How we helped the magazine Dotekomanie.cz reduce web server load by 41% and thus achieved faster website loading
Přemysl Vaculík
Founder, EIC, developer
- Key results
- Reducing the number of requests on the target server by 41%
- Securing a constantly accessible website without any slowdowns or outages
- Reducing the website loading time by 82%
- Reducing the costs of hardware (memory or CPU)
- Improving the Core Web Vitals scores for a higher overall SEO score
- Improving user experience (UX)
- Website: dotekomanie.cz
- Industry: Media / Technology
- Location: Prague
- Customer since: 2023
- Service:
- WEDOS Global Protection (Advanced)
- Popular features and functions:
- DDoS + WAF all in one
- CDN caching of selected files
- Purge of the cache
- Current data for attacks / loggs
- Saving server performance
- WEDOS
- Case studies
- How we helped the magazine Dotekomanie.cz reduce web server load by 41% and thus achieved faster website loading
A Czech online magazine which focuses on recent news and reporting on technology and reviews of mobile phones, tablets, PCs and other smart electronics while also publishing other types of content, such as newsletters, tutorials, videos, or podcasts. In 2023, the founder also opened his own online store with accessories for smart devices.
Dotekománie.cz is one of the most visited technological magazines in the Czech Republic. In 2023, it reached around 1.5 million visits per month on average. The founder, Editor in Chief and Chief Developer of Dotekománie is Přemysl Vaculík.
Problems with attacks and the solution from the world’s largest cybersecurity provider
With a gradually increasing number of visits and readers, Dotekománie needed to find a solution which would help solve problems with persisting cybernetic attacks permanently, as they were experiencing slowdowns, outages and inaccessibility of the popular magazine. Before they definitely decided to switch to a solution from WEDOS, they were using a service from the American cybersecurity provider Cloudflare in the long term. Cloudflare managed to stop massive DDoS attacks but it let smaller ones pass through to the target server very often. So it was the case that Dotekománie was experiencing malfunctioning of several of its parts quite frequently…
We purchased the Global Protection service from WEDOS primarily because of the declining quality of service from a different provider of a similar technology. This service – namely from Cloudflare – is good for a massive protection against the most severe attacks but it doesn’t catch everything, especially the smaller attacks. With the gigantic size of their company, they cannot purposefully solve minor complications. This is why we tried switching to WGP. The functioning of our website has improved and we no longer have to deal with so many attacks, or rather the inaccessibility of specific components.
The negative effects of inaccessibility of digital media
Financial losses due to online advertisement losses and a reduced number of subscribers
Media platforms focused on news and journalism generate significant financial income through online advertisement. Dotekománie is no exception. DDoS attacks limit the visibility and the click-through rate of ad campaigns which results in lost value for ad partners which in turn leads to financial losses. Another negative effect of this is a reduced number of premium subscribers of the media or news website.
A decrease in confidence and a loss of regular readers
Long-term problems with slowdowns, outages and the inaccessibility of a platform might result in a gradual loss of credibility and the carefully built readers’ base, and have a negative effect on the number of visits and the overall media influence of the platform concerned.
Reducing the web server load by 41% and ensuring a constantly accessible website with zero outages
At first, Dotekománie wanted to deal with the situation by switching to a more robust and significantly more expensive solution than a web hosting which can deal with a higher number of web server requests better. A virtual private server (VPS) was an option or their own physical server. However, with that they would also need to hire an IT specialist which is connected with another expenses.
At last, the owner of the magazine decided to try WEDOS Global Protection with which he managed to reduce the number of requests on the target server by 41%! This result was achieved based on this ground:
- The BGP Anycast technology and a reverse proxy which allow the distribution of similar IP addresses among more servers, thereby diluting the traffic among several points of presence within the WEDOS Global network of servers. The features IP blocking and rate limiting can also block suspicious traffic (i.e. hackers’ attacks) even before they reach the target server.
- Web CDN Cache which continuously creates inter-memory copies of a website, thus significantly reducing the amount of data which would otherwise have to be loaded with every request (i.e. access of a user to a website).
- THE RESULT
The number of requests on the target server decreased after employing WGP from 27,795,270 requests to 16,325,288 in a month. So, the load on the web server was reduced by 41%!
By blocking suspicious traffic and reducing the web server load, Dotekománie achieved a constantly accessible website without any slowdowns or outages.
After employing WGP, we register a faster response, lower loading time and also the overall server load is lower which – of course – impacts our budget, since we no longer need to purchase more robust solutions from our hosting service provider. Přemysl Vaculík
The metrics also show a massive improvement in performance
Thanks to using WGP, Dotekománie can cache a large amount of their website content (i.e. store the data from a database in the inter-memory) and, optionally, they can also distribute it among several different points of presence (PoPs) within the WEDOS Global infrastructure. In addition, the performance and speed of the website is also optimised for all readers located in different parts of the world. After running a test of the production servers, we found that WEDOS Global Protection managed to increase the website loading speed by 82%!
- THE RESULT
The average website loading time decreased after employing WGP from 752 ms to 135 ms. So, the loading speed was increased by 82%!
The importance of fast website loading and high-quality user experience (UX) for digital media
Fans of modern technologies – a high proportion of readers of Dotekománie – expect a fast and easy to use website. Not only while using mobile phones or smart watches, but also while interacting with website pages. They expect immediate access to information and a smooth navigation without any complications. A fast website response and user-friendly design are therefore essential for their satisfaction.
A website loading speed and user experience are also important considering SEO (search engine optimisation). In fact, those are of the main evaluating factors for Google. For Dotekománie, as well as for any other online magazine, landing at the front positions in SERPs is essential for growing organic visits and the number of subscribers of news and reviews.
Individual approach of customer support
The owner of the digital magazine Dotekománie speaks highly of the fact that he can contact the customer support of WEDOS and get a feedback or necessary information very fast. He also considers it a great advantage that he can speak Czech during this conversation. This was not an option with the American provider Cloudflare. With this cybernetic giant, focusing mainly on large global companies and B2B customers, there was also no option to communicate effectively and solve emerging problems flexibly. Facing a crisis situation, Dotekománie could often rely only on a forum or a community of customers which is, of course, not ideal in these situations. According to the owner, WEDOS has a great advantage over its foreign competition in this regard.
“I would definitely recommend this service from WEDOS, because it has a long list of benefits, not only concerning website loading speed or cybersecurity. It can also reduce the costs of hosting, especially if you already use a maximum plan and don’t want to switch to a VPS or a dedicated physical server, which also entails hiring a specialist in this subject.”
