BACK TO DIRECTORY

Performance Tweaks

by Rick Hoekman

5.0
(3 ratings)

Simple but effective performance tweaks for WordPress—now with a polished, tabbed settings UI.

Features are grouped like your workflow: Scripts & Assets, Network, Security, Performance & Admin, and Database.

Scripts & Assets

  • Contact Form 7 Smart Loader — Only loads CF7 assets on pages with a form.
  • CF7 reCAPTCHA Smart Loader — Dequeues reCAPTCHA when no CF7 form is present.
  • Disable Advanced Custom Fields on Frontend — Stops ACF assets from loading on the frontend.
  • Emoji Unloader — Removes Emoji CSS and JavaScript.
  • Defer JavaScript — Adds defer attribute to eligible scripts.
  • Async JavaScript — Adds async attribute to eligible scripts.
  • Async/Defer Exclude Handles — A textarea to exclude script handles from async/defer.
  • Remove Query Strings — Strips ?ver= from CSS/JS URLs to improve CDN caching.
  • Block CSS Smart Loader (classic themes) — Dequeues block CSS on singular pages without blocks.
  • Separate Core Block CSS (WP 5.8+) — Opt-in to load only the CSS for blocks used on the page.
  • Disable Dashicons for Visitors — Removes dashicons for non-logged-in users.
  • Disable jQuery Migrate (frontend) — Drops jquery-migrate from frontend dependencies.
  • Boost Hero Image (fetchpriority) — Adds fetchpriority=”high” to the first content image on singular pages.
  • Lazy‑load iframes in Content — Ensures iframes in post content use loading=”lazy”.
  • WooCommerce Smart Loader — Loads WC CSS/JS only on WooCommerce pages (shop, product, cart, checkout, account).

Network

  • DNS Single Post Prefetch — Prefetch homepage on singular pages to speed return navigation (HTTP/2).
  • Resource Hints Hosts — Add domains for dns-prefetch and preconnect (one per line).
  • Google Fonts Preconnect — Adds preconnect hints for fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com.

Security

  • Disable XML-RPC — Blocks the XML-RPC endpoint unless you need it.
  • Disable WP Embeds / oEmbed — Removes discovery links and wp-embed script.
  • Head Cleanup — Removes RSD, WLW, generator, shortlink, and extra feed links.

Performance & Admin

  • Disable WordPress Heartbeat (Frontend) — Keep editor autosave, reduce frontend pings.
  • Heartbeat Interval — Set between 15–120 seconds.
  • WP‑Cron Guidance — Advisory copy to move cron to a real system cron.

Database

  • Limit Post Revisions — Define WP_POST_REVISIONS to 5.
  • Autosave Interval (advisory) — Suggest a wp-config constant.
  • Empty Trash Days (advisory) — Suggest a wp-config constant.

UI/UX

  • Tabbed settings with keyboard navigation and ARIA roles.
  • Card layout, helpful tooltips, and consistent spacing.
  • Sticky save bar with “unsaved changes” hint.
  • “Reset all settings” link (with nonce) to clear options without uninstalling.

Plugin Details

Active Installs
20
Total Downloads
2,277
Version
0.7.3
Requires WP
6.0
Requires PHP
8.0
Tested Up To
6.8.8
Added
2022-07-09
Last Updated
2025-09-19 3:48pm GMT

Ratings

5
3
4
0
3
0
2
0
1
0