Don’t be overwhelmed by the table below; most optimizations can be easily achieved with an optimization plugin. I personally use the free Speed Optimization plugin that comes bundled with SiteGround’s Hosting plan. However, there are several other options, including W3 Total Cache (W3TC), WP Rocket, and FlyingPress.
1. Visit GTmetrix: Enter your website’s URL to begin the test. GTmetrix offers this tool for free and allows multiple tests to be performed every hour, at no charge.
2. Review the Report: GTmetrix will quickly generate a performance report, pinpointing each area that requires improvement.
3. Consult our table below to address the specific areas highlighted by GTmetrix. While GTmetrix often uses complex terminology, overcomplicates its instructions, and provides guidance for a broad spectrum of websites, we’ve streamlined and tailored their recommendations specifically for WordPress sites. With our clear and straightforward guidelines, you’ll find it much easier to understand and implement the necessary changes.
4. Re-test After Implementing Changes: After making a change, clear your website’s cache if it’s enabled. Re-test on GTmetrix to assess the impact of your adjustments. Using the new results, move on to the next suggested improvement and continue the process.
wdt_ID | Topic | Difficulty Level | Topic2 | Difficulty Level2 |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Plugin | Plugin | ||
2 | Plugin | Plugin | ||
3 | Plugin | Plugin | ||
4 | Plugin | Medium | ||
5 | Plugin | Plugin | ||
6 | Difficult | Medium | ||
7 | Plugin | Easy | ||
8 | Easy | Plugin | ||
9 | Difficult | Plugin | ||
10 | Plugin | Plugin | ||
11 | Plugin | Plugin | ||
12 | Plugin | Plugin | ||
13 | Plugin | Medium | ||
14 | Plugin | Easy | ||
15 | Plugin | Medium | ||
16 | Easy |
Implementing this feature can be achieved by using an Optimization Plugin:
Turning on text compression lets you deliver more compact text-centric resources such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, which facilitates quicker file downloads.
As the size of these files increases, their download time also extends, resulting in longer wait times for your visitors to access the page content.How does your site score on this audit?
n essence, reducing the file sizes for text-related resources such as CSS, JavaScript, and HTML lessens the overall weight of your page, thus facilitating quicker downloads.
This acceleration in downloads enables your visitors to access and engage with the content more promptly.
Text compression mainly serves to decrease the file size or payload of text-based resources, resulting in a lower volume of data transfer.
A compressed text-based resource is delivered to your browser faster. There are 3 main types of compression algorithm:
• Gzip
• Brotli
• Deflate
Brotli and Gzip are the most commonly used compression algorithms and can reduce the size of resources/pages by up to 70%.
They have also been shown to reduce page load times by up to 50%, improving all the key metrics related to your Performance Score.
Copy and paste the following code into your .htaccess file:
<IfModule mod_deflate.c> # Compress HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Text, XML and fonts AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/vnd.ms-fontobject AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-opentype AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-otf AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-truetype AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-ttf AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE font/opentype AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE font/otf AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE font/ttf AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE image/svg+xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE image/x-icon AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/javascript AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml # Remove browser bugs (only needed for really old browsers) BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4 gzip-only-text/html BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4\.0[678] no-gzip BrowserMatch \bMSIE !no-gzip !gzip-only-text/html Header append Vary User-Agent </IfModule>
Read the following guides to learn how to enable text compression on other server types:
For WordPress users, the easiest way to enable Gzip compression is by leveraging a caching plugin that supports enabling Gzip.
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