Make sure only fonts you use are loading To keep your site fast, make sure you’re only loading the fonts
Make sure only fonts you use are loading
To keep your site fast, make sure you’re only loading the fonts you actually use. Have you ever seen a high LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) on a heading or paragraph in the above-the-fold section? Unnecessary fonts could be the hidden culprit, delaying that first impactful content from appearing quickly. Streamline your fonts, and you’ll likely see faster load times.
Use Perfmatters Script Manager to disable unnecessary scripts and styles
Plugins often load scripts and styles across your entire site, even on pages where they’re not needed.
For example, a contact form plugin might load its files on product pages, and a gallery plugin might add scripts to pages without any galleries. Each of these extras increases the number of requests your site has to handle, which may not seem like much at first, but it affects critical performance metrics.
This is where Perfmatters Script Manager comes in. It gives you a clear view of all the scripts and styles running on each page. From there, you can disable the ones that don’t belong—either everywhere or only on specific pages or post types.
Contact form scripts loading on your homepage? Turn them off.
Gallery scripts slowing down your checkout page? Disable them.
To do this with Perfmatters Script Manager, start by navigating to any page on your site while logged in. In the admin bar at the top of the page, you’ll see an option labeled “Script Manager”. Click it, and you’ll get a list of all the scripts and styles currently loading on that specific page.
Review the list carefully. Each script will show the plugin or source it’s associated with, making it easier to identify what’s necessary and what’s not. To disable a script or style, simply toggle it off for that page, or choose to disable it globally if it’s not needed anywhere on your site.
It’s important to be cautious. Some scripts are essential for functionality, and turning them off could break parts of your site. That’s why it’s best to test all changes on a staging site first. After disabling a script, visit the page and check that everything still works as expected.
By removing what’s not needed, your pages load faster and work more efficiently.
It’s a small change that has a big impact, especially on crucial pages where your ads drive traffic.
Turn off plugin analytics to cut unnecessary requests
Did you know that many plugins come with built-in analytics that can slow down your website? While these analytics might seem helpful, they often send extra requests to external servers. Each of these requests adds a little weight to your site, making it take longer to load. When you’ve got multiple plugins doing this, it can really add up and drag down your site’s performance.
Most of the time, you don’t even need these built-in analytics.
They’re collecting data in the background, even if you’re not actively looking at it, and they don’t really add value to your visitors.
For example, if your form plugin, social sharing plugin, and SEO plugin all have analytics enabled, that’s three sets of extra requests your site is making—requests your users don’t care about but still have to wait for.
The good news is you can turn off these analytics features in most plugins.
To disable plugin analytics, look for an option in the plugin’s settings, often under “Tracking” or “Advanced,” and simply toggle it off.
If you still need analytics, there’s a better way to manage them: use Google Tag Manager (GTM). GTM lets you handle all your tracking scripts in one place.
Making this small change can have a big impact.
Keep autoload data under 800KB for peak performance
Autoload data plays a big role in how fast your website runs. This data is loaded into memory every time someone visits your site, so if it gets bloated, it can slow down both the frontend (what visitors see) and the backend (your admin dashboard). Ideally, autoload data should stay under 800KB. When it exceeds that, your database can become sluggish, which affects overall site performance.
Autoload data can get bloated when plugins and themes add unnecessary options to the database. Even when you delete or deactivate plugins, their leftover data may still load on every page, adding to the clutter. Cleaning up this autoload data can make your site more responsive and faster.
Here’s how you can check your autoload data size, clean it up safely, and prevent it from getting bloated in the future:
Step 1: check your autoload data size
Using advanced database cleaner (beginner-friendly)
- Install the Advanced Database Cleaner plugin from the WordPress plugin repository.
- Go to tools > advanced db cleaner in your WordPress dashboard.
- Navigate to the “autoloaded data” section.
- You’ll see a list of all autoloaded entries in your database, along with their sizes. Look for entries that are unusually large or associated with plugins/themes you no longer use.
Using phpmyadmin (for advanced users)
- Log in to your hosting control panel and open phpmyadmin.
- Select your WordPress database from the left-hand menu.
- Run this SQL query to check the total size of autoloaded data:
SELECT SUM(LENGTH(option_value)) as autoload_size FROM wp_options WHERE autoload = 'yes';- Replace
wp_optionswith the correct table name if your database uses a custom prefix. - If the result is larger than 800KB, you need to investigate further.
To see individual autoloaded entries:
SELECT option_name, LENGTH(option_value) AS size FROM wp_options WHERE autoload = 'yes' ORDER BY size DESC;This will list all autoloaded entries in descending order by size. Focus on the largest ones for cleanup.
Sliders in the above-the-fold section are a bad idea
Sliders in the above-the-fold section might seem like a great way to showcase multiple pieces of content, but they come with significant drawbacks.
They’re resource-heavy, relying on large images, animations, and scripts that slow down your site’s load time. This is especially problematic for the above-the-fold area, which is crucial for creating a good first impression and keeping users engaged.
Sliders also hurt key performance metrics like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), as the browser needs to load multiple images and scripts before displaying the content.
On mobile, this problem gets worse—sliders take up valuable space and can make navigation frustrating. Most users don’t interact with all the slides anyway, making them an inefficient use of such a critical section.
Instead of sliders, faster-loading alternatives like a static hero image or a clear call-to-action can grab attention without slowing down your site. This not only improves user experience but also helps with SEO and performance metrics.
To sum it up, sliders often fail to add meaningful value for users while clearly harming the speed and performance of your site.
