WordPress Performance Tweaks
| Author: | Rick Hoekman (profile at wordpress.org) |
| WordPress version required: | 6.0 |
| WordPress version tested: | 6.8.2 |
| Plugin version: | 0.7.3 |
| Added to WordPress repository: | 09-07-2022 |
| Last updated: | 19-09-2025 |
| Rating, %: | 100 |
| Rated by: | 3 |
| Plugin URI: | |
| Total downloads: | 1 980 |
| Active installs: | 30+ |
 Click to start download |
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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.
ChangeLog