Essential WordPress plugins for building fast loading optimized websites.
WordPress Plugins to improve page performance, theme development and debugging
Autoptimize
Autoptimize makes optimizing your site really easy. It can aggregate, minify and cache scripts and styles, injects CSS in the page head by default (but can also defer), moves and defers scripts to the footer and minifies HTML. The “Extra” options allow you to optimize Google Fonts and images, async non-aggregated JavaScript, remove WordPress core emoji cruft and more. As such it can improve your site’s performance even when already on HTTP/2! There is extensive API available to enable you to tailor Autoptimize to each and every site’s specific needs.
Every site is different and Autoptimize does take a little tinkering to get the settings right. My suggestion is to make 1 change then check for js errors.
Smush Image Compression and Optimization
Resize, optimize, optimize and compress all of your images with the incredibly powerful and 100% free WordPress image smusher, brought to you by the superteam at WPMU DEV! *it is best to upload this before theme customization and set it to automatically smush all images on upload.
Asset CleanUp: Page Speed Booster
Asset Clean up scans your pages and detects all the assets that are being loaded and easily allows the exclusion of scripts on a page per page basis.
This plugin is good for 2 different uses, one if you do not have a custom-built WordPress theme and not able to properly wp dequeue scripts via PHP then you can easily exclude scripts and style sheets on a page per page basis. This way scripts that run the slideshow on the home page do not load on pages that are not using those scripts.
The second use is for developers and helps to easily determine the handles of all the scripts being loaded on each page. Now simply dequeued scripts and styles using is_page() conditional statements in your functions.php file.
WP-Optimize
WP-Optimize is an effective tool for automatically cleaning your WordPress database so that it runs at maximum efficiency.
MAJOR FEATURES
- Removes all unnecessary data (e.g. trashed/unapproved/spam comments, stale data) plus pingbacks, trackbacks and expired transient options
- Compact/de-fragment MySQL tables with a button-press
- Compress (“smush”) images (existing images and automatically on new ones)
- Detailed control of which optimizations you wish to carry out
- Carries out automatic weekly (or otherwise) clean-ups
- Retains a set number of weeks’ data during clean-ups
- Performs optimizations without the need for running manual queries
- Automatically trigger a pre-optimize backup via UpdraftPlus
- Show database statistics and potential savings
- Mobile friendly and easy-to-use
- Translated into several languages
- More planned!
Async JavaScript
Eliminate Render-blocking Javascript in above-the-fold content with Async Javascript.
Render-blocking Javascript prevents above-the-fold content on your page from being rendered until the javascript has finished loading. This can impact on your page speed and ultimately your ranking within search engines. It can also impact your user’s experience.
Async JavaScript gives you full control of which scripts to add an ‘async’ or ‘defer’ attribute to or to exclude to help increase the performance of your WordPress website.
BJ Lazy Load
Lazy loading makes your site load faster and saves bandwidth.
This plugin replaces all your post images, post thumbnails, gravatar images and content iframes with a placeholder and loads the content as it gets close to enter the browser window when the visitor scrolls the page. Lazy loading and easily be added with just a few lines of code as well see this post lazy load Script see post
Query Monitor
Query Monitor is the developer tools panel for WordPress. It enables debugging of database queries, PHP errors, hooks and actions, block editor blocks, enqueued scripts and stylesheets, HTTP API calls, and more.
Learn more
GT Metrix Image Optimization Losslessly compressing
WordPress Development & Debugging Plugins
Child Theme Wizard
Quickly and easily create child themes and avoid theme customizations from being overwritten when updating themes.
Query Monitor
Query Monitor is the developer tools panel for WordPress. It enables debugging of database queries, PHP errors, hooks and actions, block editor blocks, enqueued scripts and stylesheets, HTTP API calls, and more.
ACF PRO
Extend the capability of WordPress fields, and gives you advanced flexibility for field type customization. Helps create beautiful admin interfaces for the client to edit their site easily and more importantly there is no need to use a big bulky, performance killer page builder like Avada or Elementor.
Admin Column Pro
This plugin helps to customize the admin view for your clients to easily edit and update content on their website but it also helps with debugging during development, by easily displaying all the fields in the database.
Formidable for WordPress forms
Formidable Forms is the most advanced WordPress form builder anywhere. Build a single contact form or complex multi-page forms with conditional logic, calculations, and file uploads. Then display the collected data with views and graphs. Get far more than just WordPress forms.
WordPress Plugins to improve page performance, theme development and debugging
