk/

We're reasonably happy with the way it preforms on a PC, but disappointed with the way it shows up on a tablet or phone.
Even more disappointed considering the template was supposed to take care of this.
When I run Google page speed insights, the must fix results are - Eliminate render-blocking JavaScript and CSS in above-the-fold content

I'm out of my depth! I don't even know what that means let alone how to fix it.
Anyone with the expertise care to have a go, or offer advise? Starting point would be to know if this is a fundamental problem that involves going back to the drawing board or something solvable by someone with the right knowledge. If it requires professional help, there may be some budget available, though the concern is it getting out of hand if we start spending...

This isn't about content, though we're happy to receive comments and suggestions on that.

[simonineaston]

(Health Warning: I've read lot about WordPress with a view to using it for myself and have used it a little bit to create draft websites...)
With WordPress, you are entering the Wonderful World of "plugins" - there are Plugins for all sorts of things from on-line business to (you're in luck) optimising your web site for mobiles. Never used one yet, tho'...
https://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/plugin ... te-mobile/

[Paulatic]

I've just viewed it using a mini IPad. It seems OK to me.
Takes a couple of seconds to open some of the pages on my rural connection. Loading message comes up 60, 80, 100%

Only thing I noticed was the saving calendar date only goes to Google Calendar. Some sites allow saving to I Calendar too

[Paulatic]

Here is an example of delay which I think is acceptable

https://vimeo.com/142730804

[gaz]

I can see a bit of an issue there. The whole thing's displaying upside down

[gaz]

This isn't about content, though we're happy to receive comments and suggestions on that.

I think you've missed the statutory legal notice as quoted from the Policy Handbook, page 9.

Cyclists’ Touring Club (CTC) a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England No 25185, registered as a charity in England and Wales Charity No
1147607 and in Scotland No SC042541. Registered office: Parklands, Railton Road, Guildford, Surrey GU2 9JX

Those Winged Wheels would look even better with "CTC" in a gothic font.

[PH]

Thanks so far:
Simon - I had seen some plug ins to convert a site to mobile, I'll look into it further, though the error about render blocking occurs on the full size version as well, it just doesn't affect it so badly. If possible I would like to sort it, not least because Google mark websites down for such things and search results are important to us.
Paulatic - Thanks for that, it's good to see it works well on your iPad, a lot better than some Android tablets and some phones. I'll look into the Calendar thing.
Gaz - I must have missed the legal notice thing (I don't think I've noticed it on any other MG websites either) The wording on the main CTC page has changed slightly, I'll add it to the footer sometime. Sorry to disagree but I don't like the gothic...

[mjr]

Doesn't display on my mobile. Only a menu button which does nothing. I'd switch to a theme which doesn't require JavaScript for basic page display.

[PH]

Thanks, it doesn't get much worse than that, on my own phone there's no images but at least the menu button sort of works.
As a last resort we could start again with a non JavaScript template, but there are plenty of sites working fine and fast with it so I'm hoping we don't have to go that route.

[Paulatic]

Just tried it on my iPhone where it doesn't work the same. I then chose "desktop site " and everything was working well.

[nickp]

You don't need any plugins to make a site work on mobile - things have moved on from there. Just find a Wordpress theme (not a plugin, nor yet a template) that is responsive - the basic themes that come with WP are examples but there's plenty of others, many of them free. You can search for Responsive themes from inside WP.

I'm not clear why a site that's displaying primarily textual data (rather than large images) needs to have a "Loading" countdown - the site should appear much more smartly than that. A little Javascript is no bad thing but for text and a few small photos, even on mobiles, you don't need anything too fancy. Just some media queries which then deliver the right CSS to different screen sizes. A responsive theme will have a reasonable set of media queries already defined.

You could do a simple test using the TwentyFifteen theme that comes with WP. Just activate it and see how differently it works. You should find it works with your front page editor too.

You might also look at the size in bytes of your front page. You're loading over 1.4 mb of data with that page which explains why its taking a little time to load (enough of a pause to make me not wish to use the site). 400kb of this is the background image across the middle of the page which could be done much more efficiently using repeat background images via CSS for example. (You could just lose this background- it makes the page a little hard to look at!)

I think you'll also find you're not using WP's image processing to its fullest extent. As the screen of your device shrinks, your WP theme should deliver a smaller version of the images (smaller in both bytes and pixels). I don't think the site does this so you may be asking your mobile visitors to download the same amount of data as a visitor with a big computer screen. (Could be wrong and I can't get to a smaller device, but shrinking the PC window and refreshing should have you reloading smaller files.) This won't help performance either, and is usually fixed using a responsive theme.

The trip reports all appear to sit on a single page, all loaded all at once, together with all their pictures. How about splitting each report into its own WP post and displaying one at a time? You could use a WP category archive page to display summaries, then link to the individual reports from there.

(Could I suggest an email obfuscator plugin to protect your club officers from all the spam that will be heading their way resulting from "en clair" email addresses?)

Sorry to go on at length! You've obviously put an enormous amount of work into the site and its great to see so many folk obviously out enjoying themselves on the rides.

[PH]

OOPS, should have left well alone, tried a different theme, text and photos all over the place, tried returning it to the original theme and it's well and truly messed up...

[nickp]

You have a PM
Nick

[nicmarsh]

At the time of writing its a mess on an iPad! Could anyone recommend a place to go (book or web) to learn how to start making a site with Wordpress ?

[mjr]

www.wordpress.org and there should be a link from your dashboard. I know it is slow and detailed but it really does explain everything until you get into writing and fixing plugins.