AJ @ WpFASTER.org

RE: Render Blocking CSS:
1.) W3TC does not currently offer a means by which to render CSS as non-blocking. For that, you can try Autoptimize and make use of its ‘Inline and Defer CSS’ option (make sure you’ve disabled CSS minification in W3TC). A tutorial for Autoptimize’s Inline and Defer CSS feature can be found here.
2.) Unless you install the Google Fonts you want to use on your server, they will always block page rendering. You appear to only have one; so, to be honest, you can ignore the Google PS suggestion there. It’s really not a big deal.

RE: Expires Headers
You cannot change the expires headers of items served from 3rd party resources, e.g. Google Analytics. Again, just ignore it.

From the looks of it, the best thing you can do to improve your site’s speed is improve your server’s response time which is very, very bad. A close second would be to make use of a CDN to serve all of your site’s static resources. CloudFlare is free.

Best,
AJ

Ah, gothca. Yeah, that is a good idea +1 lol

You can request this as a new feature:
Performance –> Support–> Suggest a New Feature (from the drop down menu).

AJ
P.s. And, I agree: I’ve also always felt the homepage should be first under Pages instead of inserted alphabetically.

Just out of curiosity, why would you want to purge the homepage if nothing has been changed on it or the rest of the website?

Pages –> (hover over) Home –> (click) Purge from cache.

Best,
AJ

Ah, okay. It has been awhile since I’ve used or edited Disqus, so I’m sure you’re right about the line no longer being present in the current Disqus version.

Thanks again, Joel,
AJ

Thanks, Joel. I’m a bit confused, however: What would this plugin then be for were it not loading Disqus conditionally?

Best,
AJ

Hi Joel, and thanks,

Sorry, are you saying that there is no local file in your plugin to edit? I just want to make sure I’m clear on what you’re saying as there is an editable comments.php file for the standard Disqus Comment System plugin wherein one can no-follow the “Powered by Disqus” link. In comments.php, this:

<a class="dsq-brlink" href="https://disqus.com">blog comments powered by <span class="logo-disqus">Disqus</span></a>

gets changed to this:

<a class="dsq-brlink" href="https://disqus.com" rel="nofollow">blog comments powered by <span class="logo-disqus">Disqus</span></a>

Thanks again,
AJ

Sorry, Jan. Won’t happen again. Things got into a bit of a grey area, there, and wasn’t sure about the best way to continue to help Deborah in a manner that abided by all the rules.

Many thanks,
AJ

If you’re using W3TC for your CSS, it will render as blocking no matter what as it has no options to inline critical, ‘above-the-fold’ styling. For that, you will want to use Autoptimize, making use of the “Inline and Defer CSS” option.

To render your combined JavaScript file(s) as non-blocking with W3TC:
Performance –> Minify –> JS –> JS minify settings: –> Operations in areas: –> Embed type: (from the drop down menu) –>
Your choices are:
1.) Non-blocking using JS
2.) Non-blocking using “async”
3.) Non-blocking using “defer”
4.) Non-blocking using “extsrc”
5.) Non-blocking using “asyncsrc”

Autoptimize can be used for your JS as well (all minification, in fact), but it isn’t as delicate an instrument as is W3TC. That said, a hammer is often the most appropriate tool for the job.

Best,
AJ

??

Hi CharlyIBC,

You can find a tutorial for Autoptimize’s Inline and Defer CSS option here.

Hope that helps,
AJ

[…]11MB. Is that still bad?

11MB is very, very (…very…) bad, yes.

A couple things,

I think that we’re now squarely outside of what the WordPress support forums are for in general, and assistance with the W3TC plugin in particular. Moreover, we’ve exited the ambit of what was initially asked in the beginning of the thread. I’m happy to help further, though: Contact my Support team at [ totally redacted, do not do that here again please ] specifically referencing this thread with a link to it in the body of your email, and I’ll have someone give you some help.

Please bear in mind, however, that much of the direction you’ll receive is likely to sound like an entirely different language. One which you will not only have to learn, but the objective of which will ultimately have to be implemented on your site. The implementation, itself, being something that will require quite a bit of training to execute.

Best,
AJ

Well, first, depending on how the URL is tested, it is up 20.7MB in size (holy moley, Deborah!). This .swf file alone is 9.7MB. If your site is even a little busy, the size of your site/site’s files would strain even a VPS or dedicated server (especially if misconfigured), regardless of caching, and regardless of whether or not the site makes use of a CDN. The short version: PhotoMobil is entirely unoptimized for performance; and, while images are a big part of the problem, they are in no way the only ones.

About Cloudfare’s free version, it requires you to change your nameservers to theirs. And this worried me. Is it Ok to do this in your opinion.

Absolutely. It is something we do for our own clients daily and it never goes anything but flawlessly.

I do realize changing name servers can be a bit scary, but I’m confident that once you do it you’ll wonder why you hadn’t signed up for CloudFlare sooner.

I do want to emphasize, however, that a CDN — CloudFlare or otherwise — cannot ‘fix’ a 20.7MB homepage…

Best,
AJ

Have you tried:
1.) Combining only?
2.) Combine only + Render blocking (default) i.e. no async?
3.) Combine + Minify + Render blocking (default) i.e. no async?
4.) Combining only jquery files and placing them in the <head> and remainder at the opening <body>? Or (and better yet) at the </body>?
5.) Loading jquery from Google libraries instead?
6.) CloudFlare’s Rocket Loader? (isn’t recognized as non-blocking by Google bot but does, in fact, work for the end-user on Chrome and Firefox).

…I promise, there’s a solution and you almost certainly can find it right within W3TC. It might take a lot of A/B testing and running through all logical permutations — but it is there.

You should also try disabling plugins to see which ones, if any, aren’t playing nice with W3TC’s minify directives.

Best,
AJ

P.s. Google killed your goo.gl links.

Combined CSS file placement and/or asnychronous CSS rendering is not a feature currently available in W3TC (maybe it will be with the next release?).

Until then (or as a permanent accompaniment to W3TC), you can use Autoptimize for CSS, making use of the “Inline and Defer CSS” option (in so doing, in-lining critical, ‘above-the-fold’ CSS, thereby rendering CSS in a non-blocking fashion).

You can find a how-to guide for Autoptimize’s Inline and Defer CSS option here.

Best,
AJ