How to Lazy Load in WordPress (Images & Videos)

If you’re a website owner, you’ve likely thought about site speed at least once in the past. After all, Google considers speed when determining where to place sites in search results. So, if your site is slow to load, you’re at a disadvantage when it comes to ranking. And we all know that higher rankings lead to more traffic.

So, how do you make sure your WordPress site is loading as quickly as possible? One way is to lazy load your images.

Lazy loading is a technique that delays the rendering of images and videos until they’re needed. Implementing this can speed up your site considerably, and the great news is that you don’t need to be a developer to put this to work.

Today, we’ll show you how to lazy load images and videos in WordPress using two methods: with a plugin and without.

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How to Optimize & Compress Images in WordPress (3 Steps)

Images and videos are a great way to make your web pages more engaging and interesting to visitors. But lots of images on your website can slow down your loading times. This can affect your pages’ search engine rankings and your site’s user experience (UX).

Fortunately, you can optimize and compress images to increase site speed. Whether you’re a WordPress expert or a complete beginner, you can find a method that works for you — like using a plugin, a simple online tool, or the image editor on your device. 

In this post, we’ll take a closer look at why you should consider optimizing and compressing images. Then, we’ll show you three ways you can do this and explore other useful strategies for speeding up image delivery.

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How to Add & Use jQuery Scripts in WordPress

Interactive page elements like dynamic search bars, advanced product filters, and sliders can make your site more user-friendly and engaging. But it’s impossible to create any of these features without using JavaScript or installing WordPress plugins.

Luckily, you can easily create JavaScript design elements by using jQuery in WordPress. You can do this manually or use a plugin to speed up the process.

In this post, we’ll introduce you to jQuery and discuss why you may want to use it. Then, we’ll show you two ways to add custom jQuery scripts to your WordPress site and cover some frequently asked questions. 

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Choosing the Best WordPress Lazy Load Plugin: Top 7 Plugins Compared

Adding visual elements to your site is an easy way to make your pages more engaging. You might include marketing banners, product images, galleries, or video tutorials. Unfortunately, including a bunch of files can weigh your site down and result in slower performance.

Lazy loading is a great way to relieve pressure on your server while increasing the loading speed of your website. It delays images from rendering for visitors until they’ve scrolled down to their place on the screen. Better yet, some lazy load plugins are free, easy to use, and come with extra features for website optimization. 

In this post, we’ll explore some of the best lazy load plugins for WordPress. Then, we’ll show you how to choose the ideal tool for your needs. 

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5 Best WordPress Search Plugins for Better & Faster Site Search

Search functionality is essential for most websites as it helps visitors locate the information, content, or products they need. WordPress comes with a native search system, but this can only perform basic lookups, and it can be slower than users expect, especially if your website contains a lot of content.

Luckily, there’s a wide range of advanced search plugins for WordPress that enable you to offer a speedy experience. These plugins often come with useful features such as instant search results, ecommerce product support, and spelling correction that help ensure your visitors can quickly find the information they’re looking for.  

There are a lot of WordPress search plugins out there, so to help you find the perfect one for your site, we’ve put together this handy guide. Read on to explore the features you should be looking for in a WordPress search plugin, and then see our reviews of five of the best options. 

Continue reading → 5 Best WordPress Search Plugins for Better & Faster Site Search

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How to Generate Critical CSS in WordPress (2 Methods)

People who visit your website don’t want to wait a long time to see your content. If you don’t optimize your code, render-blocking resources like CSS can contribute to visitors’ perception of slower load times.

Fortunately, you can easily generate critical CSS for your website. By installing a plugin like Jetpack Boost, you’ll be able to extract all the necessary CSS for displaying above-the-fold content. This can be key to making your website appear faster and more user-friendly. 

In this post, we’ll explain critical CSS and why you should consider generating it for your website. Then, we’ll show you two different ways to do this in WordPress. 

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How to Upload a Video to WordPress & Add it to a Page or Post

There are many reasons you may want to upload a video in WordPress. Whether you’re a professional videographer or a food blogger with an amateur cooking show, you’ll need a simple way to post audiovisual content on your site. 

There are a couple of different ways you can add a video to a WordPress page or post. You could embed one from a video hosting service like Jetpack VideoPress or upload and add it directly from your site’s hosting server. Each method has its pros and cons, which we’ll cover in more detail in our tutorial. 

In this post, we’ll go over the various ways you can upload a video to your WordPress Media Library. Then we’ll walk you through adding a video to a post or page. Finally, we’ll discuss some frequently asked questions related to videos on WordPress. 

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How to Fix Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) on WordPress

Search engine optimization (SEO) is an ever-changing game without an instruction manual. There’s much more to optimization than just adding keywords into your content. Search engines like Google also take into account indicators of a quality, safe web experience — like how fast your site loads, how easy it is for visitors to interact with it, and more. 

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) is a metric used by Google to measure how much a web page rearranges as it loads. A site that moves significantly — causing users to click the wrong link or have trouble reading content — provides a bad user experience and is frowned upon by Google. 

Reviewing your site’s CLS score and other Core Web Vitals can help you identify ways to improve its overall health and, in turn, boost your rankings!

This article will explain the causes of CLS, why you should minimize it, and some methods to reduce it. 

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How to Clean Up and Optimize Your WordPress Database

Your WordPress database contains all of your site’s essential content, including comments, posts, pages, and revisions. But this database can get bloated over time, slowing down your website and harming its loading times. This can frustrate your visitors and make the WordPress admin dashboard slower to use. 

Fortunately, there are a couple of ways to clean up your database. You can automate the process using a WordPress database optimization plugin like WP-Optimize. Alternatively, if you’re more experienced, you could use phpMyAdmin to have complete control over the process. 

In this post, we’ll explain how to clean up and optimize your WordPress database to boost your site’s performance. Then, we’ll wrap up with some frequently asked questions. Let’s get started!

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How to Defer Parsing of JavaScript in WordPress

JavaScript is one of the most popular programming languages in the world. Most websites use it to create more dynamic experiences for visitors. Critical features like contact forms and site analytics are just a couple of ways JavaScript is put into practice on a daily basis. Unfortunately, while it’s highly useful, all of this code has the potential to slow down your site. 

Deferring parsing of JavaScript (also just called, “deferring JavaScript”) means telling your site to load your non-essential JavaScript code last. This simple tweak can improve your page loading times and overall performance, depending on the number of scripts your website uses.

In this article, we’ll break down exactly what parsing is and what deferring involves. We’ll also discuss how deferring JavaScript can benefit your site and show you how to do it. Finally, we’ll wrap up with some frequently asked questions (FAQs) to address any remaining doubts. 

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