Websites running the GFI theme have had their WordPress instances audited and changes have been made to optimize each web property. You can read more about the audit in detail here and the adjustments made to the sites here. For this changelog, I’ll summarize adjustments that were made at a high level.
Plugins
The websites had plugins that weren’t being used or were causing issues with essential infrastructure. Some of these plugins were also dragging performance, and were removed if deemed non-critical. Details about which plugins were removed or are targeted to be removed are located in the adjustment document. “To Remove” plugins are awaiting approval from the site administrators from each affiliate.
It is important that we do our due diligence before adding a plugin to the sites as it can have serious unintended consequences. Administrators should submit requests for new plugins through the Asana form for the web team to add instead of installing on their own.
File Sizes
Certain assets like the homepage video on US exceeded byte sizes of 8mb at a length of 26 seconds. When optimized, this asset is now 1.8mb with a loop at 4 seconds. Just this adjustment alone has taken the homepage size down by >50%.
Nginx rules disallowed caching to be enabled on the US site. In working with the Kinsta team, adjustments were made to preserve parts of the nginx rules while enabling caching. This adjustment paired with the optimizations made above have resulted in a notable increase in performance.
When navigating through the site, above the fold content now loads <600ms on average:
Images
Lazy loading was not being employed correctly throughout the websites. For example, footer icons were being loaded at the top of the site. Images should only be loaded once the user scrolls to them with the exception of above the fold images. This has been corrected across the GFI theme websites.
Next Steps
The websites are still generally failing on automated tests so there is more work to be done.
I anticipate that our “core web vitals” will turn to passing after the 28 day period is reached but this is an issue that will need to be resolved by working with administrators to solve what items are necessary to keep on the sites, as well as further optimizations to the codebase.
Websites will now undergo a full audit for performance on a quarterly basis. The web team will meet with website administrators periodically to align on software needs.