Media Optimization
Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2024 8:20 am
When we started developing SiteGround Optimizer in 2012, we wanted it to be a bridge between our services and our clients’ WordPress websites. Over the years, we’ve implemented more and better features and SiteGround Optimizer became one of the best WordPress optimization plugins based on our reviews . And naturally, we started getting questions about how websites not hosted on our platform could take advantage of it. This interest prompted us to decouple the plugin from its dependency on our infrastructure and make it a hosting-agnostic solution that’s completely free for everyone. We’re happy to announce that since its latest update, SiteGround Optimizer can be used by any website, regardless of where it’s hosted!
Features available on any Hosting platform
Making Optimizer available on other platforms was not an easy task. Part of the plugin's success is related to SiteGround's server configuration that was built with performance in mind and takes advantage of some of its unique features. In order to open source every functionality that depended on our platform's services, we had to find a solution that would work equally effectively on different platforms and configurations.
File-based Cache (New Feature)
File-based caching includes prefetching and caching for logged in users!
Nowadays, caching is one of the most effective means of optimizing performance. When looking for alternatives to dynamic caching (built-in feature for all websites on SiteGround), we decided to implement file-based caching due to its versatility and compatibility with different hosting configurations. File-based caching can be used on its own on websites hosted outside of SiteGround or as an additional caching layer for SiteGround customers who already have dynamic caching and Memcached enabled.
Some great features of file-based caching are the ability to persist the cache for logged in users, cache warm-up (especially useful for infrequently opened pages and those opened for the first time in a long time), and setting a longer cache expiration. These options are configurable in the plugin interface. Although file-based caching on its own is generally slower than dynamic caching, our testing shows that its implementation in SiteGround Optimizer is still 20% faster than any other plugin providing similar optimization functionality that we've tested.
Environment Optimizations
All users can enjoy several types of environment optimizations that will tidy up your WordPress environment for maximum performance. Here you can find WordPress Heartbeat Optimization where you can configure how the WordPress API interacts with your application to optimize resource usage; Schedule weekly database maintenance to make sure your WordPress stays tidy and clean.
Front Page Optimizations
Front-end code on your website can sometimes be heavy and significantly slow down your loading speed. There are several features in SG Optimizer that can optimize it and, as a result, speed up your website. Minifying the output of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript will decrease the size and number of server requests related to these types of files and decrease loading time. We’ve made these features available with simple toggles in the plugin. You can specify which file types you want to minify, combine, and even exclude from minification or combining. And if all of this sounds too technical, you can look for the “Recommended” label next to each option to find out what would have the biggest impact on your website’s performance.
There are several media optimization tools in SiteGround Optimizer malaysia whatsapp number data that will work on all hosting platforms. You can enable Lazy Loading of media where media will only be visible in the browser when it is loaded. This makes loading faster and smoother for longer pages with multiple media elements. You can also set the Maximum Image Width allowed for images on your website. Many templates and plugins tend to upload excessively large images that slow down the loading speed without displaying them in their full width.
SiteGround Exclusive Features
As mentioned above, our platform has some unique speed settings and services, which cannot be replaced by plugin functionality alone, as they need the specific server environment to run as designed. These remain exclusively available to websites hosted on SiteGround.
Dynamic Cache and Memcached
One of the best speed-boosting features you can get for your website and our preferred choice when it comes to speed is dynamic caching. Dynamic caching is part of our proprietary 3-tier server caching implementation that relies on NGINX Direct Delivery for handling static caching, Dynamic Cache for dynamic content, and Memcached for storing data and objects in RAM. We believe dynamic caching is essential for every website and have included it in all of our hosting plans. From the SiteGround Optimizer plugin you have control over advanced WordPress-specific settings for dynamic caching and Memcached to take full advantage of this technology.
Image Compression and WebP
SiteGround Optimizer’s WebP and image compression features are two essential features available to SiteGround-hosted websites exclusively. Using our image compression algorithm, you can reduce your image size (and, respectively, the time it takes to load) by up to 85% while maintaining high image quality for your visitors. You can also enable WebP, which will convert your images to a WebP format, adding an additional reduction in size without affecting image quality.
Opening up the plugin for websites hosted outside of SiteGround has been a big step for us. After running several tests on different hosting platforms and comparing performance with WordPress plugins with similar functionality, we are confident that SiteGround Optimizer is the best optimization tool you can get for your website, regardless of where it is hosted. And it is a completely free plugin. Try it out for yourself and leave us a feedback on how it works on your site.
Author avatar
Hristo Pandjarov
Features available on any Hosting platform
Making Optimizer available on other platforms was not an easy task. Part of the plugin's success is related to SiteGround's server configuration that was built with performance in mind and takes advantage of some of its unique features. In order to open source every functionality that depended on our platform's services, we had to find a solution that would work equally effectively on different platforms and configurations.
File-based Cache (New Feature)
File-based caching includes prefetching and caching for logged in users!
Nowadays, caching is one of the most effective means of optimizing performance. When looking for alternatives to dynamic caching (built-in feature for all websites on SiteGround), we decided to implement file-based caching due to its versatility and compatibility with different hosting configurations. File-based caching can be used on its own on websites hosted outside of SiteGround or as an additional caching layer for SiteGround customers who already have dynamic caching and Memcached enabled.
Some great features of file-based caching are the ability to persist the cache for logged in users, cache warm-up (especially useful for infrequently opened pages and those opened for the first time in a long time), and setting a longer cache expiration. These options are configurable in the plugin interface. Although file-based caching on its own is generally slower than dynamic caching, our testing shows that its implementation in SiteGround Optimizer is still 20% faster than any other plugin providing similar optimization functionality that we've tested.
Environment Optimizations
All users can enjoy several types of environment optimizations that will tidy up your WordPress environment for maximum performance. Here you can find WordPress Heartbeat Optimization where you can configure how the WordPress API interacts with your application to optimize resource usage; Schedule weekly database maintenance to make sure your WordPress stays tidy and clean.
Front Page Optimizations
Front-end code on your website can sometimes be heavy and significantly slow down your loading speed. There are several features in SG Optimizer that can optimize it and, as a result, speed up your website. Minifying the output of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript will decrease the size and number of server requests related to these types of files and decrease loading time. We’ve made these features available with simple toggles in the plugin. You can specify which file types you want to minify, combine, and even exclude from minification or combining. And if all of this sounds too technical, you can look for the “Recommended” label next to each option to find out what would have the biggest impact on your website’s performance.
There are several media optimization tools in SiteGround Optimizer malaysia whatsapp number data that will work on all hosting platforms. You can enable Lazy Loading of media where media will only be visible in the browser when it is loaded. This makes loading faster and smoother for longer pages with multiple media elements. You can also set the Maximum Image Width allowed for images on your website. Many templates and plugins tend to upload excessively large images that slow down the loading speed without displaying them in their full width.
SiteGround Exclusive Features
As mentioned above, our platform has some unique speed settings and services, which cannot be replaced by plugin functionality alone, as they need the specific server environment to run as designed. These remain exclusively available to websites hosted on SiteGround.
Dynamic Cache and Memcached
One of the best speed-boosting features you can get for your website and our preferred choice when it comes to speed is dynamic caching. Dynamic caching is part of our proprietary 3-tier server caching implementation that relies on NGINX Direct Delivery for handling static caching, Dynamic Cache for dynamic content, and Memcached for storing data and objects in RAM. We believe dynamic caching is essential for every website and have included it in all of our hosting plans. From the SiteGround Optimizer plugin you have control over advanced WordPress-specific settings for dynamic caching and Memcached to take full advantage of this technology.
Image Compression and WebP
SiteGround Optimizer’s WebP and image compression features are two essential features available to SiteGround-hosted websites exclusively. Using our image compression algorithm, you can reduce your image size (and, respectively, the time it takes to load) by up to 85% while maintaining high image quality for your visitors. You can also enable WebP, which will convert your images to a WebP format, adding an additional reduction in size without affecting image quality.
Opening up the plugin for websites hosted outside of SiteGround has been a big step for us. After running several tests on different hosting platforms and comparing performance with WordPress plugins with similar functionality, we are confident that SiteGround Optimizer is the best optimization tool you can get for your website, regardless of where it is hosted. And it is a completely free plugin. Try it out for yourself and leave us a feedback on how it works on your site.
Author avatar
Hristo Pandjarov