Eliminate Render-Blocking Resources in WordPress: A Complete Guide

Ever clicked on a web page and it’s just a blank screen for a few good seconds? The delay will be frustrating and force the visitor to close the page. That’s the reality of encountering render-blocking resources on your WordPress site. These unseen culprits act like traffic jams, preventing your content from reaching your audience quickly.

The good news is that you can eliminate the render-blocking resources in WordPress quite easily. In this blog, I’ll tell you how professional WordPress developers would go about this elimination for better SEO performance. Let’s begin.

What are Render-blocking Resources?

Render-blocking resources are elements on a web page that slow down the loading speed of your site. These roadblocks are typically files written in programming languages like CSS and JS that are crucial for a website’s visual design and interactivity. 

Normally, a browser reads your website’s code from top to bottom, rendering the content as it goes. But if it encounters a render-blocking file, the browser will pause and wait to process it entirely before continuing with the rest of the page.

This pause is what makes them “render-blocking”. While the browser is busy with the CSS or JavaScript, the actual content of your website (text, images, etc.) stays hidden. This leads to a blank or incomplete page for your visitors until the complete site loads. It impacts user experience negatively and even affects SEO (Search Engine Optimization) rankings.

Benefits of Eliminating Render-Blocking Resources in WordPress

Eliminating render-blocking resources provides numerous benefits for a WordPress site. These benefits enhance overall performance, user experience, and SEO. Here are the key benefits:

• Improved Page Load Times: By removing render-blocking resources, WordPress site performs optimally, enhancing the user experience from the initial visit. This reduction in load time is particularly beneficial for mobile users who often face slower network connections.
• Enhanced User Experience: Users can see and interact with content more quickly, resulting in a better browsing experience. Faster content display and smoother rendering keep users engaged instead of slow-loading pages.
• Positive Impact on SEO: Faster page load times can lead to higher search engine rankings. Google and other search engines prioritize speed as a ranking factor. So, optimizing render-blocking resources can improve your site’s visibility in search results.
• Reduced Server Load: Optimizing resource delivery decreases the load on your server. It leads to more efficient resource usage. This can lead to cost savings, especially for high-traffic sites, by lowering bandwidth usage.
• Enhanced Core Web Vitals: Core Web Vitals are a set of metrics used by Google to measure user experience. It includes Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and First Contentful Paint (FCP). You can improve these metrics by eliminating render-blocking resources and sending positive signals to search engines.

We can say eliminating render-blocking resources creates a win-win situation for your visitors and website. Users enjoy a faster experience, while your website benefits from higher conversion rates. So if you want to ensure the best site speed and seamless user experience, consult with our WordPress development company.

How to Identify Render-blocking Resources in WordPress?

Several tools can help you identify render-blocking resources in WordPress. Some popular tools include Google page speed and lighthouse audits. Here is a breakdown of various tools you can use.

Google PageSpeed Insights

Google PageSpeed Insights is a free web-based tool that evaluates the performance of web pages on both mobile and desktop devices.

How to Identify? Enter your website URL into the Google PageSpeed Insights tool and click “Analyze.” Wait for the analysis to complete.

Outcome: The tool provides a detailed report highlighting performance issues, including render-blocking resources. It lists specific CSS and JavaScript files that delay rendering and offers suggestions for optimization.

GTmetrix

GTmetrix provides a comprehensive analysis of your website’s performance. It generates detailed reports that highlight performance issues, including render-blocking resources.

How to Identify? Go to the GTmetrix website and enter your URL. Click “Test your site” to initiate the analysis. Once the test is complete, navigate to the “PageSpeed” and “YSlow” tabs for detailed insights.

Outcome: The report identifies render-blocking resources and visualizes their impact using a waterfall chart, making it easy to pinpoint which CSS and JavaScript files need attention.

WebPageTest

WebPageTest allows for in-depth performance testing of your website. Results are presented through detailed waterfall charts, helping identify and resolve rendering issues.

How to Identify? Visit the WebPageTest site and enter your URL. Select your test settings and click “Start Test.” After the test runs, review the generated report.

Outcome: The waterfall view shows which CSS and JavaScript files are render-blocking. This helps you pinpoint problematic resources.

Chrome DevTools

Chrome DevTools is a web development tool built directly into the Google Chrome browser. It offers real-time analysis of website performance, including the ability to identify render-blocking resources.

How to Identify? Open your webpage in Google Chrome. Right-click on the page and select “Inspect” to open DevTools. Navigate to the “Network” tab and reload the page. Look for the “Waterfall” view.

Outcome: The waterfall chart visualizes resource loading times, showing which CSS and JavaScript files are render-blocking. This real-time analysis helps you identify and address problematic resources.

WordPress Plugins (for Performance)

Install WordPress plugins like WP Rocket and W3 Total Cache. They help optimize caching in WordPress sites and provide insights into render-blocking resources. These plugins often include built-in performance analysis tools that identify and suggest optimizations for CSS and JavaScript files.

How to Identify? Install and activate a performance plugin like WP Rocket or W3 Total Cache. Navigate to the plugin’s settings and run the performance analysis tool provided.

Outcome: These plugins generate a report identifying render-blocking resources. The reports include suggestions for optimizing CSS and JavaScript loading to improve site performance.

Lighthouse

Lighthouse is an open-source tool integrated into Chrome DevTools. It offers automated audits for performance, accessibility, and SEO. It helps developers ensure their sites meet modern web standards and perform well across various metrics.

How to Identify? Open your webpage in Google Chrome. Right-click on the page and select “Inspect” to open DevTools. Navigate to the “Lighthouse” tab and click “Generate report.” Choose the relevant categories and run the audit.

Outcome: The performance section of the Lighthouse report indicates render-blocking resources and provides actionable recommendations to optimize your site.

WordPress experts use these tools and techniques to effectively identify render-blocking resources on your website, so they can be blocked effectively.

How to Eliminate Render-blocking Resources in WordPress?

Eliminating render-blocking resources in WordPress involves several steps to optimize CSS and JavaScript loading. Here’s a detailed step-by-step process:

Step 1: Identify Render-Blocking Resources

Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix to identify which render-blocking on your site. Note down the files that are affecting page rendering speed.

Step 2: Inline Critical CSS

Extract and inline critical CSS directly into the HTML of your web pages to prioritize above-the-fold content. Tools like Critical Path CSS Generator can help manually extract critical CSS. Alternatively, plugins such as Autoptimize can automate this process.

Step 3: Defer Non-Critical CSS

Defer loading non-essential CSS files that are not immediately necessary for initial page rendering. Plugins like WP Rocket or Async JavaScript can help defer non-critical CSS, optimizing their loading sequence.

Step 4: Optimize JavaScript Loading

Load JavaScript files asynchronously or defer their execution to improve page loading times.

• Add the async attribute to load JavaScript files asynchronously, allowing them to execute while HTML parsing continues.
• Use the defer attribute for JavaScript files that need to execute after HTML parsing is complete but before DOMContentLoaded.
• Modify your theme’s functions.php file or use plugins like Async JavaScript to automatically add these attributes.

The async loads scripts asynchronously, while defer ensures scripts execute after HTML parsing, minimizing render-blocking effects.

Step 5: Minify and Combine Files

Reduce file sizes by removing unnecessary characters and combining multiple files into fewer requests.

• Minify CSS and JavaScript files to reduce their file size by removing unnecessary characters and whitespace.
• Combine multiple CSS and JavaScript files into fewer files to minimize HTTP requests.
• Plugins such as Autoptimize, WP Rocket, or W3 Total Cache can automate this process and offer settings to configure minification and file combining.

This reduces the number of HTTP requests and speeds up file download and parsing times.

Step 6: Enable Gzip Compression

Compress CSS, JavaScript, and other text-based files to reduce their size before transmission.

• Enable Gzip compression on your web server to reduce the size of CSS, JavaScript, and other text-based files before sending them to the browser.
• Modify your .htaccess file (for Apache servers) or adjust server settings through your hosting control panel.
• Many caching plugins like WP Rocket or W3 Total Cache provide options to enable Gzip compression.

Here we decrease file size, optimizing data transfer speed and improving overall site performance.

Step 7: Utilize a Content Delivery Network (CDN)

Serve CSS, JavaScript, and media files from geographically distributed servers.

• Use a CDN to deliver CSS, JavaScript, and other static files from servers located closer to your site visitors, reducing latency and speeding up content delivery.
• Sign up for a CDN service like Cloudflare, KeyCDN, or Amazon CloudFront. Configure your WordPress site to use the CDN, often facilitated through CDN integration plugins or settings in caching plugins.

This reduces latency by delivering content from servers closer to site visitors, improving load times.

Step 8: Optimize Plugins and Themes

Ensure all plugins and themes are optimized and regularly updated.

• Poorly coded plugins or themes can introduce additional render-blocking resources.
• Regularly review and deactivate unnecessary plugins. Keep the remaining plugins and your WordPress theme updated to the latest versions.

Outdated plugins/themes can introduce render-blocking resources, impacting performance.

Step 9: Implement Lazy Loading

Defer loading images, videos, and other media until they enter the viewport.

• Enable lazy loading for images, videos, and other media files to defer their loading until they are near the viewport, reducing initial page load times.
• Use plugins like Lazy Load by WP Rocket or features provided by caching plugins to implement it for media files.

Prioritizes loading visible content first, improving perceived performance and reducing initial page load times.

Step 10: Test and Monitor Performance

Use performance testing tools to measure and track improvements.

• After implementing changes, use tools like GTmetrix or Google PageSpeed Insights to test your site’s performance.
• Monitor load times, page speed scores, and user experience metrics to ensure render-blocking resources are eliminated.

By following the above steps and utilizing the available plugins, you can effectively eliminate render-blocking resources. It will improve your WordPress website’s speed, user experience, and overall performance. This will also improve WordPress SEO site ranking. If you need help building optimized sites, consider hiring WordPress development experts.

FAQs on Eliminating Render-blocking Resources in WordPress

Conclusion

Eliminating render-blocking resources in WordPress improves speed and optimizes sites for better ranking. You can use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix to identify render-blocking resources, which is the first step.

Once they are identified, implement strategies like optimizing JavaScript loading, and leveraging caching and CDNs. It will reduce page load times and increase user experience. For building a site that loads robustly, hire WordPress developers.