Updates to site not loading in live view - is it caching issues?? (SiteSpeed)

GemmaHartshorn94

Hi there, I was hoping someone can help me correct some issues I'm having with (I think) caching and my site.

I recently switched theme from astra to acabado and redesigned my site. I deleted the astra theme completely and installed acabado successfully. Since activating the new theme and completing my redesign etc., I've got the post pages appearing mostly ok with the new theme on, except the top hamburger menu icon and logo doesn't appear on these pages for some reason when in live view of the site.

Everything appears correctly and in full when on the back end of my wordpress site, just to be clear.

Additionally, the home page is showing as my old homepage when in the live view, despite me clearing cache on ezoic to try and sort this out. The homepage appears fine and in full when in the back end of my site too.

I use siteground hosting and have noticed a couple error messages appearing on my wordpress dashboard which includes these 3 error messages:

"You should use a persistent object cache" (underneath is then this additional message...)
"Your hosting provider can tell you if a persistent object cache can be enabled on your site. Your host appears to support the following object caching services: Memcached."

"Your website does not use https"
(even though it does, i'm certain, because that happens through integration with ezoic doesnt it?)
(there's then this additional message below...)
"You are accessing this website using HTTPS, but your WordPress Address and Site Address are not set up to use HTTPS by default.Talk to your web host about supporting HTTPS for your website."

"Page cache is not detected but server response time is ok" (underneath this message I then see these additional notes...)
Median server response time was 234 milliseconds. This is less than the recommended 600 milliseconds threshold.
No client caching response headers were detected.
A page cache plugin was not detected.

I have the Ezoic plug-in installed and enabled on my wordpress site too.

I am looking at my siteground caching and can see there's some options not currently enabled, but I'm not sure whether it's ok for me to enable them considering my caching is currently through ezoic?

The options I have to enable on my siteground are "Memcached", "Dynamic cache" and "NGINX Direct Delivery" - all of which describe what they are etc but like I say, I don't want to enable something on here if it will interfere with Ezoic and what I have enabled with the Ezoic settings.

I'm finding it very confusing knowing what to do to fix the issues with the homepage showing as my old one despite changing it, and also how to get my hamburger menu icon and logo appearing on the rest of the pages.

I'd really appreciate some help and advice -

I am thinking the issues are cache related but exactly how to proceed to fix these issues I don't know.

Or is it for another reason that my site doesn't want to load the more recent version of my site? I just don't know.

Can someone get back to me from Ezoic and point me in the right direction with changes I might need to make?

Really hope someone can help.

Thanks,
Gemma

Imogen

GemmaHartshorn94 Hey Gemma, at first glance, this definitely sounds like it is related to caching and you are doing all of the right things to try and resolve a typical caching issue. I recommend you keep the caching technology at Siteground disabled, server side caching can interefere with different areas of Ezoic and cause additional problems as well as caching issues.

Do you have any caching plugins enabled on the site? If you can send over an up to date list of your plugins, we can take a look at them for you.

We typically advise setting up the Ezoic Wordpress plugin, I can see you already have this installed but do you definitely have it configured correctly for CDN management? I'd check this guide to make sure: https://support.ezoic.com/kb/article/how-can-i-set-up-the-ezoic-wordpress-plugin-for-cdn-management

The error messages in your dashboard can be ignored, these are not accurate. For example, your site is definitely being served via https as it is utilising Ezoic's free SSL. 🙂 Finally, have you tried viewing the site on a difference devices / browser? Have cleared out your browser cache after making the changes to your theme/site?

GemmaHartshorn94

Hi there,

Thankyou for the quick reply.

So as far as I know there's no other caching plug-ins installed or active.

But just to be sure and for you to check, these are my current plug-ins:

Ads.txt Manager
Antispam Bee
Broken Link Checker
ConvertKit
Disable & Remove Google Fonts (Currently inactive but not un-installed)
Ezoic
Link Whisper Free
REFER Links
UpdraftPlus - Backup/Restore
Wordfence Security
WP Recipe Maker

In terms of trying a different browser/device and clearing those caches, I've today tried these methods and I note that I can now see the homepage on desktop, but there's no hamburger menu icon or logo appearing on this page or any other page. The layout of the homepage looks off in a desktop chrome browser too.

Additionally, I have tried on my mobile in both safari and chrome but the homepage is still the old one on mobile and i've still got the issues on the other pages where the hamburger menu icon and logo don't show.

It does look as though an ad is covering where the menu and logo should be though. Is this something that can be checked and corrected at your end? Or is there a simple way in which I can ensure ads don't cover header sections where my logo and menu would appear? Im not sure how i might do this if that's the problem.

That said, it still doesn't explain why my old homepage is showing on mobile devices.

In my Ezoic dashboard I see theres a note when i use the debugging tool to check the main url of my site (www.glutenfreeshopeasy.com) which says: "no headers available" - is this anything to do with my current issues? This error message appears for a few pages though in the debug tool not just the homepage, but those other pages are not the old versions, they're only problem is that they're missing the menu icon and logo, as i've mentioned.

In terms of the Ezoic plug-in I am sure it's set up correctly. When checking settings in the plug-in it appears to have all aspects enabled for automatic caching of new pages and any updated pages etc.

I have just realised one thing though... when I type in this url "www.glutenfreeshopeasy.com/home" on mobile and desktop, I get the correct homepage and its the new theme etc, all there. But when I type in "www.glutenfreeshopeasy.com" without "/home", I get the old homepage on mobile and an incorrectly laid out new version on desktop....

Am I missing something? I don't understand how that's happening..

There is still the issue of the hamburger menu icon and logo disappearing though when i click onto my category pages or post pages from the url "www.glutenfreeshopeasy.com/home"... so even though adding home to the url gets me to the correct new homepage, i still then have the issue of no menu and logo on subsequent pages...

This is honestly such a nightmare 🤣

I hope you can help!

Thanks
Gemma

Tucker_P_Ezoic

Let's just focus on the homepage not working first, then we can address any subsequent issues (as they might be related).

It's certainly odd that the /home URL is different from the homepage or root domain. From experience, that might actually suggest that the theme change / additions you made weren't actually applied to the ' / ' URL but to a /home as if that was the root domain.
This sort of issue would actually be better served troubleshooting wise with the host or theme supplier in this case, since we aren't operating the server where the site is hosted and any theme changes or additions on the back-end would be unrelated to Ezoic.

Again, it seems like the changes you made were applied to the /home URL and not the ' / ' which is the root domain.

GemmaHartshorn94

Hi again,

thankyou for your reply.

I have managed to sort out the issue with the homepage and now have the whole site running on the new theme, with no old pages showing, which is great, so no more issues there.

However, my main issue now is that the logo and hamburger menu icon are still not showing, and I think it's because there's an ad which constantly seems to cover this top space.

I did need to reach out to you anyway about my change of theme as this was a very big change and obviously will affect ad placement/revenue and all the rest. Is there anything your end that needs to be done since I've done this big change to the site? I would appreciate someone taking a look to clarify everything looks ok since the change.

Regarding the specific issue with my logo and menu not showing, this problem is only on mobile versions of my site, not on desktop (which is showing all things, fine).

Occasionally, one of the pages of my site on mobile does show the logo and hamburger menu icon, which is why I feel it has surely got to be an ezoic ad issue.

I have read through the acabado troubleshooting to see about fixing this incase it was something else, but I see no relevant information, and am sure my settings are all correct for showing the logo and menu on mobile. I therefore can't help but feel it must be an issue at ezoic with the rules about ads covering this specific area of my site.

I would massively appreciate any help/advice you're able to offer about getting the logo and menu to reappear on mobile, and if indeed it is an ad placement issue with it over-riding my menu area, someone looking into fixing this for me.

I am having issues logging into the chrome extension to manage ad placements on my site, with it returning a constant "oops, there's been an error" message. Im not sure if this is something going on at your end either but it's been like this for a few days now.

Thanks and hope you can help

Gemma

Ethan

GemmaHartshorn94 Hey Gemma,

I took a look at your site and replicated the issue you mentioned. I noticed that a placeholder you added (titled top_of_page) was getting inserted in a way on mobile which prevented your logo/menu showing. I've disabled the placeholder for mobile devices - can you clear the cache and let us know if that did it?

That said, I'm not seeing a menu on desktop currently - is that on purpose? I'm only seeing the menu on mobile

GemmaHartshorn94

Ethan

Thankyou for checking on the problem and for making some changes which will hopefully help!

I have cleared the cache for the site and have re-checked my site on my iphone, both safari and the chrome browser and am still not seeing my menu and logo currently. I do however note that an ad is no longer showing at the top either, presumably from the changes you have made.

I'm not sure what that means, though, as I still have no menu.

With regards to desktop live view, I am also now not seeing a menu at all on there myself, whereas before I could see it on desktop...

Again, i'm not sure what this means so have reached out on the Project 24 community page to ask about issues with the logo and menu for acabado to see if any other members have some insight and/or possible solutions.

However, if you have anything else in mind that could be causing the issue, perhaps you would be willing to share with me?

It is a confusing one and rather frustrating as it's my main navigation of course and without the menu people can't move about on my site.

Hmm!

Thanks for your help so far,

Gemma

Tucker_P_Ezoic

Regarding the menu / logo, this guide is probably the best to reference: https://support.ezoic.com/kb/article/i-activated-leap-and-the-mobile-menu-is-not-working-how-do-i-fix-this

You do want to make sure that all caching is cleared for the site, not just the Ezoic caching via Dashboard > LEAP if you're using additional caching plugins / technologies at the host.

GemmaHartshorn94

Tucker_P_Ezoic

THANKYOU for sharing this article!

Literally one click to disable leap and everything menu wise works fine!

Now to use the article to figure out exactly which aspect it is that was interfering.

Thanks so much!

GemmaHartshorn94

Tucker_P_Ezoic

Hi once again!

So... I have run into an unexpected problem which differs slightly from the article and what it says may be the issue.

I went through the article and found it was the CSS in leap settings that was causing the issue - i disabled the CSS button on leap optimise as a whole at first and the menu returned.

I then turned the CSS as a whole back on in Leap, went into the advanced settings for CSS and disabled ONLY the "remove unused CSS" button, as suggested in the article you shared with me, but then my menu did not return.

I went through each CSS option, disabling one at a time, and then found that the issue is actually when "critical CSS" is enabled. When I turned off "critical CSS", my menu worked again.

So this is where I am at currently, and wondered if, aside from keeping this option for "criticial CSS" disabled on leap so my menu works, is there something else I can specifically do inside the critical CSS advanced settings so that my menu returns without having to keep this setting turned off altogether?

I'm not sure how much of an impact having the critical css option turned off will have on my site as a whole - I would appreciate hearing your thoughts on how I might proceed!

Thanks,

Gemma

Ethan

GemmaHartshorn94 Hi Gemma,

Glad to hear that you were able to find the setting that's not compatible with your site. Your options now are to either leave critical CSS off, or exclude the menu script from critical CSS. I just added a rule there to exclude the mobile menu from critical CSS but haven't activated that: https://pubdash.ezoic.com/leap/optimize

You can use the Leap preview mode to test that out and hopefully this'll allow you to use the feature but not at the expense of breaking your menu - let us know if not

GemmaHartshorn94

Ethan

Hi Ethan, you mentioned you have not activated it but I do believe I now have, and unfortunately it does not seem to have worked and my menu still doesn’t show.

Is there anything else that can be checked to see why at your end? As I say, I am certain I have one activated it.

Also, I have noticed there’s an issue now with ads on chrome which appear too big on the screens and cover other aspects of my site. Do you know why this is? I would appreciate it if someone can take a look at what is going on there as obviously the ads shouldn’t be doing that.

Thank you,

Gemma

Ethan

GemmaHartshorn94 Hi Gemma,

You have activated the settings. In this case I would just advise leaving the Critical CSS settings off. We added a menu script, to be excluded but as this hasn't worked it suggests the menu consists of interdependent scripts.

In terms of the ads being too big - it looks like our placement service ads are not compatible with your site. I've turned those off - clear the cache and that should be resolved

GemmaHartshorn94

Thank you for sorting that.

I seem to have one issue after another at the moment! Sorry to keep badgering you!

My website layout is now playing up in general though - everything has gone scewed and looks all over the place when viewing in safari and chrome on my iPad. It’s also distorted in chrome on desktop too. However, It’s fine on mobile in chrome and safari.

Do you know if this is a leap or ad related problem?

I’m not sure why it’s showing up this way now ..

Gemma

Ethan

GemmaHartshorn94 I believe that the site was distorted due to the ads I disabled earlier today. For example, I saw some elements overlapping on the home and category pages, but this is no longer happening.

I checked in incognito and the site looks okay to me - can you try clear the cache and let us know if you still experience any issues? If so, send over some screenshots of the broken CSS so we can try recreate on our end 🙂

GemmaHartshorn94

Hi again,

I have managed to rectify the site layout issues I was having, however, in order to achieve this I've had to turn off Critical CSS (I mentioned in a previous comment here that I had done this in order to make sure my menu and logo was appearing at the top of the page, and this is still the case now) as well as Remove unused CSS.

I have been through the article about fixing layout issues caused by the remove unused css option, but i've had no luck in figuring out which of the css sheets i needed to exclude in order to make my website layout remain normal, hence why I've had to resort to turning the setting off as a whole.

The problem I now have is that I've got 2 CSS settings turned off completely and it's had/having a negative impact on my overall sitespeed.

I wondered if someone might be able to help me fix this so I can (at least) turn the remove unused css setting back on, if not both settings back on, to improve my site speed.

It feels a little frustrating knowing these are turned off and affecting site speed overall, if I can instead ask for some more in depth help to rectify the issue.

Really hope you can help

Thanks,

Gemma

Ethan

GemmaHartshorn94 Hello,

We already did try to create some custom exclusion rules for the CSS settings so you wouldn't have to disable the Leap optimization settings entirely, which was already going beyond our typical troubleshooting process (since Level One publishers are self-served). The fact you also set up 13 exclusion rules with the Remove Unused CSS feature and none of those worked does tell us that your site is just not going to be compatible with those settings. As a result, our suggestion would be to just leave those settings off (if you need to keep creating exclusion rules for the CSS settings then its not really going to be helping with speed anyway).

It is worth pointing out that Google does tend to prioritise ranking for content much more than speed. Your current Core Web Vital scores aren't going to hurt your site as long as you continue to produce original high quality content.