✅WORDPRESS OPTIMIZATION GUIDE! FROM 3 TO 1 SECOND LOAD-TIME❗❗

FatBee

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optimizewp.net
I will try to keep this simple and quick as possible. So let's go!


Starting Point:
upload_2020-5-10_7-54-37.png

upload_2020-5-10_7-58-10.png

upload_2020-5-10_7-59-21.png


Details about the page:
- Namecheap Stellar Business (don't judge me, my Stellar Plus was turning shit so I manage to get $25 off on top of their active promotion, so grabbing this for $26~ a year is great!)
- Medium Size Theme (Almost LIGHT but not really)
- Running 16 Plugins
- 5 Posts as of now.
- All tests are performed on the homepage.

LET'S GO!

- WPRocket

I would highly suggest running WPRocket The plugin is a killer!
I wouldn't go with complete set up for this one cause for some users my settings might be conflicting.

USE CLOUDFLARE (At least, Cloudflare is what I use.)

I will focus on Prefetch DNS Requests.

You can reduce latency by setting DNS Lookups to perform in the background with DNS prefetching
You can set this for assets such as Google Analytics, Font Awesome, Google Fonts, and others.
You can use https://prefetch.xyz/ too see where your website is sending requests, but if this fails for you (cause it did for me and its missing at least a few more here is a full list, compare it to your website and add what you need.)

Code:
//maps.googleapis.com
//maps.gstatic.com
//fonts.googleapis.com
//fonts.gstatic.com
//ajax.googleapis.com
//apis.google.com
//google-analytics.com
//www.google-analytics.com
//ssl.google-analytics.com
//youtube.com
//api.pinterest.com
//cdnjs.cloudflare.com
//pixel.wp.com
//connect.facebook.net
//platform.twitter.com
//syndication.twitter.com
//platform.instagram.com
//disqus.com
//sitename.disqus.com
//s7.addthis.com
//platform.linkedin.com
//w.sharethis.com
//s0.wp.com
//s1.wp.com
//s2.wp.com
//s.gravatar.com
//stats.wp.com
//www.googletagmanager.com
//www.googletagservices.com
//adservice.google.com
//pagead2.googlesyndication.com
//tpc.googlesyndication.com
//bp.blogspot.com
//1.bp.blogspot.com
//2.bp.blogspot.com
//3.bp.blogspot.com
//4.bp.blogspot.com
//ajax.microsoft.com
//ajax.aspnetcdn.com
//s3.amazonaws.com
//code.jquery.com
//stackpath.bootstrapcdn.com
//use.fontawesome.com
//player.vimeo.com
//github.githubassets.com
//referrer.disqus.com
//c.disquscdn.com
//0.gravatar.com
//2.gravatar.com
//1.gravatar.com
//ad.doubleclick.net
//googleads.g.doubleclick.net
//stats.g.doubleclick.net
//cm.g.doubleclick.net
//stats.buysellads.com
//s3.buysellads.com
//fonts.googleapis.com/

As I said before, prefetch.xyz might not show everything, so what you need to do is Open DevTools (F12 on Chrome) and refresh your browser, you will see almost every single request. Cross-check them with the list and make your own, I mean there is no reason to Prefretch buysellads if you don't run buysell ads.


- Imagify
Imagify is a plugin that compresses and convert your images, it's a pretty neat one! Here are the settings that I use.

upload_2020-5-10_9-6-11.png

upload_2020-5-10_9-6-32.png

Yes, I go with the webp format since its lighter but keeps the quality good and the size waaaaay lower that PNG or JPG can go. This is really optional if you don't like the WEBP just disable it.


- Serve static content from a subdomain. AKA cookie-free domain!

This will greatly reduce the service time of your static content there for the load time will gain boost!
This is a bit technical and I strongly advise to make a backup before proceeding to this.

Let's start with the cPanel (aka subdomain creation)

1. Go to your cPanel > Subdomains > Create a Subdomain
2. I will name the subdomain as static (static.website.tld)
3. Change Document Root to public_html/wp-content
4. if you are using Cloudflare go to your Cloudflare dashboard and add new record A, name it static and point it to your IP.
upload_2020-5-10_9-20-6.png

5. Now, look for wp-config.php and insert the following lines


Code:
/** Cookie-Free Domain. */
define("WP_CONTENT_URL", "https://static.website.tld");
define('COOKIE_DOMAIN', $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] );


I guess I don't need to tell you to change "website.tld" to your domain name.

6. Now you must redirect all the posts to the new subdomain. Simply, run the following command in the SQL Database via phpMyAdmin.

Code:
UPDATE wp_posts SET guid = REPLACE(guid,'website.tld/wp-content/','static.website.tld/')
Code:
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE(post_content,'website.tld/wp-content/','static.website.tld/')
upload_2020-5-10_9-55-26.png



7. After completing all of these steps, go to your page and refresh it. See if there is any error.

EXPECTED ERROR: Problem loading web fonts, FontAwesome, etc. due to CORS policies

8. (Fix) I'm using RankMath for this one. But you can edit it directly or with any other plugin that can do it.

Go to your .httaccess file and add the following on the top line.
Code:
#CORS FIX
<IfModule mod_headers.c>
 <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    SetEnvIf Origin "http(s)?://(.+\.)?(static.website\.com|website\.com)(:\d{1,5})?$" CORS=$0
    Header set Access-Control-Allow-Origin "%{CORS}e" env=CORS
    Header merge  Vary "Origin"
 </IfModule>
</IfModule>
#CORS FIX END

Note: Change "website" to your domain name and ".com" to your own TLD.



- Prevent Contact Form 7 from loading on every page.

I don't know why is this, but it happens a lot and what's weird it's not on every WP installations. 3 of 5 of my websites have this issue. This is a pretty simple one.

1. Go to functions.php (public_html/wp-includes)
2. Add the following code on the bottom.
PHP:
// Remove contact form 7
add_filter( 'wpcf7_load_js', '__return_false' );
add_filter( 'wpcf7_load_css', '__return_false' );
add_action('wp_enqueue_scripts', 'load_wpcf7_scripts');
function load_wpcf7_scripts() {
  if ( is_page('contact') ) {
    if ( function_exists( 'wpcf7_enqueue_scripts' ) ) {
      wpcf7_enqueue_scripts();
    }
    if ( function_exists( 'wpcf7_enqueue_styles' ) ) {
      wpcf7_enqueue_styles();
    }
  }
}

If you have CF7 on multiple pages, change " if ( is_page('contact') ) {" to "if ( is_page('contact|page1|page2|page3') ) {"



- Remove version entirely from the source files

WPRocket should do the job with this, but if you have css/js files that are excluded WPRocket won't touche them in any way, so this one is coming in handy to those files.
1. Go to functions.php (public_html/wp-includes)
2. Add the following code on the bottom.

Code:
// Remove version entirely from the source files
function sh_remove_ver_css_js( $src_file ) {
    if ( strpos( $src_file, 'ver=' ) )
        $src_file = remove_query_arg( 'ver', $src_file );
    return $src_file;
}
add_filter( 'style_loader_src', 'sh_remove_ver_css_js', 9999 );
add_filter( 'script_loader_src', 'sh_remove_ver_css_js', 9999 );

Time for results after doing all these simple neat tricks that are done in 10 Minutes after doing it a few times.

upload_2020-5-10_10-44-54.png

upload_2020-5-10_10-46-21.png

upload_2020-5-10_10-46-35.png


Thats it folks.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks, i will definetly be needing this when i start my wordpress site
 
1) hey do I need to purchase a domain for the sub domain or is it free, secondly what about backlinks on the main domain will it get effected, 3) what will show up in search when users click site. www.site.com or static.siye,com
 
Thank you for the great post! I am using wp and Contact Form 7 for many websites but never notice the plugin will be loaded on every page, will try your method to optimize.
I wrote a plugin recently to do auto-post work, but it blocked my server's php7.2-fpm process. After many days of searching fix on the internet, finally, I find out it is not my plugin's fault, but caused by WP's corn jobs. So do not forget to turn off corn jobs, if you don't need it. Add the following line in WP config file to disable it.

define('DISABLE_WP_CRON', 'true');

So for it is the biggest optimization for me.
 
I am facing exactly same issue, although google recently said that speed will not be considered as ranking factor however, this is still very useful for smooth user experience. very much for sharing. :)
 
1) hey do I need to purchase a domain for the sub domain or is it free, secondly what about backlinks on the main domain will it get effected, 3) what will show up in search when users click site. www.site.com or static.siye,com
1. No, you don't. Just create subdomain under your existing domain name.
2. No, you are only redirecting/changing the static files and not the whole website. So only the images/content (not text) is affected)
3. static.domain.tld wont be indexed, only images from that domain will be indexed. But over time (I THINK) google will swap the old domain IMG URL's that are indexed to the new subdomain.
 
Thank you for the great post! I am using wp and Contact Form 7 for many websites but never notice the plugin will be loaded on every page, will try your method to optimize.
I wrote a plugin recently to do auto-post work, but it blocked my server's php7.2-fpm process. After many days of searching fix on the internet, finally, I find out it is not my plugin's fault, but caused by WP's corn jobs. So do not forget to turn off corn jobs, if you don't need it. Add the following line in WP config file to disable it.

define('DISABLE_WP_CRON', 'true');

So for it is the biggest optimization for me.
WPRocket is running of WPCron, and most auto takes are dependent on that, so yeah in 90% of the cases you will need it. Also, cron is run periodically so it won't affect the site speed when its not running.
 
Always wondered how to do the cookie free domain thing.

What does it actually do btw?
 
Are you testing this on your front page, or to one of your post pages?

Because my front page has a score of about 96. But my post page has a score of about 79. Do you have any idea about this?

Anyway, thanks for this thread. I will try it in my other website.
 
Always wondered how to do the cookie free domain thing.

What does it actually do btw?
Its pretty self explanatory (the config part)

imaged served from a cookie domain are counted as cookie material/served by cookie domain.

What the config does is separate the main domain and the subdomain. The subdomain is COOKIE FREE while every cookie that the site needs to work are served over the main domain.
 
Are you testing this on your front page, or to one of your post pages?

Because my front page has a score of about 96. But my post page has a score of about 79. Do you have any idea about this?

Anyway, thanks for this thread. I will try it in my other website.
The screenshots are on home page, but I'm getting ALMOST same results on post pages. Mobile is falling a bit more tho.
 
Cool guide but I don't get why you suggest to use webP format for the images. This format is NOT supported on Safari browsers. As you can see here Safari has 30% of the internet usage so you already loose 30% of your visitors https://www.stetic.com/market-share/browser/
 
Do we need add any settings in cloudflare?
Use the WPRocket option to automatically set whats best based on their research,
I disable the SLL from Cloudflare since I have SLL on the domain already.

Can you share the WP rocket settings?
Pretty much everything logical is checked. CDN is unchecked and I'm serving the webp's via imgify so I don't need that option checked in WPRocket.
 
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