Site Optimization

  • Check the site credentials.
  • Assign the task to you and set the status to Ongoing site optimization.
  • Check the site in Speed pages.
  • Save screenshots from them as pre-optimization.
  • Make notes about your first site review.
  • The WPMU DEV optimizations service targets 95+ for desktop and 80+ for mobile.
  • Use CrUX Vis to identify potential patterns;
  • First Steps
    • Deactivate caches
    • Enable All optimization settings from themes/builder
    • Setup HB AO (use the automated options and wait to generate)
    • Enable caches (wait to generate)
    • Run PSI
  • We have to communicate with members if anything prevents us from performing a proper job, for example, but not limited to:
    • Permalink issues
    • Too many cache layers
    • Server issues
  • Get familiar with Web vitals, you will learn about the metrics and how to measure them.
  • Take a full-page screenshot to compare the page before and after your optimization.
  • Check our Tips and Tricks guidelines

Server issues can affect the performance scores, so it is important to pay attention and communicate with the member in case the minimum requirement isn’t met.

While on pre-check, check for plugin updates. Theme and plugins updates can enhance the performance, but we need to be careful as we can’t know if they will or not break the site. So if the member has multiple pending updates you can:

  • For Dev hosted sites, if the member doesn’t have a Staging site, create one ( never override existing ), update the plugins and compare live and staging interfaces; If they are working proceed with Live site after making a full backup, but if you still unsure if should proceed you can ask member to check the Staging and confirm if everything is working;
  • For 3rd party sites, make a full backup of the website and database, check how outdate the theme is, example if the version is 1.0.0 and new version is 1.0.6, it is not a big issue, but if the theme is 1.0.0 to 2.X it could cause issues, so in this case, rather than updating things you will communicate with the member.

Once you communicate with the member, you can hold the task for max 2 days, if the member doesn’t reply, make a new reply letting them know you will proceed with the site as it is ( without updating )

  • Is the website connected to CF? Cloudflare can be one of your best steps when optimizing the website, it has nice optimization modules, although we can’t force members to use it, we will try pushing them to do so. In the initial template, we will ask member to use Cloudflare as well connecting Hummingbird and provide delegate access. Not having CF is not a blocker, you should not move the task to require feedback or on hold, but it is great to keep pushing for CF in your daily ticket updates.
  • Min-supported PHP version
  • Max execution time 300 ( Can be flexible for shared hosting, example Siteground doesn’t allow more than 120 )
  • PHP Memory Limit – 256M
  • WordPress Memory Limit / Max Memory Limit 128M

Create the website folder.Access this Google drive folder > Sites, create a new site with the website name, this folder is used to save the final report and relevant screenshots, this do not replace the JIRA task comments, screenshots still need to be attached there.

wp user create wpmudev-services support+delegate@wpmudev.com --role=administrator

It will return the new user ID, and save that information in the JIRA task.

In the case of a MU, set the super admin using

wp super-admin add wpmudev-services or wp super-admin add --user=support+delegate@wpmudev.com

If you need access to WPMU DEV dashboard you can use ( 'WPMUDEV_LIMIT_TO_USER', 'ID' );

  • Work to increase the lower score page will eventually increase the other pages as well.
  • Try to increase the score using automated tools first.
  • Take screenshots of the potential issues and changes, this can be used on the report, this structure can be helpful:

Pre-Optimization Checklist & QA

  • If not yet, create the optimization folder, copy the report template to the site’s folder;
  • Fill out the Pre-work checklist, Note, some steps depend on the website, you must record each step and add the record in the optimization folder with the prefix precheck-step-{id}., this will be used for a post-work Q&A.
  • Check the minimum requirements, and communicate with the member if necessary.
  • Copy the site info before working on the optimization because if members return with an issue or complaint, like a bad score now, after optimization, we can compare the data.
  • Go to WordPress > Site Heath > Info > and use “Copy site info to clipboard”, save the information inside the Pre-check folder as a TXT.
  • For Woo sites, also export the Woo report, this can be used to identify possible outdated templates, and in case any relevant information, can be added to the final report.
  • If it’s a woo site, please test the cart functionality & checkout fields are working fine, no need to make payments just test if there are no console errors etc which are/may hindering the cart or checkout functionality. This is a Pre-work checklist item as well.
  • Select at least 4 pages if a multi-page site, select pages such as Home, About, Services, and Contact Page, always include Home ( the number and pages can vary depending on the site ), and create the initial average as it is, meaning, if the member already has a caching plugin configured you should not disable it before having the current score average.
  • Run a Google test at least once for each page take at least one screenshot for each page ( add to JIRA task as well ), this will be the one considered for the result you should have around 4 screenshots, save the sharing link as well.
  • Create screen records for Desktop & mobile for each selected page, for example, menu functionalities, and elements position, and store them in the website’s folder. Those screen records will be used to compare the post-work QA, so use the prefix precheck-{device}_{page-url}.
  • Copy the site info before working on the optimization because if members return with an issue or complaint, like a bad score now, after optimization, we can compare the data.
  • Go to WordPress > Site Heath > Info > and use “Copy site info to clipboard”, save the information inside the Pre-check folder as a TXT.
  • Let’s load the site info specifically (Directories and Sizes) – And copy the site info.
  • If a member returns within 7 days of submitting a final report, we need to compare the site’s health and investigate any issues related to optimization. However, if they return after 7 days, we should treat it as a new request.
  • It may be possible another agent finishes the workflow, so including the screenshots and link in the JIRA task can’t be skipped.
  • Google uses the test from your closest location, if the member is not using CF use VPN to run the test to the closest server location to get better response times.

Optimisation Workflow

  • Try to take a backup, you can check if the site fits in the Snapshot plugin for non-WPMU DEV-hosted sites, if no backup option is available, pause the optimization and inform the member getting consent to proceed without backup or ask them to create a local backup.
  • Check if the site is using Cloudflare, if so, ask for support+delegate and to connect HB if not yet. Note, the integration must be done by the member as we can’t access their account API Key using support+delegate, it is also not a blocker unless you have issues with CF caching.
  • Disable all caching if possible, it is going to help in the AO step.
  • Check plugins with duplicated features which could affect Smush and Hummingbird.
  • Install Query monitor, and check for slow logs that may affect the site performance.
  • Install Supervisor WP and check for any big autoload or use wp hosting check autoload for Dev hosted sites. Only decrease the Autoload if you have a backup, otherwise, communicate with the member before continuing.
  • Check HB > Advanced Tools > Database cleanup for any huge amount of data. Never remove post revisions, communicate with the member if necessary.
  • Install Simple MyISAM to Inno Plugin or check it manually. Only convert to InnoDB if you have a full backup, otherwise, communicate with the member first.
  • Install WP Crontrol to check the number of cronjobs or use SSH > WP CLI if available, the command wp cron event list will list all the cronjobs or use debug.sh for Dev hosted sites. Remove all cronjobs letting the plugins to re-schedule them.
  • Check WordPress > Tools > Site Health.
  • Remove the installed plugins ( Query Monitor, Supervisorwp, Simple MyISAM ) used to take notes.
  • Bonus Suggestion: For Woocommerce sites check if High-Performance Order Storage is enabled, not all plugins are compatible with it but in case disabled can be included in the final summary. Do not take action, just notes.
  • Bonus Suggestion: Check WordPress > Site health > Action Scheduler for the number of existing actions, multiple actions or failed actions, check the _actions_scheduler tables for possible cleanup.
  • Selected the lowest score or more complex page ( usually the home page ) to focus on while optimizing the site, if the score increases for the hardest page it will increase for the rest.
  • Disable all caches to speed up the changes to reflect in the front.

For some websites you won’t have access to control caching such as object caching, communicate with the member and try to grab as much information as you can, for example, Cloudflare credentials.

  • Disable plugins that can conflict with WPMU DEV Smush and Hummingbird.
  • Part of the requirement for the service onboarding process and terms of services is about allowing us to install and modify plugins.
  • Install Smush and HB using the automated configuration, enabling critical CSS & Delay JS and default AO option.

A starting point can be the basic configurations and see how much the performance has increased, remember to wait for caching and run more than one test, you can use this tool via HB > AO Debug > Advanced > Run Asset Optimization to force the optimization and speed up the steps.

  • Compress the images / Enable CDN, and use the Backup original image to have a safe copy. ( In case a photographer site play safe and use Basic optimization )
  • If it is a page builder, click to edit the page and check if the correct image size is selected, some builders such Elementor allow you to select the thumbnail size.
  • Check for any possible Video to be compressed, use any online Tool to compress and see if you can improve the size.
  • Exclude any Above-of-fold image from Lazy Load. Since Smush 3.16 it will exclude automatically if Theme provider uses the best WP practices.

It is normal for the logo to cause CLS, exclude it from Lazy Load along with any other image if it is not a dynamic content example news portal.

  • Check for any script errors across the pages.

The delay JS can cause some problems, if you notice any error follow this guideline, communicate with the Hummingbird Dev and SLS people if necessary.

  • Just if necessary, switch to manual Assets Optimization and work with the Assets, prioritize the automated tools.

In case you didn’t reach the expected result ( 95+ for desktop and 80+ for mobile ) check for any possible step you can do without affecting the website, for example, edit the page builder and select a smaller size version, use Manual Assets Optimization, compress videos, communicate with you colleagues and the plugins developers if you face any issue.

Note: With Critical CSS and Delay JS, Manual optimization will not make much difference, if automated tool didn’t work is more likely you will need to re-think the optimization approach and suggest some changes to the member.

Post-Optimization Checklist

  • Copy the site info after working on the optimization because if members return with an issue or complaint, like a bad score now, after optimization, we can compare the pre & post check site info data.
    • Go to WordPress > Site Heath > Info > and use “Copy site info to clipboard”, save the information inside the Post-check folder as a TXT.
  • Fill the post-work checklist section in the report; Use the postcheck-step-{id} as a prefix.
  • Record the page functionality for Desktop and Mobile, postcheck-{device}_{page-url}, and compare with the previous record to identify any elements that may not be working or got moved, style issues or any issues that happened due to the optimization.
  • If it’s a Woo site, please double test the cart functionality & checkout fields are working fine, no need to make payments just test if there are no console errors etc which are/may hindering the cart or checkout functionality.
  • Re-run the performance tests using the same pages and amount of tests, copy the sharing links and take screenshots.
  • Copy the Report template & Fill the report with full details, use the demo as base. It is up to you what you will include in the Report, but try to include as much detail as you can, it will help in case the member messes with the optimization and needs to re-take similar steps.
  • Move the task to Optimization Q&A column and ping BLs
  • Send the Q&A request to member
  • Once the Q&A is done & member is not back within 3 days Attach the PDF to your response, and move the ticket to “Pending to close”, we will check the task after 7 days and then close the task and ticket.
  • After 7 days in case the member is not back, close the ticket and task.
  • We reply back to the member stating the 7-days check and asking for a review (template below).
  • Fill out our internal form, this will be done after 7 days when you close the ticket / task , if the member returns then we need to count the extra time.
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