About this plugin
A. Smith Speed Optimizer is a free WordPress speed optimization plugin that bundles the optimizations most sites actually need into one dashboard: lazy loading, HTML minification, JavaScript deferral, WordPress bloat removal, database cleanup, and a 0-100 performance score with a letter grade.
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Key Features
- Lazy Loading – Automatically add loading="lazy" to images and iframes. Includes Intersection Observer for background images with data-bg attributes so non-image elements lazy load too.
- HTML Minification – Strip whitespace, HTML comments, and unnecessary characters from your HTML output. Preserves content inside <pre>, <script>, <textarea>, and <style> tags.
- JavaScript Deferral – Add the defer attribute to enqueued scripts to prevent render-blocking. jQuery is always excluded by default. Custom exclusions supported per-script.
- WordPress Bloat Removal – Remove unnecessary WordPress default features individually:
- Emoji scripts and styles
- oEmbed/Embeds
- Query strings from static resources
- Dashicons on frontend for non-admin users
- XML-RPC and pingback
- REST API link from head
- Shortlinks
- Windows Live Writer manifest
- RSD link
- RSS feed links (optional)
- Database Cleanup – Clean up post revisions, auto-drafts, trashed posts, expired transients, spam comments, and trashed comments with one click. Counts shown before deletion.
- Performance Scoring – Get a 0-100 performance score with letter grade (A-F) based on your active optimizations, asset counts, and bloat removal status.
- Email Reports – Scheduled email digests (daily/weekly/monthly) with your speed score, stats, and recommendations.
- Dashboard Widget – See your speed score at a glance on the WordPress admin dashboard.
How It Works
- Install and activate the plugin.
- Visit Speed Optimizer in your admin menu.
- View your performance score and recommendations.
- Toggle optimizations on/off from the dashboard.
- Clean up database bloat with one click.
- Configure settings for fine-grained control.
Privacy
Everything runs locally on your WordPress installation. No external server calls, no data sent to A. Smith Media, no account required.
Pro Features (Optional Add-On)
The free version is fully functional on its own. media/speed-optimizer with:
- Critical CSS generation for above-the-fold content
- Unused CSS removal to eliminate render-blocking styles
- Automatic WebP/AVIF image conversion
- Performance score history and trend charts
- CDN integration for static assets
- Font preloading and display optimization
- Full page caching with cache rules