Explain Wp Rocket to speed up WordPress sites

Do you have a problem with slow loading of your website pages? Or have you noticed a decrease in monthly visits to your website from Google search engine results and a lower ranking of your website compared to the previous period?

If your answer to these questions is yes, then you are not alone, and this indicates that your website was affected by one of the recently released Google updates, which led to the re-ranking of websites in the search engine results, which led to some websites being ranked first and others ranking lower. After that, it is up to the speed of loading the affected website pages.

In June of the year 2023, Google launched a new update on the search engine, so that there were additional criteria for ranking sites within search results, and one of the most important criteria that was added in this new update is what is known as the Web Core Performance Indicators or (Web Core Vitals), which are A set of metrics that determine how quickly pages on your website load.

During this period, many website owners, perhaps one of them, noticed a significant decline in the ranking of their sites within the results of the Google search engine, which eventually turned out to be due to the slow loading of site pages, and the failure of the affected sites to achieve acceptable results in the tests of basic web performance indicators that It has been added to the new Google update and can be measured using different page load speed measurement tools such as PageSpeed ​​Insight , GTMetrix , and others.

 

If you are one of those affected by the KPI update or you want to increase the loading speed of your WordPress website, this article is for you, where we will learn how to increase the speed of loading your website pages in general and our focus will be mainly on explaining the Wp Rocket plugin Which contributes significantly to increasing the speed of loading WordPress websites and solving the problems of KPIs in performance tests.

Web KPI

It is a set of metrics that calculate the speed of loading, shifts in layout, and the ability to interact with website pages immediately after the user’s request to view them. The importance of improving the basic web performance indicators is that it has become a key factor for the Google search engine in ranking websites.

Therefore, it has become necessary for website owners and bloggers to pay attention to measuring the basic web performance indicators of their sites and work to fix any problems that affect the speed of loading website pages, and one of the most prominent ways available for WordPress users is by installing and using one of the cache plugins that contribute Significantly increases site page loading speed.

Of course, there are many free caching plugins that you can install directly from within the WordPress dashboard, but if you are looking for the best caching plugin that has easy handling and the ability to significantly increase your website page loading speed then Wp Rocket is the best choice for you.

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Wp Rocket Explanation

Wp Rocket is one of the WordPress caching plugins, and it is a paid plugin that does not contain a free or trial version. additions.

With more than 1 million websites using Wp Rocket plugin, it is the first plugin recommended by WordPress experts and is used to speed up websites of all kinds, and although it is a paid plugin and there are many free caching plugins, Wp Rocket is worth every cent you spend on it. It is a great value for money addon so we highly recommend getting it and installing it on your website.

Advantages of using the Wp Rocket extension

 

1- Easy user interface

What worries users when installing the caching plugin on WordPress is the large number of settings and its complexity with the possibility of fatal errors that lead to website crashes if they are set incorrectly, as adding caching is one of the most types of plugins that can cause the website to crash. The development team behind the Wp Rocket plugin is working on improving this aspect by developing a plugin with an easy and simple user interface away from complications and directed primarily to WordPress users without technical experience.

2- Extra acceleration features

What distinguishes Wp Rocket plugin also is that it contains a set of additional acceleration tools besides the caching feature, so it is an integrated acceleration plugin for WordPress that provides you with all the website acceleration tools in just one plugin, as the plugin contains the following acceleration tools:

3- Minification of files

This feature reduces the size of the source code of the website pages by deleting unnecessary code and removing white or empty spaces, which reduces the page load time without affecting the performance or appearance of the website.

4- Combine files

This feature combines different files into one file to speed up the loading time, as you can set the plugin to group different CSS files into one file, or to group CSS and JavaScript files into one file.

5- Optimize your CSS files

This feature loads the website pages initially without the CSS files that are loaded after the page is displayed, which increases the speed of displaying the pages significantly, but may lead to the appearance of the page at the beginning in an untidy manner and the occurrence of the problem of cumulative design variables (CLS) due to the lack of loading CSS files to start.

The latest version of the Wp Rocket extension also provides the ability to activate the “Remove Unused CSS” feature, a feature that significantly increases page loading speed, but it is still a beta feature and can affect the appearance of your website, Therefore, you should treat it with caution and take a backup copy of the site before activating it.

 

6- Optimize JavaScript files

When this feature is enabled, JavaScript files are loaded after the HTML files are loaded onto the page. It is also possible to activate the Delay JS Execution feature until the user interacts with it, which increases the page load speed significantly.

7- Optimize your media files

In this feature, the image files in the media file are compressed and reduced in size and converted to Webp format, which has a lower size and high quality. It also converts YouTube videos that are included in the article into thumbnails to reduce the loading time while displaying them to the user.

8- Lazy loading of photos and videos

The lazy loading feature delays the loading of images and videos until the user scrolls down to view them, thus loading the part of the article that is only displayed to the user, and delaying the entire article loading until the user reaches the end of it.

9- Preload links

This feature loads the internal links in the article in the background and caches them temporarily after the page loads, so that the pages of the site and related articles are loaded immediately as soon as the user clicks on them, a feature that improves the user experience and makes browsing your site a goal in speed.

10- Facilitate linking with content delivery networks

If you want to use a CDN content delivery service and connect your website with providers such as Cloudflare and BunnyCDN or the content delivery service of this Rocket CDN extension, the extension enables you to connect your website easily just by pasting the API code that you will get from the service provider In the place designated for it within the extension settings to be linked automatically.

Read also: 9 Most Important WordPress Plugins Every Website Owner Needs

11- Clean up the databases

Often when you disable an extension and delete it from your website a bunch of spreadsheets are left taking space inside the website database, annoying comments, article drafts and change history also take up space from the database.

Therefore, the Wp Rocket extension provides a feature to clean the databases that can be done manually from within the extension control panel or allow it to run automatically to clean the databases periodically.

12- Configure WordPress Heartbeat

This WordPress feature sends real-time notifications to the site owner when he is logged into the control panel to receive notifications about logins for other members of the site and other notifications that the plugins show when changes are made to the site.

The Wp Rocket extension enables you to control the extent of the actual synchronization or to stop this feature completely because it is consuming some hosting server resources and some users prefer to reduce the synchronization rate or dispense with it to save server resources.

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Increase your site speed with Wp Rocket

To download the add-on, you must go to the official website and choose the plan that suits you, as there are three different pricing packages that differ only in the number of websites you are allowed to install the add-on on. It starts with the (SINGLE) plan that allows installing the extension and using it on one site only, and the (PLUS) package that allows Using it on three sites, the third and final plan is the unlimited plan (INFINITE) which allows the extension to be installed on any number of websites.

After choosing the appropriate plan and completing the purchase process, you will receive an email with a direct link to download the plugin so that you can upload and install it on your website from within the WordPress control panel in the same way we upload and install any other plugin.

Once you install Wp Rocket plugin on your website, it automatically completes 80% of the tasks required to speed up your website and also activates the recommended and recommended plug-ins in the settings.

This means that once you have the extension installed, your website loading speed should increase dramatically and most of the KPI issues you are experiencing in performance tests will be resolved.

Now we move on to a practical explanation of how to set the recommended settings in the Wp Rocket extension step by step by referring to each tab separately and selecting the options that are recommended to be enabled to get the best performance for your website.

1- Control Panel tab

From the main WordPress dashboard, we go to the settings tab and then click on the Wp Rocket option to go to the plugin control panel. The first tab is displayed, which is the Dashboard, through which you can see the type of purchase license and the expiration date of the subscription to the technical support service.

It should be noted here that the cost of obtaining the Wp Rocket extension is paid only once, but the license is renewed annually if you want to continue receiving updates and technical support service, and if you do not want to, you can opt out of the automatic renewal from within Wp Rocket account dashboard or by unlinking the payment method you used during the purchase.

Also in this page, we opt out of add-on analytics, which is non-sensitive data about the performance of the add-on on your website that is sent to the development team to help them improve the add-on in the future, but it can affect even a small amount in the speed of the site, so it is better to disable it.

2- Caching tab

In this tab, we activate the mobile caching option, and it is preferable not to activate the second option, which is the option to create separate files for mobile caching, due to the fact that most of the templates designed for WordPress are responsive templates and depend on the same design for all types of devices.

At the bottom of this tab, we specify how long to keep cache files before they are deleted, for example we specify 72 hours to keep files for three days before they are deleted.

3- File Optimization tab

In this tab, we activate all options for CSS files, except for the Remove Unused CSS option, which is in the development stage and can cause any malfunctions in the website design.

We also activate all options for optimizing JavaScript files, except for the second option, which is the Combine JavaScript Files option, whose activation can cause some problems on the site.

4- Media tab

In this tab, we activate all the options for lazy loading of images, videos, and frames that are included in the page, and we activate the Image Dimensions and Embeds options, which also contribute to increasing the speed of page loading.

As for the WebP Compatibility option, it is preferable not to activate it if you are using an image compression plugin that you convert and display in WebP format, and activate it only if you have not installed such kind of plugins on your site.

Read also: Learn about the most important WordPress site acceleration plugins

5- Preload tab

Here we activate all the options in the preload tab with adding your sitemap link manually in case it is not detected automatically by the extension.

6- Advanced settings tab

This tab contains advanced settings that enable you to exclude some pages and cookies from the caching process. If your website has a member login page or you store cookies, you must add them in the specified location in this tab to be excluded from caching.

7- Database tab

In this tab, we select all the parts of the databases that you want to be cleaned such as article reviews, drafts, spam comments, deleted articles and comments, activate the database cleaning feature and automatic cleaning.

8- Content Delivery Network (CDN) Tab

If you have not manually linked your website with a content delivery network, you can link it from this tab by adding CNAMEs in the specified place, but we recommend linking your site manually, as it is easier and does not cause errors on the site.

9- Heartbeat Tab

Here you can activate the option to control Heartbeat activity by reducing the rate or turning off this feature completely.

10- Add-ons tab

This tab enables you to activate some tools with just one click and give the Wp Rocket extension the permissions to synchronize with this service to get the best performance experience.

11- Tools tab

Through this tab, you can download your current settings to add Wp Rocket or import it, a feature that helps you quickly adjust the settings of the extension if you want to install it on more than one website, as well as from this tab you can undo the extension update and install the previous version of it in case you were You are having problems with this version installed on your site.

12- Tutorials tab

Here you will find a set of video explanations on how to start using the Wp Rocket extension, adjust its settings, and get the best performance for your website in terms of performance and page loading speed.

What I like about WP Rocket?

What I like the most about WP Rocket is that it performs perfectly.

Accelerates load times, achieving an instant drop in page load time from 2.10 to 1.36 seconds, which is 54% faster

 

Additional features like Lazyload, image optimization, and database optimization make it very easy to keep websites fast and light.

 

I also always look for documentation attached with the plugins I use to help me understand the plugin and how it works, and get tips, guides, and tutorials in case I need help.

In the case of WP Rocket, the documentation that comes with the extension is comprehensive and useful enough to guide anyone on how to get started with the extension, how to solve common problems and other valuable information.

 

Also, WP Rocket is a constantly updated plugin (2-3 times per month) to eliminate bugs and improve performance, ensuring that it is always compatible with the latest WordPress version.

 

What I don’t like about WP Rocket?

The only way to reach support is by opening a ticket or filling out their contact form.

I think it is better to provide a phone number or a live chat system on their official website to make getting to support faster and easier.

 

WP Rocket also does not offer a free trial subscription or free add-on which can be useful for people who want to learn how the extension works and if it is suitable.

But overall WP Rocket does a great job, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for an easy solution to improve the performance and speed of a slow website.

 

A final look at Wp Rocket plugin to speed up WordPress sites

We are in a time when speed has become one of the most important factors that determine the success or failure of your website of any kind, as the majority of users tend to avoid visiting websites that have a page load time of more than one second only!

Therefore, every care must be taken to improve the speed of loading your website and provide the best user experience by following the correct methods and methods, starting with choosing a hosting server that is characterized by speed and stability, installing a lightweight and well-configured template, and then compressing images and video files before uploading them to the website and using networks Connect content and activate page caching.

There are many free Caching plugins for WordPress, but there is no add-on with more features and features than Wp Rocket plugin, which is the first addition in this field, as its role is not limited to caching, but rather improves a number of other aspects of the site that contribute All of them significantly increase your website loading speed.

If there is a list of the most important basic plugins that every WordPress user should have and install, then Wp Rocket will of course be one of these plugins. emphasis.