Web Vitals and GP Slowing Things Down

[Robin]

Hey there,

I just tested my site against Google’s web vitals and the results were horrific. So I got a developer to take a look and he told me:

“the gp-premium plugin slows down the critical path, and then all the tracking pixels and the many convertbox scripts provide an on-going long-tail”

Any ideas about how to fix this? If at all.

On Pingdom my site loads pretty fast but with web vitals it fails miserably.

TIA

[David]

Hi Robin,

first thing i notice is the reasonably large number of requests and that there is no combining of CSS or JS files – is this because your on a HTTP2.0 server and its recommended to NOT combine ?

Documentation: http://docs.generatepress.com/
Adding CSS: http://docs.generatepress.com/article/adding-css/

[Robin]

Hmmm. Pass. I don’t know David.

[David]

In that case try the Autoptimize Tips we provide here:

https://generatepress.com/fastest-wordpress-theme/

And also in Customizer > General:

1. Change Icon Type to SVG
This will remove the font request for the GP Icons
2. enable Combine CSS
This will use a reduced version of the Grid CSS that GP uses.

See how that goes – then we can look at what else can be improved.

Documentation: http://docs.generatepress.com/
Adding CSS: http://docs.generatepress.com/article/adding-css/

[Robin]

Will do, David. Thanks.

Should I disable W3 Total Cache if using Autoptimize?

[David]

Oh – is W3 Total Cache actually enabled – i can’t see any cached files being served?

Documentation: http://docs.generatepress.com/
Adding CSS: http://docs.generatepress.com/article/adding-css/

[Robin]

Yes it is. I was playing around earlier this morning disabling plugins to see if that made any difference. It didn’t.

So yup, W3TC is enabled at the moment. Weird it isn’t showing any cache. I’ve had a heck of a problem with it as when I try and post a link to Facebook it doesn’t pull any open graph content and shows no image or any text. I then have to disable it before posting then re-enable it. A royal pain. Hey-ho.

[David]

In that case i would disable W3 and use try out autoptimize

Documentation: http://docs.generatepress.com/
Adding CSS: http://docs.generatepress.com/article/adding-css/

[Robin]

OK, many thanks. Enjoy the weekend and sun 🙂

[David]

You too!
Let us know how you get on.

Documentation: http://docs.generatepress.com/
Adding CSS: http://docs.generatepress.com/article/adding-css/

[Robin]

Hi David – I can’t find the setting you listed. I’ve been through all the tabs. Maybe the dashboard/interface has changed?

And also in Customizer > General:

1. Change Icon Type to SVG
This will remove the font request for the GP Icons
2. enable Combine CSS
This will use a reduced version of the Grid CSS that GP uses.

TIA

[David]

Thats odd – so there is no Customizer > General visible?

Documentation: http://docs.generatepress.com/
Adding CSS: http://docs.generatepress.com/article/adding-css/

[Robin]

What a muppet. Me not you! Sigh. Senior moment without even being there yet.

I was looking in Autoptimze not Customizer. It was the ‘z’ that confused me 😉

Al sorted. Thanks.

[David]

Damn American spelling 🙂
Glad to to hear you got it resolved

Documentation: http://docs.generatepress.com/
Adding CSS: http://docs.generatepress.com/article/adding-css/

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