How do you optimize the speed and performance of your WordPress site? The right plugins make this a breeze. And to find the best plugins for the job, we turned to the experts, who already use these plugins on their own sites.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
We asked marketers and site managers about their favorite speed-improving plugin:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
- \r\n
- Do marketers recommend the free or premium version of the plugin?<\/strong>\u00a0(If multiple people recommend the plugin, and there are both free and premium versions available, we let you know which the majority recommended.)<\/li>\r\n
- Why do they use the plugin?<\/strong><\/li>\r\n
- What notable features does the plugin have?<\/strong><\/li>\r\n
- What sets the plugin apart from its competitors?<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Check out what plugins the experts pick to boost their speed and performance, so your pages will be ready for the Google update and beyond.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Autoptimize<\/a><\/h2>\r\n
![\"Autoptimize\"](\"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Autoptimize.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nContributed by:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
- \r\n
- Solomon Thimothy, ClickX<\/a><\/li>\r\n
- Chris Davis, Tiny Ships<\/a><\/li>\r\n
- Jack Shepler, Ayokay<\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Free or premium? <\/strong>Free and premium versions available<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Why do you use this plugin? <\/strong>\u201cIt’s the perfect plugin for optimizing several background third-party scripts and additional CSS for maximized efficiency. It prevents these scripts from dangerously adding up and detrimentally slowing down the site. The best part about this plugin is it’s a one-time configuration tool that significantly simplifies the abundance of moving parts in my WordPress site.\u201d\u2013Solomon Thimothy, ClickX<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What notable features does it have? <\/strong>“Autoptimize simplifies the website optimization process by automatically handling several best practices for frontend assets. It combines, minimizes, and defers CSS and Javascript, helps offload fonts, and preload critical resources. it also helps remove some of the unnecessary bloat that ships with WordPress by default, such as emoji styles. This is all done through a simple, point-and-click interface, and the results are immediate. For most websites, there’s no need to involve a developer.” \u2013Chris Davis, Tiny Ships<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\u201cI love that it also does image optimization, including serving up the images in the more lightweight WebP format.\u201d \u2013Jack Shepler, Ayokay<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What sets it apart from similar plugins? <\/strong>\u201cIt offers database cleanup, heartbeat control, and CDN integration for free \u2013 you usually only see this in paid plugins. It takes care of caching, lazy-loading images, and overall improves site speed. It basically does a lot of the same stuff as WP Rocket, except it’s free to use.\u201d \u2013Jack Shepler, Ayokay<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\u201cAutoptimize is one of the few plugins that takes the time to support popular WordPress cloud hosts, like Pantheon and WPEngine. Most optimization plugins need to create minified files, but several hosts don’t support this (for security reasons) without particular steps being taken. Since Autoptimize has considered this, it’s usable in situations where other optimization plugins aren’t.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\u201cAlso, Autoptimize focuses on frontend assets only, and integrates with other plugins and services that do an excellent job of the other facets of optimization (such as Shortpixel for image optimization).” \u00a0\u2013Chris Davis, Tiny Ships<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Cloudflare Advanced Platform Optimization<\/a><\/h2>\r\n
![\"Cloudflare\"](\"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Cloudflare-Advance-Platform-Optimization.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nContributed by Lee Dobson, Bulldog Digital Media<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Free or premium? <\/strong>Premium<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Why do you use this plugin? <\/strong>\u201cThe plugin provides platform optimization for WordPress to improve page speed.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What notable features does it have? <\/strong>\u201cWith our testing of Cloudflare’s Automatic Platform Optimization for WordPress, we’ve seen page load speed reduced by over 70% in some cases. Impressive stuff.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What sets it apart from similar plugins? <\/strong>That the optimization is automated for the platform \u2013 no tweaking settings for hours. A simple on-switch out of the box and you feel the improvements instantly.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Imagify<\/a><\/h2>\r\n
![\"Imagify\"](\"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Imagify.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nContributed by Sarah Blocksidge, Sixth City Marketing<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Free or premium? <\/strong>Free<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Why do you use this plugin? <\/strong>\u201cWith site speed being more important now than ever, Imagify helps convert images into WebP and helps reduce file size, which can be hard to do manually.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What notable features does it have? <\/strong>\u201cIt is free to start, and you get a decent amount of storage before you would need to upgrade. So it’s great for smaller sites or for identifying select images that are slowing down your site the most.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What sets it apart from similar plugins? <\/strong>\u201cYou have three different levels you can choose to optimize to, and can see how much the file has been reduced, which puts things into a better perspective.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Jetpack<\/a><\/h2>\r\n
![\"jetpack\"](\"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Jetpack.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nContributed by Eva Lerma, My Travel Tripod<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Free or premium? <\/strong>Free<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Why do you use this plugin? <\/strong>\u201cSome of the major tasks Jetpack helps to accomplish include the ability to track the number of people visiting your website and the pages that they visit. Furthermore, Jetpack also enables the business to upload and display high-resolution images or videos without slowing down the website, which can cause users to deviate from your estore or cause cart abandonment rate to increase.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What notable features does it have? <\/strong>\u201cMy favorite feature of the plugin is a content delivery network which enables businesses to upload high-resolution, professional images<\/a> and videos without slowing down the website. Other tasks Jetpack allows its users to accomplish include:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
- \r\n
- Login protection<\/li>\r\n
- Social sharing<\/li>\r\n
- Access to free themes<\/li>\r\n
- Customization of designs<\/li>\r\n
- Email subscriptions.\u201d<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What sets it apart from similar plugins? <\/strong>\u201cThe one unique thing about Jetpack is all its core features are available for free for businesses, whether WordPress hosted or self-hosted websites. All core features, such as site stats, high-speed content delivery network, downtime monitoring, and more are all available for free to users.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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ManageWP<\/a><\/h2>\r\n
![\"ManageWP\"](\"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/ManageWP.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nContributed by Nikki Takahashi, Fetching Finn Inc.<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Free or premium? <\/strong>Premium<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Why do you use this plugin? <\/strong>\u201cWebsite updates and monitoring: backups, uptime, SEO ranking, security checks, performance checks, and links. It offers white labelling and reporting.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What notable features does it have? <\/strong>\u201cNo matter how many sites we add or how many features we activate, the monthly rate is capped at an affordable bundle price of $135\/month. We’re confidently monitoring and updating over 40 websites daily. That’s excellent value!\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What sets it apart from similar plugins? <\/strong>\u201cThe white label feature allows us to customize the name of the plugin in a client’s dashboard to appear as if it’s software under our own company brand. It looks professional and specialized.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Nitropack<\/a><\/h2>\r\n
![\"NitroPack\"](\"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/NitroPack.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nContributed by:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
- \r\n
- Charles Vallena, Cuppabean<\/a><\/li>\r\n
- Darren McManus, google-analytics.ie<\/a><\/li>\r\n
- Angela Wills, Savvy Homemade<\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Free or premium? <\/strong>Premium<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Why do you use this plugin? <\/strong>\u201cIt makes the site incredibly fast in just one click of a button. My Google Pagespeed Score improved from around 18 to 83. Speed is really important, especially with the Core Web Vitals update coming in June-August 2021.\u201d \u2013Charles Vallena, Cuppabean<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
“As an SEO, I am always concerned with the performance of pages on my own and my client sites. With Google releasing a core algorithm update which focuses on page experience (Core Web Vitals in June-August of 2021), this is going to be even more pressing. Core Web Vitals are a set of metrics related to loading speed (Largest Contentful Paint), page responsiveness (First Input Delay) and visual stability (Cumulative Layout Shift) which help site owners (and Google’s algorithm) to measure user experience on their websites.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\u201cObviously, a plugin alone is not a long term solution to fixing page performance issues. However, in the short term, Nitropack offers a way to improve your scores for all three of these Core Web Vitals metrics and your overall Google PageSpeed Insights score. By adding NitroPack to your WordPress site, you will benefit from a range of optimizations, including lazy loading of images, implementation of CloudFront CDN, JavaScript compression, and CSS minification.” \u2013Darren McManus, google-analytics.ie<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What notable features does it have? <\/strong>\u201cThe optimization modes. You can choose from Standard, Medium, Strong, Ludicrous, and Manual, which is very handy since I can adjust according to how I want the plugin to behave on the site.\u201d\u2013Charles Vallena, Cuppabean<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\u201cI really like how you get to choose how aggressive NitroPack is in terms of speeding up your page. It gives you total control over site speed.\u201d \u2013Angela Wills, Savvy Homemade<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\u201cOne very common issue I see on sites is pages with over 1 MB combined image size, where images of a fraction of that size would suffice. To download, optimize, and re-upload a large number of images can be a really laborious task. NitroPack does it all for you and even converts them to WebP format for browsers that support it.\u201d\u2013Darren McManus, google-analytics.ie<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What sets it apart from similar plugins? <\/strong>\u201cFlexibility. There are a lot of options available to tweak from the plugin settings, which makes this a really powerful caching plugin.\u201d\u2013Charles Vallena, Cuppabean<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\u201cThe Excluded Cookies feature is one I’ve not seen in any similar plugins. I really like how this feature lets you customize the user experience on your site.\u201d \u00a0\u2013Angela Wills, Savvy Homemade<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\u201cThe lazy loading of images can be defined via CSS files, which other similar tools do not do (to the best of my knowledge).\u201d \u2013Darren McManus, google-analytics.ie<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Optimole<\/a><\/h2>\r\n
![\"Optimole\"](\"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Optimole.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nContributed by Ben Sibley, Compete Themes<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Free or premium? <\/strong>Free<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Why do you use this plugin? <\/strong>\u201cOptimole is an image optimization plugin that immediately improves your site’s performance. Most notably, it offers responsive image scaling. \u00a0Loading scaled images can greatly improve performance, and this automated system completely removes the need to manually resize the images yourself.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What notable features does it have? <\/strong>\u201cOptimole can lazy-load your images and compress them, so they load faster. It resizes images automatically with responsive image scaling. In addition, it allows you to keep original, unedited copies of every image in your Media Library.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What sets it apart from similar plugins? <\/strong>\u201cThe responsive image scaling is what makes Optimole superior to other plugins. Unlike other image optimization plugins that only compress your images, Optimole also serves visitors your images scaled to the perfect size, which greatly improves performance.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\u201cFor example, if someone visits your site on a laptop and your post images display at 800px wide, Optimole serves them your images optimized at that exact size. If someone else visits on a mobile device and the images are only 400px wide, Optimole delivers images of that exact size to that visitor as well.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Perfmatters<\/a><\/h2>\r\n
![\"Perfmatters\"](\"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Perfmatters.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nContributed by Nat Miletic, Clio Websites<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Free or premium? <\/strong>Premium<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Why do you use this plugin? <\/strong>\u201cPerfmatters helps the performance of a website and can also replace several other plugins. It has many useful features to help improve the load times and speed of a website. It’s a must-have for any website owners who are interested in making improvements from a performance perspective.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What notable features does it have? <\/strong>\u201cThe Script Manager feature lets you see all of the JavaScript and CSS files loaded on the website and on individual pages. Scripts and CSS files can be blocked across an entire website or on an individual page, increasing the overall speed of the website.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What sets it apart from similar plugins? <\/strong>\u201cPerfmatters can replace several plugins you may already be using. It has the ability to insert header and footer code, lazy-load images and YouTube videos, and hide the WordPress admin login URLs. As an agency, we used to install several plugins to accomplish this, but now, we have replaced many of these features with Perfmatters.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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ShortPixel Adaptive Images<\/a><\/h2>\r\n
![\"ShortPixel](\"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/ShortPixel-Adaptive-Images.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nContributed by Rebecca Vandijk, Becky Van Dijk<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Free or premium? <\/strong>Free<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Why do you use this plugin? <\/strong>\u201cWebsite speed is essential to having a site that ranks well, and one of the easiest ways to increase your speed is by optimizing your images. I use the ShortPixel Adaptive Images plugin on all of my websites because it automatically resizes images to the proper size as well as compresses them for a super fast website!\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What notable features does it have? <\/strong>\u201cI love how the plugin automatically resizes images to the correct size based on the user’s device and converts the photo to next-generation formats like WebP.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What sets it apart from similar plugins? <\/strong>\u201cShortPixel Adaptive Images automatically serves your images from their own CDN, reducing the usage of your own server which allows the rest of your website to run quickly.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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ShortPixel Image Optimizer<\/a><\/h2>\r\n
![\"ShortPixel\"](\"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/ShortPixel-Image-Optimizer.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nContributed by:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
- \r\n
- Alek Asaduryan, YesCycling<\/a><\/li>\r\n
- Devan Cameron, Braised & Deglazed<\/a><\/li>\r\n
- Thomas Rhodes, Exam Strategist<\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Free or premium? <\/strong>Free and premium options available<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Why do you use this plugin? <\/strong>\u201cShortPixel improves website performance by resizing and compressing all your images. It serves all your compressed and resized images from a CDN. It’s hands down the easiest and cheapest way to speed up your website.\u201d \u2013Alek Asaduryan, YesCycling<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\u201cI run a site with tons of large, high-res photos that really slow down my site. With the paid ShortPixel plugin, all my images are automatically compressed and this increased my Google page speed from 75 to 95!\u201d \u2013Devan Cameron, Braised & Deglazed<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What notable features does it have? <\/strong>\u201cWhen ShortPixel optimizes your site\u2019s images, it typically reduces the file size by 70\u201390% while also retaining image quality. After using ShortPixel, we\u2019ve increased our speed metrics by two to three times, which we\u2019ve noticed has fed into our recent ranking improvements.\u201d \u2013Thomas Rhodes, Exam Strategist<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What sets it apart from similar plugins? <\/strong>\u201cShortPixel optimizes and reduces file size at a level that is 25% greater than its closest competitors.\u201d \u2013Thomas Rhodes, Exam Strategist<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\u201cYou can choose between three compression levels: lossy, glossy. and lossless. And the free version is more than enough for most bloggers.\u201d \u2013Alek Asaduryan, YesCycling<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Smush<\/a><\/h2>\r\n
![\"WP](\"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/WP-Smush.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nContributed by:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
- \r\n
- Muneer Mian, Beaufort Associates<\/a><\/li>\r\n
- Thomas Mlodzki, photoAiD<\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Free or premium? <\/strong>Free<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Why do you use this plugin? <\/strong>\u201cSmush can help optimize the images on your website, and it\u2019s the easiest way to make your site load faster. It scales down large images and compresses them for quicker rendering when a web page opens, and cuts out unnecessary data from images for faster loading. A fast page loading speed can make an enormous difference if you want to increase conversions, especially when it comes to mobile browsing.\u201d \u2013Muneer Mian, Beaufort Associates<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What notable features does it have? <\/strong>\u201cThe best thing about this plugin is Lossless Compression. It strips unused data and reduces file size, preserving image quality.\u201d\u2013Muneer Mian, Beaufort Associates<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\u201cWP Smush compresses the images on your site in the best possible way, so as not to lose image quality. With the smaller file sizes, your site’s data storage opens way up as a result, and it allows for significantly less loading times.\u201d \u2013Thomas Mlodzki, photoAiD<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What sets it apart from similar plugins? <\/strong>\u201cA unique feature of this plugin that differentiates it from other similar tools is Bulk Smush. It automatically detects images that can be optimized and allows you to optimize and compress them in bulk \u2013 up to 50 images with one click. It\u2019s much quicker and easier than doing it manually.\u201d \u2013Muneer Mian, Beaufort Associates<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\u201cMost other photo compressing plugins cost money. WP Smush is available in both free and premium versions, but I’ve never needed to upgrade to the premium version to get what I need done.\u201d \u2013Thomas Mlodzki, photoAiD<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Tasty Pins By WP Tasty<\/a><\/h2>\r\n
![\"Tasty](\"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Tasty-Pins.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nContributed by Ami Defesche, Geeks Who Get Paid <\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Free or premium? <\/strong>Premium<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Why do you use this plugin? <\/strong>“It allows you to upload \u2018hidden\u2019 Pinterest pin images and even forces people to use them instead of other images from your posts when they pin anything to Pinterest. That way, you know the pins going out are always optimized and look their best. It allows you to set default titles and descriptions too.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\u201cYou get the added bonus of not having to load a bunch of large, slow images into your post for people to be able to use them. They just show up when the reader is ready to create a pin.”<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What notable features does it have? <\/strong>\u201cYou can provide pin images without having to bog down every page with multiple large pin images. It helps site speed immensely.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What sets it apart from similar plugins? <\/strong>\u201cThe ability to have hidden pins images without knowing how to do it in the code for the post.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Uncanny Automator<\/a><\/h2>\r\n
![\"Uncanny](\"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Uncanny-Automator.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nContributed by Valentina Lopez, Happinesswithout.com<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Free or premium? <\/strong>Free<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Why do you use this plugin? <\/strong>\u201cUncanny Automator connects your existing WordPress Plugins to each other and allows you to automate tasks in a routine. You can connect some of the most popular Plugins without needing the services of a developer.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What notable features does it have? <\/strong>\u201cWithout any code, you can assign \u2018if this, then that\u2019 algorithms to achieve your desired routine. This makes using WordPress so easy, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. It can also be used to connect two different WordPress sites to achieve a preferred outcome.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What sets it apart from similar plugins? <\/strong>\u201cIt doesn’t require any kind of coding. It’s very easy to learn and get used to.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
WP Super Cache<\/a><\/h2>\r\n
![\"WP](\"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Wp-Super-Cache.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nContributed by Alina Clark, Cocodoc<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Free or premium? <\/strong>Free<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Why do you use this plugin? <\/strong>\u201cWP Super Cache pretty much changed the way our website runs. A slow website is the perfect disastrous recipe for high bounceback and low traffic. We suffered from that in the beginning. After installing the plugin, our site speeds shot up and load times reduced. The bounceback due to slow loading was also reduced.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What notable features does it have? <\/strong>“It’s ridiculously easy to set up and use. You don’t have to be a WordPress geek to handle it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What sets it apart from similar plugins? <\/strong>\u201cUnlike other speed plugins, the WP Supercache works by creating static pages for the site. This means a return visitor to the site will go into the static page, instead of having to go through the whole PHP process.”<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
WP Rocket<\/a><\/h2>\r\n
![\"WP](\"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/WP-Rocket.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nContributed by:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
- \r\n
- Devin Ahern, Mid-Florida Material Handling <\/a><\/li>\r\n
- Rachael Waine,\u00a0OnQ Marketing <\/a><\/li>\r\n
- Matthew Brown, Sleep Authorities<\/a><\/li>\r\n
- Kenneth Byrd, Curl Centric<\/a><\/li>\r\n
- Aaron Williams, The Website Flip<\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Free or premium? <\/strong>Premium<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Why do you use this plugin? <\/strong>\u201cWP Rocket is the best speed\/performance plugin I’ve used. It takes all of the most common performance enhancing tools and combines them into one easy-to-use plugin.\u201d \u2013Devin Ahern, Mid-Florida Material Handling<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\u201cWP Rocket helps users increase the speed of their website, which helps to improve site performance. Users who need to wait more than three seconds for their webpage to load are proven to bounce from a website \u2013 and are less likely to return. This makes it extremely important to have a fast-loading website that\u2019s easy and doesn’t require coding (especially when working for an agency). The plugin\u2019s cache pre-loading and browser caching allows for smooth-running websites with fast load times.\u201d \u2013Rachael Waine, OnQ Marketing<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\u201cWP Rocket is a caching plugin that helps improve site speed. This means that I give site visitors a better user experience and I’m ready for Google’s upcoming algorithm update (June-August 2021) when page speed becomes a ranking factor.\u201d \u2013Matthew Brown, Sleep Authorities<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\u201cI use WP Rocket to improve user experience on my website. My site loads quicker, which is great for user experience and helping me meet Google’s upcoming page speed requirements. Hands down, this is my favorite caching plugin I’ve used on my site.\u201d \u2013Kenneth Byrd, Curl Centric<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What notable features does it have? <\/strong>\u201cI love the media optimization feature which lets me lazy-load images and videos across my site. This feature alone helps improve the speed of a site when it’s image heavy or full of YouTube embeds.\u201d \u2013Aaron Williams, The Website Flip<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\u201cMy favorite feature is the aggressive file optimization offered by WPRocket. Utilizing the minify CSS and minify JS tools, I saw ~20% increase in my Pagespeed Insights score, both for desktop and mobile. If you’re not a seasoned web developer capable of editing your site’s code on your own, you need this feature.\u201d \u2013Devin Ahern, Mid-Florida Material Handling<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\u201cThe ability to add multiple websites under one license makes managing multiple sites easy. Each website under the license will be updated and in accordance with best practices for website performance. Not only does this save you time when managing many accounts, it also ensures your client’s customers are getting the best UX experience possible.\u201d\u2013Rachael Waine, OnQ Marketing<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\u201cI love how well WP Rocket integrates with other plugins and services. I integrate it with Cloudflare and Imagify so I get even more benefits from WP Rocket’s speed improvement.\u201d\u2013Matthew Brown, Sleep Authorities<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What sets it apart from similar plugins? <\/strong>\u201cI think WP Rocket’s separate cache for mobile visitors is a feature that sets it apart. It’s an awesome feature if you need to serve your mobile visitors with a different experience than your desktop visitors.\u201d \u00a0\u2013Aaron Williams, The Website Flip<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\u201cI don’t think other caching plugins offer the preload and sitemap preload feature that is part of WP Rocket. This means my site’s pages load even faster compared to similar plugins.\u201d \u2013Kenneth Byrd, Curl Centric<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\u201cFixing image dimensions is a feature I haven’t seen in many other performance improvement plugins. This tool leads to a direct decrease in CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) which is one of Google’s Core Web Vitals.\u201d \u2013Devin Ahern, Mid-Florida Material Handling<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
“WP Rocket purely specializes in increasing the speed of websites. Others will try to include this in their coding, but it’s not their sole purpose, so they don’t do it thoroughly. With the next released page experience update by Google (in June-August 2021), it’s expected that speed is going to play a more pivotal role than it already does, so this shift is going to make this tool more valuable.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\u201cFaster sites rank better in terms of SEO, which leads to more visitors and higher conversion rates. Other plugins don’t put as much thought and care into their code or are infrequently updated. Having one dedicated speed plugin means you really will reduce load time on your websites.” \u2013Rachael Waine, OnQ Marketing<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\u201cI’ve used a few other caching plugins, but I don’t think any similar plugins have all of the integration options I get with WP Rocket.\u201d\u2013Matthew Brown, Sleep Authorities<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Wrapping up<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Speed and performance are key to keeping people on your WordPress site. Keep your bounce rate low, and get your site ready for the Google Core Web Vitals update, with these speedy plugins.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Get help with a free plugin or spring for a premium option with more features.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
If you\u2019re looking for a WordPress plugin to help with another task, don\u2019t miss these four other lists based on expert recommendations:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
- \r\n
- SEO and analytics plugins<\/a><\/li>\r\n
- Conversion rate optimization plugins<\/a><\/li>\r\n
- Page building and design plugins<\/a><\/li>\r\n
- Plugins to aid content creators<\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Find the best WordPress plugins focused on optimizing speed and performance, and get your website ready for the Google Core Web Vitals update and beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":22142,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2579,5844,2585],"tags":[4396,5839],"class_list":["post-22139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marketing","category-roundups","category-software-tools","tag-roundup","tag-wordpress-plugins"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"Megan Mosley","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22139"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26759,"href":"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22139\/revisions\/26759"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- Conversion rate optimization plugins<\/a><\/li>\r\n
- Rachael Waine,\u00a0OnQ Marketing <\/a><\/li>\r\n
- Thomas Mlodzki, photoAiD<\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
- Devan Cameron, Braised & Deglazed<\/a><\/li>\r\n
- Darren McManus, google-analytics.ie<\/a><\/li>\r\n
- Charles Vallena, Cuppabean<\/a><\/li>\r\n
- Chris Davis, Tiny Ships<\/a><\/li>\r\n
- Why do they use the plugin?<\/strong><\/li>\r\n