If you’re reading this, you’re either racing to address issues on your website that you’ve been ignoring, or you’re seeking methods to improve the work you’ve done to guarantee that your website meets the Page Speed Insights standards.
So, consider the following fast and easy hacks.
Hack No. 1: Cloud Flare
Many people are unaware that Cloud Flare provides a free service that includes several performance improvements. After activating Cloud Flare’s free subscription and using the performance optimization components, some websites achieved a Page Speed Insights score of 65. Not bad for approximately 20 minutes of labor, including account creation. The speed was enhanced further after subscribing to Pro ($20/month) and adjusting. The following options can be enabled:
- Polish Image Optimization
- Mirage
Hack No. 2: Hummingbird
No, we’re not referring to the Google Algorithm of 2013, but rather to a WordPress plugin.
We examined a number of different speed and caching plugins, and each seemed to perform better in certain conditions than others. But, in our experience, Hummingbird appears to be the most consistent provided you have a reliable hosting provider.
We prefer Hummingbird since it is more than simply a caching plugin. We also enjoy how Hummingbird can be linked to Cloud Flare to make changes to settings remotely. You may need to experiment to determine which items to move inline and which would break functionalities on your site if handled wrong.
We reduced and moved all of the CSS and JS to the bottom. This isn’t viable for everyone, and many sites crash when you disable jQuery since many sliders and other components require it to load before they do.
Some websites received a score of 55 or above, which is a big win. The general rule of thumb is to keep it about 60 at all times. This allows for some mistakes or degradation without bringing it below the 50 “bad” standards.
Hack No. 3 Asset Cleanup
Another quick fix source is the WordPress plugin Asset Cleanup.
The plugin’s primary role is to allow site owners to prevent scripts from loading on specified pages or groups of sites. A good example is social sharing plugins. We utilize them on our blog, but they appear throughout the site. Some scripts may be obvious whether you need them or not (a contact form on a page grouping, for example), while others may not be obvious but should be tested (do you really need your slider plugin on every page?).
If you’re in development or testing mode, you might wish to disable them altogether and then enable them one by one, evaluating functioning along the way. After around 20 or 30 minutes, some sites had speeds of 65 or higher.
Conclusion
When any two of these principles are mixed, the scores and real-world timings may suffer. This is surprising because Cloud Flare and Asset Cleanup should have worked nicely together. If you’re testing each, we recommend trying other combinations, as well as additional plugins if you have the time and motivation.