The plugin we’ve all been waiting for was launched this week on WordPress.org. The WordPress performance team developed the Performance Lab Plugin. The core purpose behind creating this plugin is to enhance the performance of a WordPress website as well as diagnose any issue slowing down the site.
The first version of the performance team’s work over the past few months is now available: Introducing the Performance Lab plugin. 🎉
It is a collection of performance-related feature projects for WordPress core – help us with testing and feedback! https://t.co/PjD4CJjJht
— Felix Arntz (@felixarntz) March 7, 2022
You can directly download and install this plugin from your WordPress Dashboard.
How this Plugin Works
This plugin is designed to assist developers and publishers in choosing and picking which improvements they wish to utilize. The new features are intended for testing so that they can be added to a future release of WordPress. The organization launched these new features via a plugin so that they can receive feedback regarding any issue.
Performance Lab Plugin Modules
The new plugin has four modules
1. WebP Uploads
This module converts traditional JPEG files to the faster WebP format. However, this feature depends on your server. It will only work if it is supported.
2. WebP Support
This module adds a WebP checker to the site’s health status. It will show a warning if WebP isn’t supported.
3. Persistent Object Cache Health Check
It is a site health check module that suggests the use of object caching. Object cashing is an amazing way to speed up your website and reduce the database load, eventually improving the time a site takes to respond.
4. Audit Enqueued Assets (experimental)
This provides an audit of JavaScript and CSS files. It identifies unnecessary JS and CSS files that might be responsible for slowing down your website.
This plugin delivers clear benefits to a WordPress website. So, we believe you should also give it a try and share your feedback once you see improvement in your website’s performance.
