Ensuring a website’s optimal performance involves eliminating render blocking resources. This is a necessary measure that enhances loading speed and overall user experience. This guide will walk you through the process of eliminating render blocking resources using WP Rocket, a widely-used caching plugin for WordPress.
What are render blocking resources?
Before we dive into the solution, let’s understand what render blocking resources are. When a browser loads a website, it needs to download various CSS and JavaScript files. These files are necessary for rendering the page correctly. However, if these files are blocking the rendering process, it can result in slower page load times.
Render blocking resources can include things like CSS stylesheets, JavaScript files, and web fonts. When a browser encounters these resources, it pauses the rendering process until it has downloaded and processed them. This delay can be detrimental to the user experience, especially on slower internet connections or devices.
Introducing WP Rocket
WP Rocket is a powerful caching plugin designed specifically for WordPress. It offers a range of optimization features to improve your website’s performance, including the ability to eliminate render blocking resources.
With WP Rocket, you can easily optimize your website’s CSS and JavaScript files to reduce render blocking. It provides a simple and user-friendly interface, making it accessible for both beginners and experienced users.
How to eliminate render blocking resources with WP Rocket
Now that we have a basic understanding of render blocking resources and WP Rocket, let’s get into the step-by-step process of eliminating them.
Step 1: Install and activate WP Rocket
The first step is to install and activate the WP Rocket plugin on your WordPress website. You can do this by navigating to the Plugins section in your WordPress dashboard and searching for “WP Rocket”. Once you find it, click on “Install Now” and then “Activate” to enable the plugin.
Step 2: Enable the CSS and JavaScript optimizations
After activating WP Rocket, go to the WP Rocket settings page in your WordPress dashboard. You can find it under “Settings” > “WP Rocket”. Here, you will find various tabs and options for configuring the plugin.
Look for the “File Optimization” tab and click on it. In this section, you will see options to optimize both CSS and JavaScript files. Enable the options for “Minify CSS” and “Minify JavaScript” by checking the respective checkboxes.
Enabling these options will minify and combine your CSS and JavaScript files, reducing their size and eliminating render blocking. Make sure to save your changes before moving on to the next step.
Step 3: Optimize the critical CSS
WP Rocket also offers a feature called “Critical CSS” that helps to further optimize your website’s rendering. Critical CSS refers to the CSS rules necessary for the initial above-the-fold content of your web page. By optimizing the critical CSS, you can prioritize the loading of essential styles and improve the perceived page load time.
To optimize the critical CSS, go to the “File Optimization” tab in the WP Rocket settings. Scroll down until you find the “Optimize CSS Delivery” section. Enable the option for “Load CSS asynchronously”. This will load the CSS files asynchronously, allowing the browser to continue rendering the page while the CSS files are being downloaded.
WP Rocket also provides options to generate and preload the critical CSS. Click on the “Generate Critical CSS” button, and WP Rocket will automatically generate the critical CSS for your website. Once generated, click on the “Preload Critical CSS” button to preload it and optimize the rendering process.
Step 4: Test and optimize
After following the above steps, it’s important to test your website’s performance and ensure that render blocking resources have been successfully eliminated. You can use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix to analyze the loading speed and identify any remaining render blocking resources.
If you find that there are still render blocking resources, you can try deferring their loading or asynchronously loading them using additional optimization techniques. WP Rocket also offers advanced features like lazy loading and DNS prefetching, which can further improve your website’s performance.
Conclusion
Eliminating render blocking resources is critical for optimizing the performance of your WordPress website. With WP Rocket, you can easily and effectively eliminate render blocking resources, improving your website’s loading speed and user experience.
Remember, every second counts in the online world, and a faster website can lead to higher user engagement, better SEO rankings, and increased conversions. So, don’t underestimate the importance of optimizing your website’s render blocking resources.