Authority Hacker Podcast – AI & Automation for Small biz & Marketers #331 - Site Speed Nerd Roasts Our Site
17 snips
Feb 26, 2024 
Site speed expert Brian Jackson critiques the setup of the hosts' site and offers optimization tips. They discuss plugin impact on speed, best CDN setups, caching plugins to avoid, and JavaScript optimization strategies. The conversation covers balancing performance scores with user experience, optimizing with CDNs and APO, image optimization plugins, and maintaining branding while optimizing site speed.
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Prefer Host Edge Caching First
- If your host provides server/edge caching, use it instead of a full-featured caching plugin.
- Otherwise use well-supported caching plugins like WP Rocket, FlyingPress or WP Fastest Cache.
Never Combine Files On Modern Sites
- Stop combining CSS/JS files; HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 load many small files in parallel faster.
- Avoid the 'combine files' feature in optimization plugins because it often harms real load time.
Defer JS; Delay It Carefully
- Enable deferring JavaScript as a default to reduce render-blocking scripts.
- Use delay-JS selectively and set exclusions for critical scripts to avoid breaking interactive elements.