How I Optimized My Website Today

Today I decided to invest 1 hour optimizing themightymo.com. Below are the actions I took along with the results.

Speed Benchmarks and Initial Observations

  • Before starting on today’s speed optimization, Google Pagespeed Insights scored us as a “44”.
  • There’s some files loading from the wp.com cdn (e.g. Jetpack’s cdn) – Google is penalizing me for this stuff.
  • Google is actually penalizing me for using Google Tag Manager. ????
  • We’re actually scoring an “A” on GTMetrix.
  • We scored a “C” on Pingdom.
  • Weight of the homepage was 1.4 MB.

Initial Optimizations

  • Generated and served .webp image files (via SG Optimizer plugin).
  • Deferred render-blocking javascript (via SG Optimizer plugin).
  • Turned off Jetpack’s cdn.
  • Cropped and exported the hero image at 80% quality, which reduced its size from 389k to 79k.
  • Removed an unnecessary logo image, which was 60k.
  • Exported a testimonial image image at 80% quality, which reduced its size from 162k to 92k.
  • Removed an unnecessary background image, which was 273k and replaced it with some glitzy colors.
  • Deactivated unneeded plugins.
  • Removed the background hero image from mobile views.

Results

After 1 hour of work (including writing this post!), I’m happy to say that I increased my Google Pagespeed Insights score from a “44” to a “77”. Not bad for an hour on a Friday!

  • Reduced the total homepage load from 1.4mb to 690k.

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The Mighty Mo! Design Co.

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