Is your recipe website struggling with slow load times? Are visitors leaving before they even see your delicious content?
Look no further! WP Delicious is here to help.
With our latest update, version 1.7.0 (or 2.1.8 for Pro), we’ve optimized speed and performance to make it one of the fastest recipe plugins available.
In this article, we’ll walk you through these improvements and share speed test results, highlighting how they can benefit your website.
What We’ve Done in the Core Plugin
Our development team has worked hard to optimize the core of both WP Delicious and WP Delicious Pro.
Here’s a breakdown of the key improvements:
1. Reduced Network Requests
One of the main improvements in the latest update is the noticeable reduction in network requests.
By loading only the necessary assets and removing extra files, we’ve significantly lowered the number of requests sent to the server.
This results in faster page loading and better overall site performance.
Here’s a closer look at how we achieved this:
Disabling Third-Party Features by Default
Most features that rely on third-party libraries, such as the ReCAPTCHA and Font Awesome Icons, are now disabled by default. This significantly reduces the number of JavaScript requests and improves website performance.
For example, Font Awesome Icons were previously causing multiple network requests, which impacted page load times.
With Font Awesome Icons now disabled by default, the associated JavaScript files from the Font Awesome library are no longer loaded, resulting in faster load times and a more efficient site.
Here are the changes done in both the free and pro versions:
| Feature | WP Delicious Free Version | WP Delicious Pro Version |
| reCAPTCHA | Disabled by default | Disabled by default |
| Font Awesome Icons | Disabled by default | – |
| Chicory | Disabled by default | – |
| Lazy Loading | Disabled by default (enabled at testing) | – |
| Pinit | – | Disabled by default |
| Exit Intent | – | Disabled by default |
| Review Images | – | Disabled by default |
Modular JavaScript Loading
In the past, our plugin loaded all JavaScript functionalities from a single file across the entire website. As a result, unnecessary code was often loaded on pages that weren’t required.
To enhance performance and efficiency, we’ve restructured how JavaScript is handled. Now, the code is split into smaller, modular files, each containing only the specific JavaScript needed for a particular page.
This modular approach offers several key benefits:
- By loading only the required JavaScript, we reduce the amount of data that needs to be transferred to the user’s device.
- Smaller, individual files are easier to cache, ensuring that unchanged code doesn’t need to be reloaded, further boosting performance.
Note: No changes have been made in WP Delicious Pro.
2. Lazy Loading Feature
In the latest version, we’ve introduced the Lazy Loading feature, designed to load content only when it’s needed. This approach optimizes your website’s performance by minimizing initial load times and conserving resources.
Currently, lazy loading is applied to images across your entire site using the vanilla-lazyload package.
This script defers image loading until they’re about to enter the user’s viewport, helping to speed up page load times and reduce bandwidth usage.
Here are the changes made in both the free and pro versions:
| WP Delicious Free | WP Delicious Pro |
| Lazy loaded images in the instructions section. | Lazy loaded ingredients image |
| Lazy loaded featured image. | Lazy loaded review images. |
| Lazy loaded images added to the post’s content. | Lazy loaded inline related recipe’s images. |
| Lazy loaded images in widgets. | Lazy loaded CTA images. |
How to Enable Lazy Loading
If you wish to adjust the Lazy Loading settings manually, you can follow these steps:
- Go to your WordPress dashboard.
- Navigate to WP Delicious > Settings.
- Click on the Performance tab.
- Under the Performance section, enable the Lazy Loading option.
- Finally, click Save to apply your changes.
3. Removed Obsolete jQuery Libraries
To make your recipe site faster and improve its performance, we’ve replaced some old jQuery libraries with better, lighter alternatives.
Here’s what we’ve done:
Splide Integration for Slider
We’ve switched from Owl Carousel to Splide for sliders. Owl Carousel was slowing down page speed.
Splide is a lighter and faster option than Owl Carousel and helps speed up your site.
fsLightbox Integration for Popups and Galleries
We’ve replaced the Magnific Popup and Lightgallery libraries with fsLightbox to handle popups and galleries.
The previous libraries were slowing things down, but fsLightbox is more efficient and loads much faster.
Custom Vanilla JavaScript for Ratings
Next, we’ve replaced the Rateyo library with custom vanilla JavaScript code to handle ratings.
This change removes the extra load caused by the Rateyo library.
Removed Math.min.js
We’ve also removed Math.min.js, which was used to handle mathematical operations in the plugin.
By eliminating this script, we’ve simplified the code, reducing unnecessary bulk and boosting overall performance.
Speed Test Results
To demonstrate the impact of our recent optimizations, we conducted speed tests using Speed Vitals and Page Speed Insights.
We tested two scenarios:
- Comparing WP Delicious Free Version: We looked at version 1.6.9 versus 1.7.0, using the Twenty Twenty-Three and Yummy Bites Theme.
- Comparing WP Delicious Pro Version: We compared version 2.1.7 with 2.1.8, using the same two themes.
Note: These tests were conducted without any caching plugins. Adding caching plugins such as WP Rocket, FlyingPress, or Perfmatters will further enhance your website’s performance and improve its score. These tests were conducted with ideal content, including a lot of images, most settings enabled, and other factors considered.
Here are the results before and after implementing the optimizations:
1. Twenty Twenty-Three Theme
WP Delicious Free version
| Metric | WP Delicious (1.6.9) | WP Delicious (1.7.0) |
| Number of Requests | 29 | 15 |
| Number of JS | 18 | 12 |
| Number of CSS | 11 | 3 |
| Mobile Speed (PageSpeed Insights) | 69 | 85 |
| Desktop Speed (Page Speed Insights) | 88 | 99 |
Speed Vitals Test
Page Speed Insights Test
WP Delicious Pro version
| Metric | WP Delicious Pro (2.1.7) | WP Delicious Pro (2.1.8) |
| Number of Requests | 45 | 21 |
| Number of JS | 28 | 14 |
| Number of CSS | 17 | 7 |
| Mobile Speed (PageSpeed Insights) | 60 | 83 |
| Desktop Speed (Page Speed Insights) | 88 | 98 |
Speed Vitals Test
Page Speed Insights Test
2. Yummy Bites Theme
WP Delicious Free version
| Metric | WP Delicious (1.6.9) | WP Delicious (1.7.0) |
| Number of Requests | 33 | 19 |
| Number of JS | 20 | 14 |
| Number of CSS | 13 | 5 |
| Mobile Speed (PageSpeed Insights) | 55 | 77 |
| Desktop Speed (Page Speed Insights) | 93 | 99 |
Speed Vitals Test
Page Speed Insights Test
WP Delicious Pro version
| Metric | WP Delicious Pro (2.1.7) | WP Delicious Pro (2.1.8) |
| Number of Requests | 49 | 25 |
| Number of JS | 30 | 16 |
| Number of CSS | 19 | 9 |
| Mobile Speed (PageSpeed Insights) | 44 | 67 |
| Desktop Speed (Page Speed Insights) | 81 | 98 |
Speed Vitals Test
Page Speed Insights Test
Note: While the plugin has made some significant improvements, our team will also work on optimizing all our recipe themes, which will help improve the speed further.
Conclusion
With the latest update to WP Delicious, you can significantly boost the speed and performance of your recipe website.
By upgrading to version 1.7.0 (or 2.1.8 for the Pro version), you’ll benefit from reduced network requests, modular JavaScript loading, and enhanced lazy loading features.
As always, if you have any questions or need help with the new features, we’re here to assist you. Update today and enjoy a faster, smoother recipe website!
