It’s like this imagine you’re building a house.
You lay down the foundation then the walls and finally the roof.
But what if you tried to put the roof on before the walls were even finished? It wouldn’t work would it? That’s kind of what happens with render-blocking resources in WordPress.
Tired of your website loading slower than a snail in molasses? 🐢😩 Get rid of those pesky render-blocking resources and make your site blazing fast 🚀 Get started with Jetpack Boost
What are render-blocking resources?
Tired of your website loading slower than a snail in molasses? 🐢😩 Get rid of those pesky render-blocking resources and make your site blazing fast 🚀 Get started with Jetpack Boost
Imagine your website is that house.
When someone visits your website their browser needs to load all the elements to display the page – like the HTML CSS and JavaScript.
Think of these elements like the bricks and mortar of your website.
But sometimes there are CSS or JavaScript files that act like stubborn contractors holding up the entire building process.
These are the render-blocking resources.
They slow down the loading of your website by making the browser wait for them to finish before moving on to other elements.
Why are render-blocking resources a problem?
Well let’s face it no one likes waiting especially online.
A slow website can drive visitors away faster than a speeding bullet leaving you with a bunch of abandoned carts and disappointed customers.
Plus slow loading times can hurt your search engine rankings.
Google is all about speed and if your website’s slow you might end up buried deep in the search results invisible to most users.
How to identify render-blocking resources
You can’t fix what you can’t see.
So how do you find these pesky render-blocking resources? The best way is to use a tool like Google PageSpeed Insights.
It’s like a handyman’s toolbox for your website giving you a detailed breakdown of your site’s performance and highlighting areas for improvement.
Just enter your website’s address and PageSpeed Insights will analyze it providing you with a list of potential problems including render-blocking resources.
Eliminating render-blocking resources: A step-by-step guide
Now let’s get down to the nitty-gritty of eliminating these roadblocks.
1. Optimize CSS Loading
Just like you wouldn’t put all the furniture in your house before the walls were up you don’t want to load all the CSS files at once.
We only need the essential CSS to show the basic structure of your website.
To optimize CSS loading we can move these essential CSS files to the top of your page making your website load faster.
How to do it?
The easiest way to optimize CSS loading is with a plugin like Jetpack Boost.
It’s like a virtual contractor taking care of all the complex optimization tasks for you.
Just install and activate the plugin and then navigate to Jetpack Boost and enable the “Optimize CSS Loading” feature.
It’s as simple as that!
2. Defer Non-Essential JavaScript
Imagine you need to paint your house but you also need to install the windows.
Now you could try to do both at the same time but it’s more efficient to paint first and then install the windows.
The same principle applies to JavaScript.
We can defer non-essential JavaScript delaying their execution until after the core content of the page has loaded.
How to do it?
Again Jetpack Boost comes to the rescue.
Just enable the “Defer Non-Essential JavaScript” feature in the plugin settings and your browser will prioritize loading your website’s core content resulting in a much faster experience for your visitors.
3. Implement Lazy Loading for Images
Imagine a huge photo album filled with thousands of pictures.
You wouldn’t try to load all the photos at once would you? No you’d scroll through them one by one.
Lazy loading does the same thing for images on your website.
It only loads images that are visible on the screen making the loading process significantly faster.
How to do it?
You guessed it – Jetpack Boost has you covered! Just enable the “Lazy Image Loading” feature in the plugin settings and it’ll automatically implement lazy loading for your images.
4. Optimize JavaScript by adding async or defer attributes
Sometimes you need to take a more hands-on approach and that’s where manually optimizing JavaScript comes in.
You can add special attributes like async or defer to your JavaScript files giving the browser instructions on how to load them efficiently.
How to do it?
Async: The async attribute allows the browser to download the script while it’s processing the rest of the HTML and once downloaded the script can execute right away potentially interrupting the HTML processing.
Defer: The defer attribute allows the browser to download the script while it’s processing the HTML. However the script won’t execute until the HTML is fully parsed resulting in a smoother and faster rendering process.
You can add these attributes directly to your script tags in your website’s code.
For example:
<script src="my-script.js" async></script>or
<script src="my-script.js" defer></script>You can also use plugins like Async JavaScript which give you granular control over which scripts have async or defer attributes allowing you to fine-tune your website’s performance.
5. Manually edit script tags
Sometimes you need to take a more hands-on approach and that’s where manually optimizing JavaScript comes in.
You can add special attributes like async or defer to your JavaScript files giving the browser instructions on how to load them efficiently.
How to do it?
Async: The async attribute allows the browser to download the script while it’s processing the rest of the HTML and once downloaded the script can execute right away potentially interrupting the HTML processing.
Defer: The defer attribute allows the browser to download the script while it’s processing the HTML. However the script won’t execute until the HTML is fully parsed resulting in a smoother and faster rendering process.
You can add these attributes directly to your script tags in your website’s code.
For example:
<script src="my-script.js" async></script>or
<script src="my-script.js" defer></script>You can also use plugins like Async JavaScript which give you granular control over which scripts have async or defer attributes allowing you to fine-tune your website’s performance.
Common questions about render-blocking resources
Can I test my WordPress website for render-blocking resources?
Absolutely! Just like you’d have a house inspection before buying it use Google PageSpeed Insights to test your website.
Look for the “Opportunities” section in the results and it’ll list any render-blocking resources.
Can render-blocking resources affect my Core Web Vitals scores?
Yes they can! Slow loading times can negatively impact your Core Web Vitals scores including Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) Total Blocking Time (TBT) and First Contentful Paint (FCP). If your website is struggling with Core Web Vitals consider eliminating render-blocking resources as a potential solution.
Can HTML imports scripts or stylesheets be render-blocking resources?
Absolutely! Any files that delay the page rendering process can be render-blocking resources.
Are images render-blocking resources?
Not directly.
Images don’t block rendering but you still want to optimize them for speed.
Using Jetpack Boost you can implement lazy loading for images which only loads images that are visible on the screen further improving your website’s speed.
The bottom line: Faster website happier users
By eliminating render-blocking resources you can significantly improve your website’s speed making it a more enjoyable experience for your visitors.
They’ll stay longer browse more and ultimately engage more with your content.
And who doesn’t want that?
Tired of your website loading slower than a snail in molasses? 🐢😩 Get rid of those pesky render-blocking resources and make your site blazing fast 🚀 Get started with Jetpack Boost