Bad Argo Performance?

Hi, I tried activating Argo a few days ago, but I can’t seem to understand if that’s actually working: explaining better, all kind of performance tools tells me the loading speed is not improving (sometimes even worse than before), and from search console also the average download time has increased from the day I activated it: image

Does Argo need more time to be working correctly? Or could it be also a geographical issue, my main audience being in Italy and since Cloudflare only has one server in Italy maybe there’s no real improvement from my actual server that’s also in Italy?

Thanks

That certainly looks like a real-world test. How do the Argo stats look on your Analytics page? There’s also a Support article on getting more stats:
https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000244811-What-external-tools-can-I-use-to-measure-Argo-s-page-speed-improvements-

And, since it’s Italy, maybe @matteo has played with Argo in the homeland.

1 Like

thank you for your answer, I also used pingdom to measure Argo performance and the results are pretty much the same.
The biggest issue always seems to be the TTFB (and I know my origin server might not be very fast), but what I don’t understand is why after upgrading my free account with Argo the website started to get slower and not faster.

The issue I see with Argo in Italy (I have it enable only on one domain, I need Argo Tunnel) is that the main POP seems to be FRA, so if the server is closer to Milan (or Zurich, depending on the ISP, since Rome isn’t enabled most times on Free plans) than Frankfurt the double hop will cause reduced speed.

I would highly recommend setting good Cache-Control headers, Argo improves performances more in the case of single server with a global audience. Short distances, especially within Europe which is extremely well connected, are not improved.

If you are interested in some more info share the domain name and maybe the infrastructure you are using. Most performance improvements can derive from improvements there.

2 Likes

Hi @matteo,

thank you for your answer, from what I understood from your message is that it can actually be that Argo made it worse.
also after reading the guides on Cloudflare chaching html could be a sort of solution to improve loading times, I’m just not sure it’s the best way (and if there are cons in doing so since I never done that)

if it can help the domain is https://www.farmacia-in-linea.com and it’s a wordpress site

I paid for Argo and I’m seeing no improvement. My local business isn’t a candidate to benefit from Argo??? I wish somebody from cloudflare would visit this forum.

another post — No performance improvement after using Argo?

Cloudflare should have a survey before purchase, otherwise people with sites that aren’t a fit are going to complain, and it is a lose - lose.

If you’re having a problem with Argo, best to start a new thread rather than bringing up very old ones.

Argo aims to route round internet congestion and find the fastest routes between a Cloudflare data centre that your user is connected to and your origin. If your site is largely cached, or your visitors are mostly close to your origin, then Argo isn’t going to do much for you.

If it’s not giving you the value you think it should, just don’t use it.

This topic was automatically closed 2 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.