Addressing site speed looks different for every website

Below, is a guide to specific actions and resources that can assist you in making your site incredibly fast using Ezoic.

"It depends" is how most site speed questions can be answered. How you handle specific items related to site speed is predicated on 3 layers of the web that all must be working together to make a website fast (with or without Ezoic).

1. What is going on in the Cloud (host or CDN)
2. What is going on inside the framework/CMS
3. What is going on on the page itself

Sites using Ezoic that achieve 90+ Pagespeed Insight Scores and perfect Core Web Vitals have optimized each layer by addressing each of these according to these best practices.

1.) Start By Optimizing Cloud

The more Ezoic can optimize and deliver at this layer, the faster it can deliver the site. If Ezoic is able to optimize and cache the entire page, the site will see incredibly high page speed scores and Core Web Vitals.

Ezoic will make sites faster with these items in place:

• Cloud Integration (Cloudflare or name servers), not WP Plugin
  
• Enable Ezoic's super-fast CDN and caching (here if you're logged in)
  
• Disable CDN or caching features at your host, or ensure you have Cloudflare settings optimized for Ezoic integration.
• Allow Ezoic to override caching or delivery of pages, or parts of pages, that may be cached by something else that is slower (you can then set caching rules in the tool, or via a WP plugin we made so you can choose when the cache is cleared automatically. Note: Plugin only is for setting caching rules) 

You can get other questions you might have about Cloud integration, caching, and Ezoic's CDN here.

2.) Next, Optimize CMS and Framework (WordPress, Joomla, Page Builder Extensions, etc.)

Your CMS or framework used to build or develop your website can impact overall page load times, and how the site is delivered to visitors, and can even override efforts to improve speed in the Cloud. 

Ezoic will make sites faster when sites make these optimizations:

• Ezoic is able to optimize directly from the cloud much faster than most frameworks/plugins/extensions or native optimizations can, this means disabling features inside your CMS or theme, page builders, plugins, and extensions, or natively coded into your website. Then, enabling Ezoic features to do those same jobs.
• Enabling Ezoic's free speed features that improve the delivery of CSS, Javascript, HTML, Fonts, Images, and other elements on the page. (logged in users can access the speed features here)

Additional things to consider in WordPress:

• Page builders (Beaver Builder, Divi, Elementor), many themes, and common plugins often insert unnecessary code and provide features or options to optimize speed. HOWEVER, in most cases, activating or having these options toggled on will prevent Ezoic from making a site faster
• These plugins and theme features should be toggled off prior to setting up Ezoic's free speed features ( ex. why: if Ezoic attempts to cache a JS line that is already minified by a plugin, we'll cache that script, but when it is toggled off the cache will have to be cleared or the site may not display or work properly until it does and can see the un-minified, uncached script)
  • Image optimization/compression plugins
  • Plugins or features that serve images in next-gen formats, or re-size them
  • Plugins or features in the theme that minify, lazy-load (async load), defer or attempt to optimize HTML, JS, or CSS
  • Plugins or features that control caching or cache things like Google Analytics or other common JS embed code.

Here's an example site we worked on for an Ezoic blog. Here's our troubleshooting guide specific to WordPress sites.

3.) Optimizing pages and how to measure site speed

If all of the above is in place, the last area you'll want to ensure is not impacting Ezoic's ability to make your site faster is the page itself.

Other speed optimization scripts or technology added to the header of a site are likely to affect Ezoic's speed features. These should be removed prior to activating them.

Once all is complete, measuring and understanding your website speed requires patience.

Measuring page speed and site speed after changes:

First and foremost, when optimizing for site speed, and changing elements of your site, it is critical to be patient. Most changes that exponentially improve website speed scores and page loading times may require up to 24 hours before the effects are measurable in tools that can provide real-time measurement vs. field data measurements.

1.) Google Lighthouse should be used for measuring the impact of changes.

• Clear any caches on the site/page and wait 45-60 minutes after the changes
• Open Chrome in Incognito
• Right-click on the page and select Inspect Element
• In the top right, select the Lighthouse tab
• Select Performance, then click Generate report

Lighthouse provides real-time measurement of site speed. 

Note: If any caching or Cloud optimizations were made, it can take up to 24 hours until the optimizations are fully in-place (depending on what and how the changes were made).

2.) Google Search Console and Pagespeed Insights can be used for long-term monitoring

• Access Google Search Console or Google Pagespeed Insights to see how CrUX data (real data from Chrome users experiencing the site over the last 28 days)
• Pagespeed Insights includes both Lighthouse and CrUX field data when displaying results.

Avoid using tools, like GTMetrix and Pingdom, as they conflate these types of timings and can make it difficult to understand if a site has improved certain elements over time.

See Ezoic vs. Site Speed Without Ezoic in Real-Time

If you still need to perform troubleshooting, we recommend using our comparison measurement tool that uses Google Lighthouse information.

We test the site with Ezoic turned on and then show your site tested with Ezoic's proxy removed, allowing you to compare apples-to-apples.

Do that test here.