14 steps to Improvement in WordPress Performance

If you’ve done any load time testing on your website, you’ve probably run across a suggestion to remove query strings from static resources (CSS, JS files).

The CDN may not cache your files if they contain query strings; as a result, you may not be taking advantage of all the caching benefits available.

Add the following code to remove the query strings.

function remove_cssjs_ver( $src ) { if( strpos( $src, '?ver=' ) ) $src = remove_query_arg( 'ver', $src ); return $src; }
add_filter( 'style_loader_src', 'remove_cssjs_ver', 10, 2 );
add_filter( 'script_loader_src', 'remove_cssjs_ver', 10, 2 );

If you want to use XML-RPC client, pingback, etc., you’ll require RSD (Really Simple Discovery). As an alternative to this superfluous header, you may simply remove it by inserting the following code.

remove_action( 'wp_head', 'rsd_link' ) ;



A recent addition to WordPress to enable emojis in outdated browsers should be removed.

remove_action(‘wp_head’, ‘print_emoji_detection_script’, 7);
remove_action(‘wp_print_styles’, ‘print_emoji_styles’);
remove_action( ‘admin_print_scripts’, ‘print_emoji_detection_script’ );
remove_action( ‘admin_print_styles’, ‘print_emoji_styles’ );

The shortlink (shorter URL for a web page) was added to the header code in WordPress. The following code can be used to remove any shortlinks that are no longer needed.

remove_action(‘wp_head’, ‘wp_shortlink_wp_head’, 10, 0);

oEmbed functionalities were introduced in WordPress 4.4, allowing any site to embed WordPress posts remotely. In order to stop your blog post from being embedded and to disable the loading of relevant JS files, add the following code to your article.

function disable_embed()
{ wp_dequeue_script( ‘wp-embed’ ); }
add_action( ‘wp_footer’, ‘disable_embed’ );

Do you need to publish, amend, or delete a post, update or list comments, or submit a file using the WordPress API (XML-RPC)? DDoS and brute force attacks can occur if XML-RPC is enabled but not properly protected. Add below to disable it if you don’t want.

add_filter(‘xmlrpc_enabled’, ‘__return_false’);

This does not improve performance, but rather reduces the risk of information leaking. In the source code and in the HTTP header, WordPress includes a meta name generator with the version information.
Add the following code to get rid of the WP version.

remove_action( ‘wp_head’, ‘wp_generator’ ) ;

Do you make use of Windows Live Writer’s tagging capabilities? If this is the case, then delete it by adding the following.

remove_action( ‘wp_head’, ‘wlwmanifest_link’ ) ;

Version 3.6 of WordPress brought JQuery migration to the platform. As long as you’re using the most recent version of JQuery, this isn’t necessary. Add the following code to prevent jquery-migrate.min.js from being loaded to prevent it from being used.


p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px ‘Helvetica Neue’; min-height: 15.0px} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px ‘Helvetica Neue’}


function deregister_qjuery() {
if ( !is_admin() ) { wp_deregister_script(‘jquery’); } }
add_action(‘wp_enqueue_scripts’, ‘deregister_qjuery’);

Your blog post’s self-pingback elements annoy me, and I’m sure it’s not just me. Here’s some code that can help if you’re one of them.

function disable_pingback( &$links ) {
foreach ( $links as $l => $link )
if ( 0 === strpos( $link, get_option( ‘home’ ) ) )
unset($links[$l]); } add_action( ‘pre_ping’, ‘disable_pingback’ );

If the browser crashes or the network is down, post modifications in WordPress are helpful in regaining access to the content. However, how many times have you seen this happen?
In WordPress, by default, the database gets bloated by saving revisions for each post that is drafted or published. You have the option of limiting the number of revisions saved or completely disabling this feature.
Add the following in wp-config.php file

Disabling post-revisions

define(‘WP_POST_REVISIONS’, false);

Limiting the revisions:

define(‘WP_POST_REVISIONS’, 2);

By frequently contacting admin-ajax.php, WordPress communicates with a browser and a server. If you’re using shared hosting, this could slow down the total page load time and increase CPU utilisation.
You can turn off the heartbeat API if you don’t need it by adding the code below.

add_action( ‘init’, ‘stop_heartbeat’, 1 );
function stop_heartbeat() {
wp_deregister_script(‘heartbeat’);
}

If you’re not using Dashicons to load any front-end icons, you may wish to turn them off in the admin console. dashicons.min.css will no longer load on the front end if the code below is added.

function wpdocs_dequeue_dashicon() {
        if (current_user_can( ‘update_core’ )) {
            return;         }
        wp_deregister_style(‘dashicons’);
}
add_action( ‘wp_enqueue_scripts’, ‘wpdocs_dequeue_dashicon’ );

Use Contact Form 7 and notice their CSS/JavaScript files being loaded on each page? Contact Form 7 users: You’re not the only one who feels this way.
To your relief, the code provided below prevents it from loading.

add_filter( ‘wpcf7_load_js’, ‘__return_false’ );
add_filter( ‘wpcf7_load_css’, ‘__return_false’ );