Performance Tweaks

Description

Simple but effective performance tweaks for WordPress—now with a polished, tabbed settings UI.

Features are grouped like your workflow: Scripts & Assets, Network, Security, Performance & Admin, and Database.

Scripts & Assets

• Contact Form 7 Smart Loader — Only loads CF7 assets on pages with a form.
• CF7 reCAPTCHA Smart Loader — Dequeues reCAPTCHA when no CF7 form is present.
• Disable Advanced Custom Fields on Frontend — Stops ACF assets from loading on the frontend.
• Emoji Unloader — Removes Emoji CSS and JavaScript.
• Defer JavaScript — Adds defer attribute to eligible scripts.
• Async JavaScript — Adds async attribute to eligible scripts.
• Async/Defer Exclude Handles — A textarea to exclude script handles from async/defer.
• Remove Query Strings — Strips ?ver= from CSS/JS URLs to improve CDN caching.
• Block CSS Smart Loader (classic themes) — Dequeues block CSS on singular pages without blocks.
• Separate Core Block CSS (WP 5.8+) — Opt-in to load only the CSS for blocks used on the page.
• Disable Dashicons for Visitors — Removes dashicons for non-logged-in users.
• Disable jQuery Migrate (frontend) — Drops jquery-migrate from frontend dependencies.
• Boost Hero Image (fetchpriority) — Adds fetchpriority=”high” to the first content image on singular pages.
• Lazy‑load iframes in Content — Ensures iframes in post content use loading=”lazy”.
• WooCommerce Smart Loader — Loads WC CSS/JS only on WooCommerce pages (shop, product, cart, checkout, account).

Network

• DNS Single Post Prefetch — Prefetch homepage on singular pages to speed return navigation (HTTP/2).
• Resource Hints Hosts — Add domains for dns-prefetch and preconnect (one per line).
• Google Fonts Preconnect — Adds preconnect hints for fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com.

Security

• Disable XML-RPC — Blocks the XML-RPC endpoint unless you need it.
• Disable WP Embeds / oEmbed — Removes discovery links and wp-embed script.
• Head Cleanup — Removes RSD, WLW, generator, shortlink, and extra feed links.

Performance & Admin

• Disable WordPress Heartbeat (Frontend) — Keep editor autosave, reduce frontend pings.
• Heartbeat Interval — Set between 15–120 seconds.
• WP‑Cron Guidance — Advisory copy to move cron to a real system cron.

Database

• Limit Post Revisions — Define WP_POST_REVISIONS to 5.
• Autosave Interval (advisory) — Suggest a wp-config constant.
• Empty Trash Days (advisory) — Suggest a wp-config constant.

UI/UX

• Tabbed settings with keyboard navigation and ARIA roles.
• Card layout, helpful tooltips, and consistent spacing.
• Sticky save bar with “unsaved changes” hint.
• “Reset all settings” link (with nonce) to clear options without uninstalling.