{"id":5807,"date":"2025-06-16T21:47:18","date_gmt":"2025-06-16T18:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/?p=5807"},"modified":"2025-10-02T05:57:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T02:57:25","slug":"easy-and-quick-wordpress-optimizations-with-one-click-and-one-plugin-solutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/easy-and-quick-wordpress-optimizations-with-one-click-and-one-plugin-solutions\/","title":{"rendered":"Easy and Quick WordPress Optimizations with One-Click and One-Plugin Solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-post-series-box series-wordpress-guides-and-tutorials wp-post-series-box--expandable\">\n\t\t\t<input id=\"collapsible-series-wordpress-guides-and-tutorials6a2d5156f083d\" class=\"wp-post-series-box__toggle_checkbox\" type=\"checkbox\">\n\t\n\t<label\n\t\tclass=\"wp-post-series-box__label\"\n\t\t\t\t\tfor=\"collapsible-series-wordpress-guides-and-tutorials6a2d5156f083d\"\n\t\t\ttabindex=\"0\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t<p class=\"wp-post-series-box__name wp-post-series-name\">\n\t\t\tThis is post 13 of 18 in the series <em>&ldquo;WordPress Guides and Tutorials 2025&rdquo;<\/em>\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-post-series-box__description wp-post-series-description\">\n\t\t\t\t<p>In-depth WordPress Guides and Tutorials for the year 2025 and beyond. In this series, we share what we have learned over the 5 years we&#8217;ve been developing WordPress sites. We cover crucial topics such as WordPress Security, improving WordPress Site Speed, WooCommerce optimization, finding the Best WordPress Hosting, and so much more. We&#8217;ll update this series frequently, so consider bookmarking it.<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/label>\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-post-series-box__posts\">\n\t\t\t<ol>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/get-reliable-cloud-hosting-from-cloudways-our-recommendation\/\">Get Reliable Cloud Hosting from Cloudways &#8211; Our Recommendation<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/why-you-should-install-woocommerce-applications-separately-from-wordpress-content-sites\/\">Why You Should Install WooCommerce Applications Separately from WordPress Content Sites<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/choosing-the-right-web-hosting-provider-a-comprehensive-guide-to-finding-your-perfect-match\/\">Choosing the Right Web Hosting Provider: A Comprehensive Guide to Finding Your Perfect Match<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/wordpress-starter-kit-and-blogging-guide-how-to-start-your-new-site-on-a-strong-footing\/\">WordPress Starter Kit and Blogging Guide: How to Start Your New Site on a Strong Footing<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/how-to-speed-up-a-wordpress-site-for-technical-and-non-technical-users\/\">How to Speed Up a WordPress Site for Technical and Non-Technical Users<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wordpress-vs-wp-engine-feud-should-you-move-your-site-away-from-wp-engine\/\">WordPress vs. WP Engine Feud: Should You Move Your Site Away from WP Engine?<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/free-and-paid-ways-to-secure-wordpress-essential-tips-for-securing-your-wordpress-site\/\">Free and Paid Ways to Secure WordPress: Essential Tips for Securing Your WordPress Site<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/how-to-optimize-woocommerce-for-speed-and-security\/\">How to Optimize WooCommerce for Speed and Security<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/mastering-server-level-wordpress-optimizations-proven-strategies-for-blazing-fast-performance\/\">Mastering Server-Level WordPress Optimizations: Proven Strategies for Blazing-Fast Performance<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/how-to-create-a-custom-wordpress-website-without-a-web-developer-for-less-than-5\/\">How to Create a Custom WordPress Website Without a Web Developer (for Less than $5)<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/how-to-optimize-your-wordpress-theme-free-or-paid-for-speed-seo-and-user-experience\/\">How to Optimize Your WordPress Theme (Free or Paid) for Speed, SEO, and User Experience<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/why-your-wordpress-multisite-is-slowing-down-and-how-cpu-optimized-hosting-can-fix-it\/\">Why Your WordPress Multisite Is Slowing Down \u2014 and How CPU-Optimized Hosting Can Fix It<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><span class=\"wp-post-series-box__current\">Easy and Quick WordPress Optimizations with One-Click and One-Plugin Solutions<\/span><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/5-reasons-why-your-website-needs-managed-cloud-hosting-and-why-we-think-cloudways-is-the-best\/\">5 Reasons Why Your Website Needs Managed Cloud Hosting (and Why We Think Cloudways is the Best)<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/maximize-roi-for-your-smb-website-with-cloudways-cpu-optimized-servers-lightning-stack-scale-for-long-term-growth-at-an-affordable-price\/\">Maximize ROI for your SMB Website with Cloudways&#8217; CPU-Optimized Servers + Lightning Stack: Scale for Long-term Growth at an Affordable Price<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/how-cloudways-copilot-makes-wordpress-server-troubleshooting-easier-and-saves-you-hours-at-a-fraction-of-the-cost-of-hiring-a-devop-engineer\/\">How Cloudways CoPilot Makes WordPress Server Troubleshooting Easier and Saves You Hours (at a Fraction of the Cost of Hiring a DevOp Engineer)<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/the-ultimate-server-side-caching-guide-for-wordpress-redis-varnish-and-cloudflare-enterprise-explained\/\">The Ultimate Server-Side Caching Guide for WordPress: Redis, Varnish, and Cloudflare Enterprise Explained<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/how-to-monitor-and-maintain-a-high-performance-wordpress-server-without-the-guesswork\/\">How to Monitor and Maintain a High-Performance WordPress Server (Without the Guesswork)<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/ol>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<p>Let&#8217;s get started&#8230;<\/p>\n<h2>Introduction: Achieving &lt;2\u202fs Load Times, Core Web Vitals, and PageSpeed \u2265\u202f80<\/h2>\n<p>High-performing WordPress sites rank better and convert more users. Effectively optimizing your WordPress site, however, can be quite the daunting task, especially if you\u2019re just in the early days of your WP journey. This calls for <b>easy and quick WordPress optimizations, using one-click or one-plugin solutions<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, WordPress is amongst the most used content management systems (CMS) in the market. As a result, the WordPress repository has loads of free and premium plugins that you can install on your site and enhance its speed, Core Web Vitals, SEO, and overall user-friendliness.<\/p>\n<p>In this article, we\u2019ll share<b> easy and quick WordPress optimizations (one-plugin or one-click), with the aim of improving your site\u2019s load times, Core Web Vitals<\/b> (LCP, FID, CLS, TTFB), its <b>SEO Scores<\/b>, and <b>User Experience<\/b>, UX.<\/p>\n<p>We will concentrate on plugins that have free versions, and also those with both free and Pro\/premium versions, i.e, \u2018freemium\u2019 <a rel=\"tag\" class=\"hashtag u-tag u-category\" href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/tag\/wordpressplugins\/\">#WordPressPlugins<\/a>. We\u2019ll then share how you can easily measure the effectiveness of the applied optimizations, and what more you can do to further optimize your WordPress install.<\/p>\n<h2>Caching for Sub\u20112\u202fSecond First\u2011Paint<\/h2>\n<p><b>Caching<\/b> is perhaps the most impactful optimization you can do for your WordPress site to ensure a First-Paint of under 2 seconds. Essentially, <b>caching works by storing copies of your pages, to be served to users who subsequently request those pages<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>Caching happens on several levels: page caching, server caching, and browser caching.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4714\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4714\" style=\"width: 742px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4714\" src=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2024\/12\/How-WordPress-caching-works-Mastering-server-level-optimizations-for-WordPress.png\" alt=\"How WordPress caching works - Mastering server-level optimizations for WordPress - Mania Developers\" width=\"742\" height=\"495\" title=\"| Mania Africa | maniainc.com\" srcset=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2024\/12\/How-WordPress-caching-works-Mastering-server-level-optimizations-for-WordPress.png 742w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2024\/12\/How-WordPress-caching-works-Mastering-server-level-optimizations-for-WordPress-600x400.png 600w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2024\/12\/How-WordPress-caching-works-Mastering-server-level-optimizations-for-WordPress-300x200.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 742px) 100vw, 742px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4714\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A graphic showing how caching works on WordPress. Source: WP Rocket.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><b>Page caching <\/b>is caching of page content, mostly effected through a caching plugin. <b>Server caching<\/b> is caching that happens on the <a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/mastering-server-level-wordpress-optimizations-proven-strategies-for-blazing-fast-performance\/\">server-level<\/a>, caching requests to the server. <b>Browser caching<\/b>, on the other hand, is caching that happens on users\u2019 devices (browsers), storing copies of files they have visited so that they are served faster on subsequent visits. Here are easy and quick WordPress optimizations for enabling and configuring page caching.<b><br \/>\n<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">\n<h3>LiteSpeed Cache (free, server\u2011level)<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>LiteSpeed Cache is a multi-level acceleration plugin that entails numerous optimization tools and also interactivity with the server-side of caching. <b>It caches full pages to serve static HTML, instead of running PHP fetches on each single visit<\/b>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5814\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5814\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-5814\" src=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/LiteSpeed-Cache-Plugin-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-Mania-Tech-1024x444.png\" alt=\"LiteSpeed Cache Plugin - Easy and Quick WordPress Optimizations with One-Click and One-Plugin Solutions - Mania Tech\" width=\"1024\" height=\"444\" title=\"| Mania Africa | maniainc.com\" srcset=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/LiteSpeed-Cache-Plugin-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-Mania-Tech-1024x444.png 1024w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/LiteSpeed-Cache-Plugin-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-Mania-Tech-1536x667.png 1536w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/LiteSpeed-Cache-Plugin-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-Mania-Tech-600x260.png 600w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/LiteSpeed-Cache-Plugin-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-Mania-Tech-300x130.png 300w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/LiteSpeed-Cache-Plugin-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-Mania-Tech-768x333.png 768w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/LiteSpeed-Cache-Plugin-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-Mania-Tech.png 1915w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5814\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The LiteSpeed Cache Plugin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>LiteSpeed stands out due to its effectiveness, and posits dramatically faster page loads for repeat visits, since it bypasses PHP for most users. The plugin also has a built-in script minifier and image optimizer, and supports CDNs and object caching. LiteSpeed\u2019s pitfall is that <b>it requires a paid LiteSpeed server for some advanced features<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>To get started, <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/litespeed-cache\/#:~:text=LiteSpeed%20Cache%20for%20WordPress%20,a%20collection%20of%20optimization%20features\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">install the plugin<\/a> and activate it. You can then enable \u2018cache\u2019 in a single click and use the recommended (and default) settings. A good example is \u2018Automatically Purge\u2019 on updates. You should <b>also ensure that the needed <\/b><b>.htaccess<\/b><b> rules are correct<\/b>, and <b>exclude dynamic pages such as the cart and checkout pages<\/b>\u2014if you are using <a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/how-to-optimize-woocommerce-for-speed-and-security\/\">WooCommerce<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/how-to-optimize-woocommerce-for-speed-and-security\/\">How to Optimize WooCommerce for Speed and Security<\/a><\/p>\n<p>To test its effectiveness, verify that the cache is working via the \u2018Test Cache\u2019 section and <b>use PageSpeed\/GTmetrix to compare load times<\/b> before and after activating the plugin.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">\n<h3>WP Super Cache (free, file\u2011based)<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>WP Super Cache is another caching plugin that you can install and easily configure in a few clicks. <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-super-cache\/#:~:text=This%20plugin%20generates%20static%20html,more%20expensive%20WordPress%20PHP%20scripts\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WP Super Cache<\/a> is developed by Automattic, the company behind WordPress. It is a free plugin that \u201c<i>serves super-fast static pages to 99% of visitors<\/i>\u201d i.e., non-logged in users, according to the plugin\u2019s page on the WP repository. In our experience, that\u2019s true and <b>the plugin is simple, lightweight, and very effective<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>WP Super Cache also stands out for its simple setup, where users can just turn on \u2018Simple Caching\u2019 and have the best settings. For advanced users, they can tweak <a href=\"https:\/\/httpd.apache.org\/docs\/current\/mod\/mod_rewrite.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">mod_rewrite<\/a> for the plugin\u2019s \u2018expert\u2019 features. The plugin also includes<b> functionality to compress pages, and enable CDN rewrites<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><i>\u201cThe<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/httpd.apache.org\/docs\/current\/mod\/mod_rewrite.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> <i>mod_rewrite<\/i><\/a><i> module uses a rule-based rewriting engine, based on a PCRE regular-expression parser, to rewrite requested URLs on the fly. By default, <\/i><i>mod_rewrite<\/i><i> maps a URL to a filesystem path. However, it can also be used to redirect one URL to another URL, or to invoke an internal proxy fetch\u201d\u2014<\/i>APACHE website.<\/p>\n<p>WP Super Cache\u2019s pitfall, on the other hand, is that <b>it is quite strict and will not allow you to have other plugins doing similar things<\/b>, requiring that you <b>explicitly disable other caching plugins before using it<\/b>. <b>Some themes may also be incompatible<\/b> with WP Super Cache, and if you notice that the cache is not being updated, ensure you clear the cache manually, i.e., by deleting the cache files from your server.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5815\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5815\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-5815\" src=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/WP-Super-Cache-Plugin-Caching-for-Sub\u20112\u202fSecond-First\u2011Paint-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-1024x434.png\" alt=\"WP Super Cache Plugin - Caching for Sub\u20112\u202fSecond First\u2011Paint - Easy and Quick WordPress Optimizations with One-Click and One-Plugin Solutions\" width=\"1024\" height=\"434\" title=\"| Mania Africa | maniainc.com\" srcset=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/WP-Super-Cache-Plugin-Caching-for-Sub\u20112\u202fSecond-First\u2011Paint-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-1024x434.png 1024w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/WP-Super-Cache-Plugin-Caching-for-Sub\u20112\u202fSecond-First\u2011Paint-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-1536x651.png 1536w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/WP-Super-Cache-Plugin-Caching-for-Sub\u20112\u202fSecond-First\u2011Paint-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-600x254.png 600w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/WP-Super-Cache-Plugin-Caching-for-Sub\u20112\u202fSecond-First\u2011Paint-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-300x127.png 300w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/WP-Super-Cache-Plugin-Caching-for-Sub\u20112\u202fSecond-First\u2011Paint-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-768x325.png 768w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/WP-Super-Cache-Plugin-Caching-for-Sub\u20112\u202fSecond-First\u2011Paint-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions.png 1914w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5815\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The WP Super Cache Plugin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>For WP Super Cache, we recommend that you <b>turn on \u2018<\/b><b>Simple Caching<\/b><b>\u2019, \u2018<\/b><b>Compress Pages<\/b><b>\u2019, and enable \u2018<\/b><b>Preload mode<\/b><b>\u2019<\/b>. In most setups, the plugin will work right out of the box, but <b>if you\u2019re having issues, you can add a few lines to your wp-config file<\/b> (such as define WP_CACHE: true;) or even point the plugin to the location in your directories where your site is located.<\/p>\n<p>For testing, browse the site in an incognito tab after enabling the plugin, and <b>use the browser\u2019s inspector tool to check cache tags<\/b>. You should then head on to <a href=\"https:\/\/pagespeed.web.dev\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">PageSpeed Insights<\/a> and confirm lower server response times.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">\n<h3>WP\u2011Optimize Cache (free, plugin\u2011level)<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>WP-Optimize Cache is a simple, multipurpose caching plugin that\u2019s better known for its effectiveness for database cleanups. Even so, <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-optimize\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WP-Optimize Cache<\/a> is <b>a good contender when it comes to page caching, and includes support for GZIP compression<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>The plugin is easy to use, and you only need a single-click to turn caching on\/off. It <b>also includes image compression and file minification features<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>After adding and activating the plugin, <b>enable the \u2018<\/b><b>Cache your site<\/b><b>\u2019 setting<\/b> to use the recommended default settings, and also <b>enable \u2018<\/b><b>GZIP Compression<\/b><b>\u2019<\/b>. Ensure that you <b>do not run two caching plugins at the same time<\/b>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5816\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5816\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-5816\" src=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/WP-Optimize-Cache-Plugin-Caching-for-Sub\u20112\u202fSecond-First\u2011Paint-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-1024x444.png\" alt=\"WP-Optimize Cache Plugin - Caching for Sub\u20112\u202fSecond First\u2011Paint - Easy and Quick WordPress Optimizations with One-Click and One-Plugin Solutions\" width=\"1024\" height=\"444\" title=\"| Mania Africa | maniainc.com\" srcset=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/WP-Optimize-Cache-Plugin-Caching-for-Sub\u20112\u202fSecond-First\u2011Paint-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-1024x444.png 1024w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/WP-Optimize-Cache-Plugin-Caching-for-Sub\u20112\u202fSecond-First\u2011Paint-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-1536x666.png 1536w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/WP-Optimize-Cache-Plugin-Caching-for-Sub\u20112\u202fSecond-First\u2011Paint-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-600x260.png 600w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/WP-Optimize-Cache-Plugin-Caching-for-Sub\u20112\u202fSecond-First\u2011Paint-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-300x130.png 300w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/WP-Optimize-Cache-Plugin-Caching-for-Sub\u20112\u202fSecond-First\u2011Paint-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-768x333.png 768w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/WP-Optimize-Cache-Plugin-Caching-for-Sub\u20112\u202fSecond-First\u2011Paint-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions.png 1912w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5816\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The WP-Optimize Cache Plugin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>You can test the plugin\u2019s effectiveness via a tool such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pingdom.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pingdom<\/a> (Paid): to check Time to First Byte (TTFB), and overall load speeds.<\/p>\n<p>Despite being quite an impressive plugin, <b>WP-Optimize only works at the plugin-level (no server caching)<\/b>, and may posit <b>limited performance gains as compared to the other plugins<\/b> we have covered.<\/p>\n<p>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/mastering-server-level-wordpress-optimizations-proven-strategies-for-blazing-fast-performance\/\">Mastering Server-Level WordPress Optimizations: Proven Strategies for Blazing-Fast Performance<\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">\n<h3>Breeze Cache by Cloudways (free; plugin and server integration)<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Breeze Cache by <a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/get-reliable-cloud-hosting-from-cloudways-our-recommendation\/\">Cloudways<\/a> is <b>perhaps the most all-inclusive and all-round cache plugin for WordPress<\/b>. The plugin <b>does page caching, browser caching, CSS and JS minification, Font optimization, CDN configuration, and database optimization and cleaning<\/b>, among other functionalities.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4579\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4579\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-4579\" src=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2024\/11\/A-screenshot-of-the-Breeze-Wordpress-plugin-by-Cloudways-Mania-Developers-1024x572.png\" alt=\"A screenshot of the Breeze WordPress plugin by Cloudways - Mania Developers | maniainc.com\/mania-developers\" width=\"1024\" height=\"572\" title=\"| Mania Africa | maniainc.com\" srcset=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2024\/11\/A-screenshot-of-the-Breeze-Wordpress-plugin-by-Cloudways-Mania-Developers-1024x572.png 1024w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2024\/11\/A-screenshot-of-the-Breeze-Wordpress-plugin-by-Cloudways-Mania-Developers-1536x857.png 1536w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2024\/11\/A-screenshot-of-the-Breeze-Wordpress-plugin-by-Cloudways-Mania-Developers-600x335.png 600w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2024\/11\/A-screenshot-of-the-Breeze-Wordpress-plugin-by-Cloudways-Mania-Developers-300x167.png 300w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2024\/11\/A-screenshot-of-the-Breeze-Wordpress-plugin-by-Cloudways-Mania-Developers-768x429.png 768w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2024\/11\/A-screenshot-of-the-Breeze-Wordpress-plugin-by-Cloudways-Mania-Developers.png 2010w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4579\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A screenshot of the Breeze WordPress plugin by Cloudways.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/breeze\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Breeze Cache plugin<\/a> is super simple to set up, and in just a few clicks, you can have all of its features running. The plugin is super effective and <b>is further improved when you\u2019re on Cloudways\u2019 servers<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>The beauty of Breeze is that <b>it does both front-end (page) caching, and backend (server) caching<\/b>. It is <b>fully integrated with Varnish<\/b> and, <b>each and every new WP install on Cloudways comes with Redis Cache Pro<\/b>, which works on both the plugin and server levels.<\/p>\n<p>Cloudways\u2019 cloud servers are <b>super simple to set up and use, and you get a host of add-ons\u2014that will do most of what we cover in this article\u2014for free<\/b> (more on that later).<\/p>\n<p>Check out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cloudways.com\/en\/?id=864773\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cloudways Pricing Plans<\/a> for a plan that works for you.<\/p>\n<p>PS: We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.<\/p>\n<h2>Object Caching to Boost Backend Interactivity (Faster Admin &amp; Dynamic Content)<\/h2>\n<p>Object caching <b>stores frequent database query results in memory<\/b>. It <b>accelerates dynamic content by caching common objects and queries, thus reducing the load on your database<\/b>. This is hugely beneficial as it <b>reduces the load on your server\u2019s CPU and database, while also making the back-end faster for logged-in users<\/b>. Dynamic pages, such as <a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/how-to-optimize-woocommerce-for-speed-and-security\/\">WooCommerce<\/a> cart and checkout pages, will also work much faster. Here are quick and easy one-plugin WordPress solutions for enabling object cache.<b><br \/>\n<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">\n<h3>Redis Object Cache (free)<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A quick, one-click way to install object caching on your WordPress site is to install the <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/redis-cache\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">free Redis Object Cache plugin<\/a>. This plugin works by installing object caching on the plugin level\u2014and on enabling it\u2014will add a drop-in plugin: object-cache.php.<\/p>\n<p>The Redis Object Cache plugin is <b>very effective, and can be hugely beneficial for high-traffic sites; as DB queries will be served much, much faster, and users will note a difference in performance<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>Setup is simple, as you just install and activate the plugin, and then go to the plugin\u2019s page and click \u2018Enable\u2019. You won\u2019t need to do anything else.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5817\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5817\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-5817\" src=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Redis-Object-Cache-Plugin-Object-Caching-to-Boost-Backend-Interactivity-Faster-Admin-Dynamic-Content-Mania-Guides-1024x443.png\" alt=\"The Redis Object Cache Plugin - Object Caching to Boost Backend Interactivity (Faster Admin &amp; Dynamic Content) - Mania Guides\" width=\"1024\" height=\"443\" title=\"| Mania Africa | maniainc.com\" srcset=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Redis-Object-Cache-Plugin-Object-Caching-to-Boost-Backend-Interactivity-Faster-Admin-Dynamic-Content-Mania-Guides-1024x443.png 1024w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Redis-Object-Cache-Plugin-Object-Caching-to-Boost-Backend-Interactivity-Faster-Admin-Dynamic-Content-Mania-Guides-1536x664.png 1536w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Redis-Object-Cache-Plugin-Object-Caching-to-Boost-Backend-Interactivity-Faster-Admin-Dynamic-Content-Mania-Guides-600x259.png 600w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Redis-Object-Cache-Plugin-Object-Caching-to-Boost-Backend-Interactivity-Faster-Admin-Dynamic-Content-Mania-Guides-300x130.png 300w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Redis-Object-Cache-Plugin-Object-Caching-to-Boost-Backend-Interactivity-Faster-Admin-Dynamic-Content-Mania-Guides-768x332.png 768w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Redis-Object-Cache-Plugin-Object-Caching-to-Boost-Backend-Interactivity-Faster-Admin-Dynamic-Content-Mania-Guides.png 1903w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5817\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Redis Object Cache Plugin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>There is a catch, however, as <b>for the plugin to work optimally, you will need Redis on your host (a paid feature on most hosts)<\/b>. Moreover, <b>the plugin will not work if Redis is offline<\/b>\u2014as it lacks a fallback strategy. In most cases, <b>the site may break<\/b>, and it\u2019s upon you to ensure it is disabled.<\/p>\n<p>To test the effectiveness of the plugin, you can use tools such as the <b>Query Monitor plugin to test query speed<\/b>. <b>Look for fewer database calls on reload<\/b>, and also <b>check the cache hit ratios<\/b>. Compare the figures before and after activating Redis.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">\n<h3>Memcached Object Cache (free)<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/memcached\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Memcached Object Cache<\/a>, on the other hand, is a free object-cache plugin. It is <b>an effective alternative for users who lack Redis on their hosts<\/b>, and will work similarly by ensuring that query caching happens at both the plugin and server levels.<\/p>\n<p>Setting up the plugin is also super simple, though <b>you have to ensure that it is compatible with your hosts\u2019 servers<\/b>. In most cases, <b>a good host will have either Redis or Memcached add-ons<\/b>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5818\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5818\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-5818\" src=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Memcached-Object-Cache-Plugin-Object-Caching-to-Boost-Backend-Interactivity-Faster-Admin-Dynamic-Content-Mania-Guides-1024x441.png\" alt=\"The Memcached Object Cache Plugin - Object Caching to Boost Backend Interactivity (Faster Admin &amp; Dynamic Content) - Mania Guides\" width=\"1024\" height=\"441\" title=\"| Mania Africa | maniainc.com\" srcset=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Memcached-Object-Cache-Plugin-Object-Caching-to-Boost-Backend-Interactivity-Faster-Admin-Dynamic-Content-Mania-Guides-1024x441.png 1024w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Memcached-Object-Cache-Plugin-Object-Caching-to-Boost-Backend-Interactivity-Faster-Admin-Dynamic-Content-Mania-Guides-1536x662.png 1536w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Memcached-Object-Cache-Plugin-Object-Caching-to-Boost-Backend-Interactivity-Faster-Admin-Dynamic-Content-Mania-Guides-600x259.png 600w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Memcached-Object-Cache-Plugin-Object-Caching-to-Boost-Backend-Interactivity-Faster-Admin-Dynamic-Content-Mania-Guides-300x129.png 300w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Memcached-Object-Cache-Plugin-Object-Caching-to-Boost-Backend-Interactivity-Faster-Admin-Dynamic-Content-Mania-Guides-768x331.png 768w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Memcached-Object-Cache-Plugin-Object-Caching-to-Boost-Backend-Interactivity-Faster-Admin-Dynamic-Content-Mania-Guides.png 1900w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5818\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Memcached Object Cache Plugin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Additionally, ensure you also monitor memory usage, as <b>your server will need to have a high-enough RAM for you to realize noticeable speed improvements when using object caching<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, <b>most hosts will charge for object caching add-ons, and that\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/get-reliable-cloud-hosting-from-cloudways-our-recommendation\/\">why we recommend Cloudways<\/a><\/b>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">\n<h3>Cloudways Object Caching \u2014 Varnish &amp; Redis (free, pre-installed and pre-configured with Cloudways servers)<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We use Cloudways and their object caching add-ons are impeccable. <b>Cloudways supports native object caching via Redis and Varnish add-ons that come pre-installed and pre-configured in every new WordPress install on their servers<\/b>. <a href=\"https:\/\/varnish-cache.org\/intro\/index.html#intro\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Varnish<\/a> adds another layer of caching beyond page and browser caching, where <b>all PHP requests are cached and caches made deliverable to users<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>The beauty of Cloudways hosting is that, <b>beyond Varnish, they also offer Redis Object Caching Pro for FREE, saving you from a monthly subscription for the Pro features of the plugin<\/b>. Imagine that. Their Redis Pro comes pre-installed, and <b>on activating it, the needed <\/b><b>.htaccess<\/b><b> and <\/b><b>wp-config.php<\/b><b> configurations are set automatically<\/b>. It doesn\u2019t get more one-click than that!<\/p>\n<p>Beyond that, Cloudways offers <b>legit capable servers, which come with a host of features and add-ons, including NewRelic<\/b>, which is an all-round application monitoring software. You also get <b>tons of flexibility<\/b> as you can choose cloud servers from bigwigs such as Google Cloud, AWS, Digital Ocean, Linode and Vultr.<\/p>\n<p>Their servers also <b>support CDN integration<\/b>, and <b>work flawlessly with the Breeze Cache plugin<\/b>. We would actually recommend that you get a Cloudways Server, and it will come with <b>Breeze, Varnish, <\/b>and<b> Object Caching Pro (Redis Pro) pre-installed and configured with the best settings<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>Cloudways Cloud servers are also <b>very affordable<\/b>, especially since they pack a punch. You also <b>get the ability to purge the caches via your Cloudways server dashboard<\/b>, thanks to an easy-to-use UI and <b>a host of tweak options<\/b>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>You can get a 20% Cloudways Discount by using our promo code \u2018<b><strong>MANIAINC<\/strong><\/b>\u2018. We may get a commission when you do or when you get a Cloudways plan via one of our links.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cloudways.com\/en\/?id=864773\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Get a Cloudways Cloud Server<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Image Optimization for Faster LCP &amp; Page Weight Under 1\u202fMB<\/h2>\n<p><b>Heavy and incorrectly sized images can weigh down heavily on your WordPress site<\/b>, bogging it down to a point that pages load considerably slower. As such, <b>it is crucial to optimize images to ensure faster Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) <\/b>and<b> a page weight that is under 1 MB<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, there is weight to your site\u2019s pages, and it affects how fast they load. If images are unoptimized, the page\u2019s weight can shoot up way beyond the SEO-recommended 1 MB. The following are quick and easy one-plugin WordPress solutions for optimizing, converting, and compressing images.<b><br \/>\n<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">\n<h3>Imagify (free\/freemium)<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/imagify\/#:~:text=Imagify%20is%20the%20most%20advanced,and%20without%20sacrificing%20their%20quality\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Imagify Plugin<\/a> by WP Media is a freemium image optimization plugin. It is a one-click image compression and WebP\/AVIF conversion plugin for WordPress. It <b>works by shrinking image file sizes to bolster <a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/how-to-speed-up-a-wordpress-site-for-technical-and-non-technical-users\/\">page speed<\/a><\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>The plugin <b>is very effective when it comes to image compression<\/b>, and with a single click on \u2018Auto-optimize on Upload\u2019, <b>all the images you upload will undergo lossless compression, i.e., compression without quality loss<\/b>. Moreover, <b>large uploads will also be resized automatically<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>Using the plugin, you can also undertake <b>bulk optimization of existing images<\/b>, and save massive amounts of file storage on your server.<\/p>\n<p>Setting up the Imagify plugin is simple, and on installation and activation, all you need to do is <b>enable \u2018<\/b><b>WebP\/AVIF conversion<\/b><b>\u2019<\/b>, \u2018<b>asynchronous bulk optimization<\/b>\u2019, and <b>choose a compression level<\/b> (e.g \u2018Smart\u2019).<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5819\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5819\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-5819\" src=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Imagify-Image-Optimization-Plugin-WordPress-Image-Optimization-for-Faster-LCP-Page-Weight-Under-1\u202fMB-Mania-Developers-1024x441.png\" alt=\"The Imagify Image Optimization Plugin - WordPress Image Optimization for Faster LCP &amp; Page Weight Under 1\u202fMB - Mania Developers\" width=\"1024\" height=\"441\" title=\"| Mania Africa | maniainc.com\" srcset=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Imagify-Image-Optimization-Plugin-WordPress-Image-Optimization-for-Faster-LCP-Page-Weight-Under-1\u202fMB-Mania-Developers-1024x441.png 1024w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Imagify-Image-Optimization-Plugin-WordPress-Image-Optimization-for-Faster-LCP-Page-Weight-Under-1\u202fMB-Mania-Developers-1536x662.png 1536w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Imagify-Image-Optimization-Plugin-WordPress-Image-Optimization-for-Faster-LCP-Page-Weight-Under-1\u202fMB-Mania-Developers-600x258.png 600w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Imagify-Image-Optimization-Plugin-WordPress-Image-Optimization-for-Faster-LCP-Page-Weight-Under-1\u202fMB-Mania-Developers-300x129.png 300w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Imagify-Image-Optimization-Plugin-WordPress-Image-Optimization-for-Faster-LCP-Page-Weight-Under-1\u202fMB-Mania-Developers-768x331.png 768w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Imagify-Image-Optimization-Plugin-WordPress-Image-Optimization-for-Faster-LCP-Page-Weight-Under-1\u202fMB-Mania-Developers.png 1911w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5819\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Imagify Image Optimization Plugin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>You can test how effectively Imagify is optimizing your images by using a tool such as <a href=\"https:\/\/gtmetrix.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><b>GTmetrix<\/b><\/a><b> or Lighthouse<\/b>\u2014and check the \u2018Efficient Images\u2019 audit results for the latter.<\/p>\n<p>In terms of potential pitfalls, <b>the free version of the Imagify plugin is limited <\/b>and<b> will only allow a quota of 20 MB worth of images per month<\/b>. You should also <b>ensure that you avoid compressing images too aggressively, as it can degrade quality<\/b>. This necessitates that you <b>have a backup of all your images just in case<\/b>. Luckily, however, the plugin allows you to restore original images.<\/p>\n<p>Related:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/how-to-speed-up-a-wordpress-site-for-technical-and-non-technical-users\/\">How to Speed Up a WordPress Site for Technical and Non-Technical Users<\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">\n<h3>ShortPixel (free 100 images\/month)<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Like Imagify, the <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/shortpixel-image-optimiser\/#:~:text=%E2%9A%A1%20Boost%20your%20site%E2%80%99s%20speed,lazy%20loading%2C%20and%20resize%20images\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ShortPixel plugin<\/a> will also do WebP\/AVIF conversions, and compress images with minimal effort. <b>ShortPixel is advantageous as it does cloud-based optimization, though with the caveat that you need API access<\/b> (free for basic features) to do that.<\/p>\n<p>The plugin itself is <b>lightweight<\/b> and also <b>comes with a CDN integration for serving images<\/b>. ShortPixel <b>supports background and bulk optimization, auto-resizing,<\/b> and more importantly, <b>retina and CMYK images<\/b>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5820\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5820\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-5820\" src=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-ShortPixel-Image-Optimizer-Plugin-WordPress-Image-Optimization-for-Faster-LCP-Page-Weight-Under-1\u202fMB-Mania-Developers-1024x438.png\" alt=\"The ShortPixel Image Optimizer Plugin - WordPress Image Optimization for Faster LCP &amp; Page Weight Under 1\u202fMB - Mania Developers\" width=\"1024\" height=\"438\" title=\"| Mania Africa | maniainc.com\" srcset=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-ShortPixel-Image-Optimizer-Plugin-WordPress-Image-Optimization-for-Faster-LCP-Page-Weight-Under-1\u202fMB-Mania-Developers-1024x438.png 1024w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-ShortPixel-Image-Optimizer-Plugin-WordPress-Image-Optimization-for-Faster-LCP-Page-Weight-Under-1\u202fMB-Mania-Developers-1536x657.png 1536w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-ShortPixel-Image-Optimizer-Plugin-WordPress-Image-Optimization-for-Faster-LCP-Page-Weight-Under-1\u202fMB-Mania-Developers-600x257.png 600w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-ShortPixel-Image-Optimizer-Plugin-WordPress-Image-Optimization-for-Faster-LCP-Page-Weight-Under-1\u202fMB-Mania-Developers-300x128.png 300w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-ShortPixel-Image-Optimizer-Plugin-WordPress-Image-Optimization-for-Faster-LCP-Page-Weight-Under-1\u202fMB-Mania-Developers-768x328.png 768w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-ShortPixel-Image-Optimizer-Plugin-WordPress-Image-Optimization-for-Faster-LCP-Page-Weight-Under-1\u202fMB-Mania-Developers.png 1908w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5820\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The ShortPixel Image Optimizer Plugin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Setup is pretty easy, and all you have to do is <b>open a free account to get API access<\/b>, install the plugin, and enable key features such as: <b>selecting a compression mode<\/b> (\u2018Glossy\u2019 recommended) and <b>enabling WebP\/AVIF conversion<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>You can test ShortPixel\u2019s effectiveness using <b>GTmetrix<\/b>; and you should also <b>ensure that you enable \u2018<\/b><b>Include WebP Images in Front End Pages<\/b><b>\u2019 as WebP images load faster on modern browsers<\/b>. By default, <b>if this feature disabled, you would have to install another plugin to serve WebP<\/b>, which could risk double-optimizing.<\/p>\n<p>Needless to say, ensure that you <b>avoid double-optimizing<\/b>, which is a common pitfall <b>where users compress already compressed images (via another plugin or software)<\/b>. Note also that <b>the free version of ShortPixel only allows for 100 images\u2019 worth of optimization a month<\/b>.<\/p>\n<h3>Bonus Tip: Move to CPU-Optimized Hosting<\/h3>\n<p><b>Even with a good image optimization plugin, you\u2019ll need servers that will do read\/write operations fast<\/b>, and that\u2019s where <b>Cloudways CPU-Optimized hosting<\/b> comes in. Despite a good optimization strategy and smaller image files, <b>the site will still load slowly if you are using traditional servers<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><b>CPU-Optimized servers<\/b>, in turn,<b> write to and read from storage disks faster, and also come with the latest CPU hardware\u2014ensuring faster clock speeds<\/b>. Cloudways CPU-Optimized cloud droplets <b>couple the latest CPU hardware with fast NVMe storage, ensuring that all your optimized images can be read quickly whenever requested<\/b> by browsers.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>You can get a 20% Cloudways Discount by using our promo code \u2018<b><strong>MANIAINC<\/strong><\/b>\u2018. We may get a commission when you do or when you get a Cloudways plan via one of our links.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cloudways.com\/en\/?id=864773\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Get a Cloudways Plan<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Beyond that, CPU-Optimized hosting will also posit <b>huge increases in overall site speed and flexibility<\/b>, as we saw in our <a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/why-your-wordpress-multisite-is-slowing-down-and-how-cpu-optimized-hosting-can-fix-it\/\">article on how to fix high CPU usage<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>CSS\/JS Minification &amp; Deferment to Eliminate Render\u2011Blocking<b><br \/>\n<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>Script (CSS\/JS) minification and deferment are other one-click optimizations that you can easily effect on your site, for improved load times, Core Web Vitals, SEO scores, and User Experience.<b> Script minification and deferment involves removing whitespace from CSS\/JS and then deferring them to be served after the page is fully loaded<\/b>. This avoids loading the scripts in a way that would block or delay page loading\/rendering.<\/p>\n<p>Here are easy and quick WordPress optimizations for CSS\/JS minification and deferring.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">\n<h3>Autoptimize (free)<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/autoptimize\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Autoptimize Plugin<\/a> is by far the most effective in script optimization. The plugin <b>minifies, aggregates,<\/b> and <b>lazy-loads CSS\/JS<\/b>. It works to reduce file sizes and minimize render-blocking resources.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5821\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5821\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-5821\" src=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Autoptimize-WordPress-Plugin-CSS-and-JS-Minification-and-Deferment-to-Eliminate-Render\u2011Blocking-on-WordPress-Mania-Guides-1024x444.png\" alt=\"The Autoptimize WordPress Plugin - CSS and JS Minification and Deferment to Eliminate Render\u2011Blocking on WordPress - Mania Guides\" width=\"1024\" height=\"444\" title=\"| Mania Africa | maniainc.com\" srcset=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Autoptimize-WordPress-Plugin-CSS-and-JS-Minification-and-Deferment-to-Eliminate-Render\u2011Blocking-on-WordPress-Mania-Guides-1024x444.png 1024w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Autoptimize-WordPress-Plugin-CSS-and-JS-Minification-and-Deferment-to-Eliminate-Render\u2011Blocking-on-WordPress-Mania-Guides-1536x666.png 1536w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Autoptimize-WordPress-Plugin-CSS-and-JS-Minification-and-Deferment-to-Eliminate-Render\u2011Blocking-on-WordPress-Mania-Guides-600x260.png 600w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Autoptimize-WordPress-Plugin-CSS-and-JS-Minification-and-Deferment-to-Eliminate-Render\u2011Blocking-on-WordPress-Mania-Guides-300x130.png 300w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Autoptimize-WordPress-Plugin-CSS-and-JS-Minification-and-Deferment-to-Eliminate-Render\u2011Blocking-on-WordPress-Mania-Guides-768x333.png 768w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Autoptimize-WordPress-Plugin-CSS-and-JS-Minification-and-Deferment-to-Eliminate-Render\u2011Blocking-on-WordPress-Mania-Guides.png 1906w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5821\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Autoptimize WordPress Plugin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><b>Autoptimize is plenty advantageous as it can load CSS asynchronously<\/b> (along with page load), <b>inline critical CSS, defer non-critical JS, <\/b>and<b> reduce HTTP requests<\/b> (by combining scripts). Essentially, any JS or CSS files that are used by your theme (and other plugins) will first be minified (removing comments and whitespace), then combined with other similar files, and can also be served inline.<\/p>\n<p><i>\u201cInlining CSS and JavaScript both refer to simply <\/i><b><i>including the CSS and JS within your HTML file<\/i><\/b><i>. Inline small CSS should be included within the &lt;head&gt; tags of an HTML file while inline small JavaScript can be included either within the &lt;head&gt; tag or the &lt;body&gt; tag.\u201d<\/i> \u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/www.keycdn.com\/support\/inline-small-css-and-javascript\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">KeyCDN<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Installing Autoptimize is pretty straightforward. All you need to do is enable key features, including: <b>\u2018<\/b><b>Optimize JavaScript<\/b><b>\u2019, \u2018<\/b><b>Optimize CSS Code<\/b><b>\u2019,<\/b> and <b>\u2018<\/b><b>Aggregate CSS\/JS<\/b><b>\u2019<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Expert Tip:<\/b> To really know what Autoptimize settings are best for you, I\u2019d recommend that you <b>consult your theme\u2019s documentation<\/b>\u2014or <b>contact your theme\u2019s developer for instructions<\/b>\u2014<b>on what Autoptimize settings work best<\/b>. <b>Trying to set them yourself will often break your site<\/b>, as specific themes handle CSS\/JS in different ways. In my experience, <b>there\u2019s no one size fits all with Autoptimize settings<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>As a result of the plugin\u2019s powerful features, <b>page loading is much more efficient, HTTP requests are minimized,<\/b> and <b>page rendering occurs much faster<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>In terms of pitfalls, <b>Autoptimize can be quite aggressive<\/b>, and thus you should <b>ensure you \u2018<\/b><b>exclude CSS<\/b><b>\u2019 or JS that you do not want optimized<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Side Note:<\/b> Cloudways\u2019 Breeze Cache plugin <b>already does script minification and optimization<\/b>, and you will, therefore, <b>not need a separate CSS\/JS optimization plugin<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, <b>Breeze can be the best all-round optimization plugin for you, especially when coupled with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cloudways.com\/en\/?id=864773\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cloudways hosting<\/a><\/b>. The advantage of doing this is that you\u2019ll <b>optimize with just a single plugin<\/b>, and <b>avoid the overhead of multiple plugins<\/b>\u2014each doing its own thing and risking plugin conflicts.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">\n<h3>WP\u2011Optimize Minify (free)<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The WP-Optimize \u2018Minify\u2019 feature is another alternative for script optimization. If you are already using WP-Optimize for page caching, then you can also do script optimization with it.<\/p>\n<p>It is an easy one-click solution for CSS\/JS optimization and all you would need to do is head on to the \u2018Minify\u2019 tab on WP-Optimize, and enable it.<\/p>\n<p>The only drawback of this approach is that this \u2018add-on\u2019 <b>is not as full-featured as Autoptimize<\/b>, and <b>may lead to conflicts if another minification plugin is installed and active<\/b>.<\/p>\n<h2>Lazy Loading to Improve LCP &amp; Reduce Initial Payload<\/h2>\n<p>Like the name suggests, <b>lazy loading is \u2018lazily\u2019 loading images (or scripts) by delaying them from being loaded up until they are visible, or within the viewport<\/b>. Implementing lazy loading via a plugin is, therefore, another simple and effective way to optimize WordPress.<\/p>\n<p>Our recommended quick and easy one-plugin WordPress solutions for lazy loading include the following.<b><br \/>\n<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">\n<h3>LazyLoad by WP Rocket (free)<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/rocket-lazy-load\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WP Rocket\u2019s Lazy Load plugin<\/a> is a free plugin that you can use to lazy-load images, iframes, and videos. It <b>works by deferring offscreen images until they are needed (i.e., on scroll), thus reducing initial page load<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>This will <b>reduce LCP and improve Core Web Vitals for your site, while also ensuring fewer HTTP requests<\/b>. The idea is to have page loading be done as if any non-visible (or unseen) images do not exist; and for them to only be loaded when required, or when they are just about to be seen.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-5822\" src=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-LazyLoad-by-WP-Rocket-Lazy-Loading-to-Improve-LCP-Reduce-Initial-Payload-on-WordPress-Mania-Tech-1024x442.png\" alt=\"| Mania Africa: News, Sports, Tech, Movies, and Lifestyle | maniainc.com\" width=\"1024\" height=\"442\" title=\"| Mania Africa | maniainc.com\" srcset=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-LazyLoad-by-WP-Rocket-Lazy-Loading-to-Improve-LCP-Reduce-Initial-Payload-on-WordPress-Mania-Tech-1024x442.png 1024w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-LazyLoad-by-WP-Rocket-Lazy-Loading-to-Improve-LCP-Reduce-Initial-Payload-on-WordPress-Mania-Tech-1536x663.png 1536w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-LazyLoad-by-WP-Rocket-Lazy-Loading-to-Improve-LCP-Reduce-Initial-Payload-on-WordPress-Mania-Tech-600x259.png 600w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-LazyLoad-by-WP-Rocket-Lazy-Loading-to-Improve-LCP-Reduce-Initial-Payload-on-WordPress-Mania-Tech-300x129.png 300w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-LazyLoad-by-WP-Rocket-Lazy-Loading-to-Improve-LCP-Reduce-Initial-Payload-on-WordPress-Mania-Tech-768x331.png 768w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-LazyLoad-by-WP-Rocket-Lazy-Loading-to-Improve-LCP-Reduce-Initial-Payload-on-WordPress-Mania-Tech.png 1908w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/>The beauty of Lazy Load by WP Rocket is that <b>it doesn\u2019t use jQuery<\/b> (a heavy &amp; complicated JS library) and instead, <b>uses a JS that\u2019s about 10 KB or less<\/b>. Awesome.<\/p>\n<p>Setup is also plug and play, and <b>you don\u2019t have to go tweaking settings like you would with Autoptimize<\/b>. You can also use <a href=\"https:\/\/webpagetest.org\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WebPageTest<\/a> to measure the impact of lazy-loading, and it\u2019s quite neat that <b>the plugin will also allow you to lazy-load iframes, and videos<\/b> (with previews).<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the thing, though. <b>A plugin such as Breeze already does lazy-loading<\/b>, and since version 5.5, <b>WordPress Core also natively supports image lazy-loading<\/b> via <i>&lt;img loading=&#8221;lazy&#8221;&gt;<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, <b>if you don\u2019t need to lazy load iframes or do something very specific with lazy-loading, it\u2019s better to just keep off the lazy loading plugins<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ll <b>save on HTTP requests<\/b> and <b>avoid possible conflicts<\/b>, both with other plugins (with similar features) and WP core. Also, <b>be mindful with above-the-fold images<\/b> and if you need to, you can disable lazy loading for a particular image using <i>data-no-lazy=&#8221;1&#8243;<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, <b>gallery plugins may be patchy if used alongside lazy loading<\/b>. In short, just be mindful\u2014you don\u2019t want an optimization plugin to slow things down instead of speeding them up.<\/p>\n<h2>CDN Integration for Global Caching &amp; Security<\/h2>\n<p>We can\u2019t emphasize enough the importance of <b>a CDN integration<\/b> as a one-click optimization for global caching and overall <a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/free-and-paid-ways-to-secure-wordpress-essential-tips-for-securing-your-wordpress-site\/\">security<\/a>. <b>A CDN is like a \u2018mirror\u2019, serving cached pages globally, and \u2018mirroring\u2019 your site in numerous locations\u2014without the request reaching your origin server<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s a mouthful, let me explain. A CDN captures cached versions of your pages and <b>whenever a user requests a particular page, the CDN serves the cached version from the server that is nearest to the user<\/b>. Simple, yet very impactful for speed, SEO, and user experience. A magic carpet for your site, if you will.<b><br \/>\n<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The following are easy and quick WordPress optimizations for integrating a CDN.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">\n<h3>Cloudflare (free plan + plugin)<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Cloudflare is <b>by far the most effective and popular CDN out there<\/b>, and better yet, it comes with a one-click plugin that you can use to enable it and set the best settings. Yes, <b>Cloudflare is free, even as more advanced features can be accessed via paid plans<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>Statistically speaking, <b>you can get up to 60% faster global page loads with Cloudflare, as it comes with built-in caching and automatic script minification<\/b>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4665\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4665\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-4665\" src=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2024\/12\/What-is-a-CDN_-How-to-Optimize-WooCommerce-for-Speed-and-Security-1024x512.png\" alt=\"What is a CDN? How to Optimize WooCommerce for Speed and Security - Mania Developers\" width=\"1024\" height=\"512\" title=\"| Mania Africa | maniainc.com\" srcset=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2024\/12\/What-is-a-CDN_-How-to-Optimize-WooCommerce-for-Speed-and-Security-1024x512.png 1024w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2024\/12\/What-is-a-CDN_-How-to-Optimize-WooCommerce-for-Speed-and-Security-1536x768.png 1536w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2024\/12\/What-is-a-CDN_-How-to-Optimize-WooCommerce-for-Speed-and-Security-2048x1024.png 2048w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2024\/12\/What-is-a-CDN_-How-to-Optimize-WooCommerce-for-Speed-and-Security-600x300.png 600w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2024\/12\/What-is-a-CDN_-How-to-Optimize-WooCommerce-for-Speed-and-Security-300x150.png 300w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2024\/12\/What-is-a-CDN_-How-to-Optimize-WooCommerce-for-Speed-and-Security-768x384.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4665\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">How the Cloudflare CDN works. A CDN delivers content via distributed servers. Each user gets an instance of a page they have requested from the server closest to them. Source: Cloudflare.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>To get started, <b>sign up for Cloudflare\u2019s free plan<\/b>, install and activate the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cloudflare.com\/integrations\/wordpress\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cloudflare plugin<\/a>, and click on \u2018<b>Set the Best Settings<\/b>\u2019 and you are done. Forget about it and give it some time, and you\u2019ll see the speed benefits.<\/p>\n<p>Not too fast, however, as <b>you\u2019ll need to point your domain to their nameservers; so that Cloudflare can sit between the web and your site\u2014as a proxy<\/b>, improving on <a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/free-and-paid-ways-to-secure-wordpress-essential-tips-for-securing-your-wordpress-site\/\">security<\/a> and ensuring optimal delivery.<\/p>\n<p>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/free-and-paid-ways-to-secure-wordpress-essential-tips-for-securing-your-wordpress-site\/\">Free and Paid Ways to Secure WordPress: Essential Tips for Securing Your WordPress Site<\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>You can avoid this tedious DNS process<\/b>, however, by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cloudways.com\/en\/?id=864773\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">moving to Cloudways<\/a> and enabling their affordable Cloudways Enterprise add-on. This add-on <b>gives you access to Cloudflare Enterprise plan features, which can posit enormous page load benefits<\/b>. These features are super technical and complex and include things like: <b>Argo for smart request routing<\/b>, <b>in-depth image optimization<\/b> (on top of the image optimizations you are already undertaking), and so on.<\/p>\n<p>With Cloudways, <b>you can layer the advanced Cloudflare features with Varnish and Redis Pro, for an all-round powerful caching setup<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>In my experience, <b>I have tried to set these up individually and trust me, without the technical knowledge, it can take months<\/b>. As such, if you are really serious about optimization and caching, a Cloudways hosting plan is <b>the ultimate one-click solution for you<\/b>. Simple as that.<\/p>\n<p>Explore <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cloudways.com\/en\/?id=864773\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cloudways plans<\/a> and pick one that works for you.<\/p>\n<p>PS: We may earn a commission.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">\n<h3>Jetpack Site Accelerator (free)<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>An alternative to Cloudflare is the <a href=\"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/support\/site-accelerator\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">JetPack site accelerator<\/a> CDN that comes free, <b>depending on the level of customization freedom you are comfortable with<\/b>. It is offered by Automattic, the same company behind WordPress, albeit with <b>some strings attached<\/b>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5823\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5823\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-5823\" src=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-JetPack-WordPress-Plugin-CDN-Integration-for-Global-Caching-Security-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-1024x439.png\" alt=\"The JetPack WordPress Plugin - CDN Integration for Global Caching &amp; Security - Easy and Quick WordPress Optimizations with One-Click and One-Plugin Solutions\" width=\"1024\" height=\"439\" title=\"| Mania Africa | maniainc.com\" srcset=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-JetPack-WordPress-Plugin-CDN-Integration-for-Global-Caching-Security-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-1024x439.png 1024w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-JetPack-WordPress-Plugin-CDN-Integration-for-Global-Caching-Security-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-1536x659.png 1536w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-JetPack-WordPress-Plugin-CDN-Integration-for-Global-Caching-Security-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-600x257.png 600w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-JetPack-WordPress-Plugin-CDN-Integration-for-Global-Caching-Security-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-300x129.png 300w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-JetPack-WordPress-Plugin-CDN-Integration-for-Global-Caching-Security-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-768x329.png 768w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-JetPack-WordPress-Plugin-CDN-Integration-for-Global-Caching-Security-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions.png 1903w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5823\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The JetPack WordPress Plugin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The plugin can <b>enable image and static file hosting<\/b> but <b>will require a paid plan to really get things working on a more integral level<\/b>\u2014as with Cloudflare. JetPack Site Accelerator is hosted by <a href=\"http:\/\/wordpress.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WordPress.com<\/a> and will need you to integrate with that, which, in my experience, will actually <b>feel like your site is tied to the WordPress servers (it will be)<\/b>. Moreover, you will <b>feel like you are losing some level of freedom<\/b>, especially since <a href=\"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/support\/site-accelerator\/#limitations\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><b>it is limited<\/b><\/a> and will need you to get a paid plan for more complex features.<\/p>\n<p>It is easy to install, however, but has not really worked for me, as you can tell. Part of the joy of optimizing is being free to tweak this or that, and not depending too much on <a href=\"http:\/\/wordpress.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WordPress.com<\/a>, if you get what I mean.<\/p>\n<h2>Database Cleanup for Faster Queries &amp; Lower Storage<\/h2>\n<p>Another easy to use, one-click optimization to consider is <b>database cleanup and optimization<\/b>, to ensure faster queries and lower storage use.<\/p>\n<p>Think of your WordPress database as the brains of the operation, storing all your posts, pages, and settings.<\/p>\n<p><b>Over time, and as your site grows, the database can get bogged down and DB queries may run inefficiently<\/b>. Most times, <b>it is unneeded database entries (such as auto drafts, transients, and post revisions) that will be the problem<\/b>, and having an effective plugin to do cleanups is the solution.<b><br \/>\n<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Here are easy and quick WordPress solutions for optimizing and cleaning up your WP database.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">\n<h3>WP\u2011Optimize (Database Tab)<b><br \/>\n<\/b><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The database tab on WP-Optimize is one such solution. It can <b>clean and defragment\u2014essentially rearrange for efficiency\u2014database tables<\/b>. This can be hugely beneficial as it <b>removes the overhead of orphaned tables, spam, post revisions, and transients, etc., that slow down queries.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>It will also ensure that your DB does not grow to become too large that it slows down response times. <b>How database querying works is that it sifts through table contents, and if your DB tables are too large, it will naturally take longer<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>Activating DB optimization is quite easy, as you will only have to head over to the \u2018database\u2019 tab on WP-Optimize and enable it.<\/p>\n<p>You can <b>test its effectiveness by checking the size of the DB before and after activation<\/b>, and WP-Optimize will also show you size savings in its UI.<\/p>\n<p>The recommended settings are: <b>automating cleanups by enabling \u2018<\/b><b>Schedule Cleanup<\/b><b>\u2019,<\/b> and <b>reviewing available cleanup options<\/b> such as cleaning revisions, etc. Simple.<\/p>\n<p>Please note that <b>common pitfalls include accidentally cleaning up needed database entries<\/b> and, therefore, you should <b>always keep a backup of your database<\/b>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">\n<h3>WP\u2011Sweep (free)<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>WP Sweep is another alternative for <b>database cleaning<\/b>. It is super simple, and on activating and enabling it, the plugin <b>will give you a list of available cleanups that you can run<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>I would actually recommend <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-sweep\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WP-Sweep<\/a> if you are just looking for a simple DB cleanup plugin without a lot of fuss.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5824\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5824\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-5824\" src=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-WP-Sweep-Plugin-Database-Cleanup-for-Faster-Queries-Lower-Storage-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-1024x440.png\" alt=\"The WP-Sweep Plugin - Database Cleanup for Faster Queries &amp; Lower Storage - Easy and Quick WordPress Optimizations with One-Click and One-Plugin Solutions\" width=\"1024\" height=\"440\" title=\"| Mania Africa | maniainc.com\" srcset=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-WP-Sweep-Plugin-Database-Cleanup-for-Faster-Queries-Lower-Storage-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-1024x440.png 1024w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-WP-Sweep-Plugin-Database-Cleanup-for-Faster-Queries-Lower-Storage-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-1536x660.png 1536w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-WP-Sweep-Plugin-Database-Cleanup-for-Faster-Queries-Lower-Storage-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-600x258.png 600w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-WP-Sweep-Plugin-Database-Cleanup-for-Faster-Queries-Lower-Storage-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-300x129.png 300w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-WP-Sweep-Plugin-Database-Cleanup-for-Faster-Queries-Lower-Storage-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-768x330.png 768w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-WP-Sweep-Plugin-Database-Cleanup-for-Faster-Queries-Lower-Storage-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions.png 1906w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5824\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The WP-Sweep Plugin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The beauty of it is that <b>it lets you choose what to clean<\/b>, and you can clean transients and leave post revisions, for instance.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">\n<h3>Breeze Cache (free)<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The database section of Breeze Plugin is <b>perhaps the best DB cleanup and optimization tool out there<\/b>. The reason is due to the functionality where <b>DB cleans and optimizations are undertaken automatically and whenever you do cache purges<\/b>. Basically, if you\u2019re using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cloudways.com\/en\/?id=864773\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cloudways hosting<\/a>, <b>it just takes a single click to purge Varnish, Redis, as well as clean and optimize the DB<\/b>. Simple. The plugin is super powerful, especially since it&#8217;s a 3-in-one.<\/p>\n<p>You can <b>enable page &amp; browser caching, minify CSS\/JS, and optimize your WordPress database using a single plugin<\/b>. Together with some of its other features, <b>you can avoid installing 5 other plugins just by installing Breeze<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>This will not only <b>reduce the likelihood of conflicts<\/b> but also <b>bring down the overhead and complexity of installing and using complex plugins for things like minification<\/b>; whilst you can get the same\u2014and often more powerful features\u2014with Breeze Cache. That\u2019s a huge power move, and an even bigger power-up for your site.<\/p>\n<h2>SEO Plugins for Better Search Crawling, Indexing, &amp; Content Optimization<\/h2>\n<p>One thing that\u2019s frequently taken for granted, is how difficult it can be to undertake effective <b>SEO optimization<\/b> on WordPress. Without SEO expertise, things like setting the correct meta tags, or configuring schema can be quite challenging to grasp.<\/p>\n<p>Thankfully, there are one-click SEO plugins that you can use; where <b>you just need to set them correctly the first time<\/b>, and not have to worry about SEO (for both current and future posts\/products).<b><br \/>\n<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Our recommended quick and easy one-plugin WordPress solutions for SEO include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">\n<h3>Rank Math SEO (free)<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/seo-by-rank-math\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rank Math SEO plugin<\/a> is one such plugin. Setting it up is quite easy (for the extensive features it has) and in just a few clicks, you can start SEO optimization on the right footing.<\/p>\n<p>On installing and activating the plugin, you are presented with a \u2018Setup Wizard\u2019, which is <b>the best one-click solution you will get for WordPress SEO<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>You need to be super careful and accurate as you go through this initial setup, and <b>remember to save settings to an export file when you are done<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>What you need to do is <b>set the correct values for site name, meta description, Google integration, etc.<\/b>, to ensure that you draw maximum SEO benefits.<\/p>\n<p>For starters, you can <b>choose \u2018<\/b><b>Simple<\/b><b>\u2019 mode<\/b>, and just select the core features you will need. After effectively doing setup, however, you can later head on to \u2018Dashboard\u2019 and enable other modules for things like AMP, News Sitemaps, etc.<\/p>\n<p><b>The most important SEO power move you should always ensure you\u2019ve made, is navigating to the Rank Math box (in the post edit screen) and setting a target keyword<\/b>. Further, always check how you are doing in their \u2018Suggestions\u2019.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5727\" src=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/05\/55-Rank-Math-SEO-Meta-Box-for-Users.jpg\" alt=\"| Mania Africa: News, Sports, Tech, Movies, and Lifestyle | maniainc.com\" width=\"1000\" height=\"969\" title=\"| Mania Africa | maniainc.com\" srcset=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/05\/55-Rank-Math-SEO-Meta-Box-for-Users.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/05\/55-Rank-Math-SEO-Meta-Box-for-Users-600x581.jpg 600w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/05\/55-Rank-Math-SEO-Meta-Box-for-Users-300x291.jpg 300w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/05\/55-Rank-Math-SEO-Meta-Box-for-Users-768x744.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/>RankMath SEO will <b>analyze your content, and tell you how you are doing in terms of SEO<\/b>; i.e., whether your chosen keyword is included sufficiently, if your paragraphs are too long, whether you have internal and external links, and so on. <b>Always aim for a score of 80 overall<\/b>, as the plugin will grade the post\u2019s SEO out of 100.<\/p>\n<p>You can test how effective your SEO is by using <b>PageSpeed Insights<\/b>, and there you\u2019ll also get a score out of 100 for the particular page you are testing.<\/p>\n<p>The only pitfall to be mindful of is ensuring you <b>do not use another SEO plugin at the same time<\/b>, or install Google Analytics with Rank Math and also via another plugin or snippet. You don\u2019t want to mess up traffic measurements or inhibit them.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">\n<h3>SEOPress (free)<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>SEOPress is another SEO plugin that works similarly to RankMath. It also comes with powerful features such as sitemaps, schema, redirection, content analysis, breadcrumbs, etc., but <b>may be more compatible or preferred for your current setup<\/b>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5825\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5825\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-5825\" src=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-SEOPress-Plugin-SEO-Plugins-for-Better-Search-Crawling-Indexing-Content-Optimization-Mania-Guides-1024x435.png\" alt=\"The SEOPress Plugin - SEO Plugins for Better Search Crawling, Indexing, &amp; Content Optimization - Mania Guides\" width=\"1024\" height=\"435\" title=\"| Mania Africa | maniainc.com\" srcset=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-SEOPress-Plugin-SEO-Plugins-for-Better-Search-Crawling-Indexing-Content-Optimization-Mania-Guides-1024x435.png 1024w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-SEOPress-Plugin-SEO-Plugins-for-Better-Search-Crawling-Indexing-Content-Optimization-Mania-Guides-1536x652.png 1536w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-SEOPress-Plugin-SEO-Plugins-for-Better-Search-Crawling-Indexing-Content-Optimization-Mania-Guides-600x255.png 600w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-SEOPress-Plugin-SEO-Plugins-for-Better-Search-Crawling-Indexing-Content-Optimization-Mania-Guides-300x127.png 300w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-SEOPress-Plugin-SEO-Plugins-for-Better-Search-Crawling-Indexing-Content-Optimization-Mania-Guides-768x326.png 768w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-SEOPress-Plugin-SEO-Plugins-for-Better-Search-Crawling-Indexing-Content-Optimization-Mania-Guides.png 1897w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5825\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The SEOPress Plugin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Setup for the <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-seopress\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SEOPress plugin<\/a> is also super easy and, <b>just like RankMath, more advanced features will require a paid version of the plugin<\/b>. In most cases, the default settings will work perfectly, though more advanced users can get geeky and tweak advanced options.<\/p>\n<p>If you are just getting started, this could be more detrimental than beneficial, so just <b>stick to the defaults<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><b>What you have to do and must do is give the plugin the correct information (during initial setup) and always put the correct keyword when editing a post<\/b>. Simple.<\/p>\n<p>The more you get conversant with SEO, the more it\u2019s recommended you go tweaking.<\/p>\n<p><b>A common pitfall with SEO plugins is going for a too-heavy SEO plugin<\/b> like Yoast, <b>or wrongly doing redirections<\/b>. You don\u2019t want to slow your site down due to heavy plugin use, or to redirect pages wrongly; essentially throwing away possible SEO advantages.<\/p>\n<h2>Performance Monitoring &amp; Testing for Continuous Improvement<b><br \/>\n<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>It is essential to undertake performance monitoring and testing for continuous improvement. You won\u2019t feel that the optimizations you\u2019ve undertaken are effective if you can\u2019t measure and test their effectiveness.<\/p>\n<p>Here are easy and quick WordPress monitoring solutions (one-click):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">\n<h3>Query Monitor Plugin<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/query-monitor\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Query Monitor plugin<\/a> is <b>perhaps the most detailed and most powerful plugin for on-site monitoring<\/b>. It tells you what\u2019s working and what\u2019s bogging your site down.<\/p>\n<p>Setup is super easy, and you just install and activate it, and it will go on to do its monitoring.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5826\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5826\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-5826\" src=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Query-Monitor-Plugin-Performance-Monitoring-Testing-for-Continuous-Improvement-Mania-Africa-1024x443.png\" alt=\"The Query Monitor Plugin - Performance Monitoring &amp; Testing for Continuous Improvement - Mania Africa\" width=\"1024\" height=\"443\" title=\"| Mania Africa | maniainc.com\" srcset=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Query-Monitor-Plugin-Performance-Monitoring-Testing-for-Continuous-Improvement-Mania-Africa-1024x443.png 1024w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Query-Monitor-Plugin-Performance-Monitoring-Testing-for-Continuous-Improvement-Mania-Africa-1536x665.png 1536w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Query-Monitor-Plugin-Performance-Monitoring-Testing-for-Continuous-Improvement-Mania-Africa-600x260.png 600w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Query-Monitor-Plugin-Performance-Monitoring-Testing-for-Continuous-Improvement-Mania-Africa-300x130.png 300w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Query-Monitor-Plugin-Performance-Monitoring-Testing-for-Continuous-Improvement-Mania-Africa-768x332.png 768w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/The-Query-Monitor-Plugin-Performance-Monitoring-Testing-for-Continuous-Improvement-Mania-Africa.png 1906w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5826\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Query Monitor Plugin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h4>Why Install Query Monitor?<\/h4>\n<p>It will <b>identify slow DB queries, hook and scripts<\/b> and also <b>pinpoint PHP errors<\/b>. How PHP works is that it will seldom report errors outrightly, if not guided to report in a specific log file or to show specific errors, thus the need for a monitoring plugin. The same can be said for your WordPress database, and <b>without a plugin such as Query Monitor, you may never know that your DB is slow<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>Even so, with a user-centric web hosts such as Cloudways, you can access in-depth logs for PHP, and even other packages installed on your site.<\/p>\n<p>Cloudways have included <b>free support for NewRelic: a powerful and freemium monitoring software for in-depth performance monitoring<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><b>If Query Monitor is comparable to a magnifying glass, then NewRelic can only be compared to a microscope<\/b>. It allows you <b>deep insight<\/b> on your WP install and gladly, Cloudways offers a FREE integration.<\/p>\n<p>Add NewRelic to the growing list of advantages you get with Cloudways, and you start seeing just how powerful moving to their cloud servers can be for <a rel=\"tag\" class=\"hashtag u-tag u-category\" href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/tag\/wordpressoptimization\/\">#WordPressOptimization<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>See Cloudways Plans<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">\n<h3>Web Vitals Browser Extension (by Google) &amp; WP Site Health<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Google\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/chromewebstore.google.com\/detail\/adeniimnihmbpgpbljmnohjpoolmgabj\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Web Vitals browser extension<\/a> is another effective monitoring tool that you can use to <b>measure Core Web Vitals and PageSpeed<\/b>. In newer versions of the Chrome browser, the tool comes pre-installed and is accessible in the <b>Browser Inspection Tool<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><b>WordPress\u2019 Site Health page<\/b> is also another measuring tool that is effective as a native monitoring feature, for <b>measuring the overall status of your site\u2019s modules<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>It works by checking if everything is working as expected, showing you performance as compared to what a particular plugin\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/mania-developers\/\">developers<\/a> recommend, or expect for optimal functionality.<\/p>\n<p><b>Site Health is where you first go to see whether everything is going okay, before heading to Query Monitor for more info on what could be causing a particular error<\/b> or fail (on site health).<\/p>\n<h2>Common Pitfalls &amp; Best Practices when Optimizing WordPress<\/h2>\n<p>Whenever you are optimizing, <b>it is always recommended that you make backups before making any changes<\/b>. For example, you may install a database optimization plugin and accidentally delete important database entries\u2014while attempting to clean up. As such, <b>always do a full-site and database backup before installing any optimization plugin<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>A good host will provide <b>one-click backup functionality<\/b>, or <b>a staging management platform<\/b> where you can copy over your site, and test optimizations. The platform should then allow you to pull the optimized version to the live (production) site.<\/p>\n<p><b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cloudways.com\/en\/?id=864773\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cloudways<\/a> offers both and, specifically, they offer the best staging management platform I have seen<\/b>. You can <b>easily push (copy over) the live site to a staging version and test your optimizations<\/b>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5828\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5828\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5828\" src=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/Staging-Management-on-Cloudways-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-Mania-Guides.png\" alt=\"Staging Management on Cloudways - Easy and Quick WordPress Optimizations with One-Click and One-Plugin Solutions - Mania Guides\" width=\"1024\" height=\"618\" title=\"| Mania Africa | maniainc.com\" srcset=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/Staging-Management-on-Cloudways-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-Mania-Guides.png 1024w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/Staging-Management-on-Cloudways-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-Mania-Guides-600x362.png 600w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/Staging-Management-on-Cloudways-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-Mania-Guides-300x181.png 300w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/Staging-Management-on-Cloudways-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-Mania-Guides-768x464.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5828\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Staging Management on Cloudways. Cloudways offer a one-click solution for WordPress staging, easing testing as you have direct &#8216;pull&#8217; and &#8216;push&#8217; functionality. Source: Cloudways.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When you\u2019re done, <b>it takes just a single click to push (effect) those changes on the live site<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond that, <b>you also get the capability to schedule site backups<\/b>, both on your own server, or externally. To ensure flexibility, Cloudways <b>allows you to do backups at both the application and server levels<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>Other pitfalls to watch out for when optimizing WP is to <b>avoid overlapping plugins<\/b>. <b>Install one plugin to do several things, and not several plugins to do one thing<\/b>. For instance, install Breeze Cache to minify, enable caching, and optimize your DB; and not a single plugin for each of those functions.<\/p>\n<p><b>Test changes incrementally in a staging environment, and monitor analytics and user-feedback post-deployment<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>As a <b>bonus tip: do not over optimize<\/b>. <b>It&#8217;s easy to get obsessed with software optimizations, without considering that you may benefit more from something like <a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/why-your-wordpress-multisite-is-slowing-down-and-how-cpu-optimized-hosting-can-fix-it\/\">moving to a CPU-Optimized server<\/a><\/b>, as per your traffic levels and server resource usage.<\/p>\n<h2>Summing Up: Combining One\u2011Click Wins for Maximum WordPress Optimization Impact<\/h2>\n<p>You can achieve significant performance gains\u2014without complex coding\u2014by implementing the easy and quick (one-click and one-plugin) WordPress optimizations we have covered in this article.<\/p>\n<p>Each recommended technique or plugin addresses a key issue in page speed, Core Web Vitals, SEO, and UX. <b>The combined effect should help drop page load times to below 2 seconds\u2014for your site, and improve Page speed scores<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Always only enable a single optimization at a time<\/b>, and <b>do it in a staging environment\u2014after taking a full backup<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>We can talk all day about optimization, but <b>without measurement that is just as effective, you may not feel that you have made the proper optimizations\u2014and this could trap you in a cycle of always finding \u2018the problem\u2019<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>As such, <b>always measure and keep a journal of the optimizations you\u2019ve made<\/b>. With mindful configuration and regular testing, <b>even busy WP sites can become fast and user-friendly<\/b>.<\/p>\n<h3>Why Moving to Cloudways Cloud Hosting is the Ultimate One-Click Optimization for WordPress<\/h3>\n<p><b>Plugin and software optimizations can be very effective, but may be inhibited by weak hosting<\/b>. That\u2019s why we recommend <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cloudways.com\/en\/?id=864773\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cloudways Cloud hosting<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>With Cloudways, you\u2019ll <b>get a host of pre-configured <\/b>and<b> pre-installed optimizations <\/b>including:<b> Varnish Server Cache, Redis Object Caching Pro, One-Click Staging management, Scheduled Backups, <\/b>and so much more<b> for free<\/b>\u2014only needing to pay for the servers themselves.<\/p>\n<p>Even more, you can amp up and go for their <b>affordable CPU-Optimized Cloud droplets<\/b>, and <b>gain up to 85% improvement in page speeds<\/b> (just by moving to these servers). Sounds too good to be true? Read our <a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/why-your-wordpress-multisite-is-slowing-down-and-how-cpu-optimized-hosting-can-fix-it\/\">CPU-Optimized Hosting guide<\/a> to learn more.<\/p>\n<p>There are many more ways you can optimize your WP site with Cloudways, including by installing <b>RabbitMQ<\/b>. RabbitMQ is a message queueing service whose integration they offer free of charge.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5827\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5827\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-5827\" src=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/How-RabbitMQ-Works-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-Mania-Technology-1024x625.png\" alt=\"How RabbitMQ Works - Easy and Quick WordPress Optimizations with One-Click and One-Plugin Solutions - Mania Technology\" width=\"1024\" height=\"625\" title=\"| Mania Africa | maniainc.com\" srcset=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/How-RabbitMQ-Works-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-Mania-Technology-1024x625.png 1024w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/How-RabbitMQ-Works-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-Mania-Technology-600x366.png 600w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/How-RabbitMQ-Works-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-Mania-Technology-300x183.png 300w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/How-RabbitMQ-Works-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-Mania-Technology-768x469.png 768w, https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/How-RabbitMQ-Works-Easy-and-Quick-WordPress-Optimizations-with-One-Click-and-One-Plugin-Solutions-Mania-Technology.png 1206w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5827\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">How RabbitMQ Works. RabbitMQ queues WordPress tasks for linear processing, ensuring that these tasks do not overwhelm the database. Source: CAMQ.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><b>RabbitMQ puts WordPress tasks in a queue, triggering their implementation linearly (one after the other) ensuring that the database is never bogged down by too many requests<\/b>; and that there are no unintended delays in serving queries. Such delays may normally occur, often due to the server\u2019s resources being bogged down by things like cron jobs, etc.<\/p>\n<p>All these, coupled with <b>a Cloudflare Enterprise Add-on<\/b>, <b>a NewRelic integration<\/b>, <b>easy PHP upgrades<\/b>, and <b>a native Firewall<\/b>, <b>you\u2019ll be making optimizations that you are not even aware of by moving to Cloudways<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><b>We use Cloudways<\/b>, and have used enough hosts in the past to know that <b>they are the best<\/b>. And since we only want the best for you, our dear readers, we tell you what works and what doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, <b>moving to Cloudways is perhaps the easiest, ultimate optimization you can make for your WordPress site<\/b>. Think of all the hours you will save and all the plugins you won\u2019t have to install or configure. Yeah, I know, right?. Cheers.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cloudways.com\/en\/?id=864773\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">See Cloudways Plans<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>You can get a 20% Cloudways Discount by using our promo code \u2018<b><strong>MANIAINC<\/strong><\/b>\u2018. We may get a commission when you do or when you get a Cloudways plan via one of our links.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>You can find more ways to optimize WordPress in our series: <a href=\"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/?post_series=wordpress-guides-and-tutorials\">WordPress Guides and Tutorials 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is post 13 of 18 in the series &ldquo;WordPress Guides and Tutorials 2025&rdquo; In-depth WordPress Guides and Tutorials for the year 2025 and beyond. In this series, we share what we have learned over the 5 years we&#8217;ve been developing WordPress sites. We cover crucial topics such as WordPress Security, improving WordPress Site Speed, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAoww8LBDA:productID":"","_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"uix_meta_title":"","uix_meta_description":"","uix_canonical_url":"","_convertkit_action_broadcast_export":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","jpwt_disable_post_donation":"0","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"2","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"0","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0","format":"standard","subtitle":"Easy and Quick WordPress Optimizations for better performance in site speed, search rankings, and user experience","jnews_video_option_group":[[]]},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":""},"jnews_override_bookmark_settings":{"override_bookmark_button":"0","override_show_bookmark_button":"0"},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_paywall_metabox":{"enable_premium_post":"0","paragraph_limit":"2","enable_preview_post":"0","preview_textbox":"","nonce":"30d1a7f3e5","enable_free_post":"0","override_paragraph_limit":"0","enable_preview_video":"0"},"jnews_review":[],"enable_review":"0","type":"percentage","name":"","summary":"","brand":"","sku":"","good":[{"good_text":""}],"bad":[{"bad_text":""}],"score_override":"","override_value":"","rating":[{"rating_text":"","rating_number":"10"}],"price":[{"shop":"","price":"","link":"","icon":""}],"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"jnews_post_split":{"enable_post_split":"0","post_split":[{"template":"1","tag":"h2","numbering":"asc","mode":"normal","first":"0","enable_toc":"0","toc_type":"normal"}]},"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"federated","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,18],"tags":[],"post_series":[70],"class_list":["post-5807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mania-developers","category-mania-guides","post_series-wordpress-guides-and-tutorials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5807"},{"taxonomy":"post_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/technology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_series?post=5807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}