[Resolved] Too many render blocking – fonts – Which plug-ins are still in use?

[Leif]

Hi, I have a 3 part question about page speed.
I got GP because I’m trying to have a fast site and google insight says I fail right now. Namely in the LCP, FCP and CLS…which is basically everything (I’m just looking at desktop right now, I’ll deal with mobile later).

1 – I know I should remove any and all plugins I can but a bunch came with the site gallery install I did and I’m not sure which ones are still in use on my site. How do I tell?
Namely, I have Black Studio TinyMCE Widget, Lightweight Grid Columns, WP Featherlight, Lightweight Social Icons (I know I use GP Social Share but maybe it’s dumb to have 2?)

2 – Google keeps flagging me about Webfont loads of generatepress.woff2 and fontello.woff
I don’t know what to do about that

3 – The main thing google points at are render blocking resources and most of them seem like they are related to GP but I have no idea if there is something I can do about it.
Link to image of insight readout: https://photos.app.goo.gl/QYpR9U8GFEeU7hZh6

Page attached as my URL is a random blog post that I’m using for my test.

[David]

Hi there,

1. Black Studio TinyMCE Widget – this won’t make a difference to front end performance. But i cannot see any widgets ( footer or sidebar thats using it ).
Lightweight Grid Columns – this will add extra CSS to the front end – so if you’re not using it best to remove it.
Lightweight Social Icons are the follow links you’re using in your single post sidebar. This plugin is making the Fontello request.

2. generatepress.woff2 is the themes icons – go to Customizer > General and change the Icon Type to SVG to remove the font request.
See above re: Fontello

3. I would recommend running a GT Metrix report on the site. Its showing a 2.8 second load time ( Canada Server ), of which 1.5 seconds is the time it takes for your server to respond to the first request – i would begin with speaking with the Host on how that can be improved.

[Leif]

OK got it. I’ll move my host.

I will say though. I changed to SVG like you recommended, removed lightweight grid columns and removed JQuery Migrate and now google says I’m in the green! 🙂

But only for desktop. 🙁

[David]

Glad to hear about the improvements… yeah a better server will make the most noticeable improvement.

[Leif]

Do you have a recommended replacement for Lightweight Social Icons. On mobile the google insight says fontello takes 3s to load :O

Is there anything build into GP?
The GP social icons don’t seem available to load into the sidebar

[Leo]

You could try the block element with GenerateBlocks:
https://generatepress.com/gp-premium-1-11-0-block-elements/

[Leif]

OK they look super cool and I can wait for the stable release in the summer.

However, how does that give me a different set of social icons? I get that I can hook things into my sidebar but what am I going to send in there? GP social icons only let’s me hook into one place 🙁

Or would I build a set of icons in HTML and hook it?

[Leo]

This should help:
https://docs.generateblocks.com/article/icon-picker-overview/

[Leif]

Oh cool, that does look easy. It references blocks so that is something that comes with the 1.11 update?

[David]

GenerateBlocks you can use right away. And create your own social icon buttons.
GP Premium 1.11 provides the new Block Element – so you can create your social icons and hook them in across your site.

[Leif]

OK so right now I can’t get those icons into my sidebar true?
I went looking thinking there was a widget and couldn’t find one 🙁

[Tom]

Right now you could hook them into your sidebar, but you would have to either:

a) Add them above your other widgets
b) Add them below your other widgets
c) Replace your entire sidebar with a Block Element

There isn’t a widget, unfortunately.

[Leif]

Ok so on the release of 1.11 (I don’t want to bother with beta) I can hook the icons block into the top of my sidebar, with normal hook locations? That works.

[David]

Yes with the release of 1.11 you will be able to hook a block in before or after your sidebar widgets.

[Author]

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