My main page had really slowed down: 56.58 seconds to load completely! The culprit appeared to be the four embedded Google maps. Let’s see how the loading time broke down (all times according to Firebug):
| Category | Entire Page | Google Maps Portion |
| HTML | 20.5 s | 5.925 s |
| CSS | 5.04 s | 0 s |
| JS | 26.55 s | 22.656 s |
| XHR | 31.26 s | 31.26 s |
| Images | 4.72 s | 0 s |
| Flash | 0 s | 0 s |
Converting those embedded Google maps to static images that link to the maps resulted in a substantial decrease in loading times. My main page now loads in 7.34 seconds!
I love the convenience of creating and embedding Google maps. I just can’t handle their slow loading. Looks like it’s time to investigate Google static maps. Unfortunately, static maps don’t have the slick editing features that Google My Maps does.
Any other suggestions?