Today, site speed is more important than ever.
It is very important for the users of the website and also has a great impact on the SEO rankings for desktop and mobile. (especially with Google’s mobile-first feature).
At the end of the day, slow-loading websites will have much lower page views and it is very essential.
People want things to happen quickly.
No one will wait 10 seconds for your website to fully load.
They would rather click X and never go back to it.
Not only people but search engines don’t like slow websites anymore.
Site speed has an impact on the overall score you receive from search engines like Google.
So if your website is slow – Google will not like it and rather it will not show up on the first page results.
Never.
After this quick introduction to the topic, let’s move on to the gist of this article.
Latest WP Rocket Update – 3.12.5.3
WP Rocket released a new version of their tool.
Version 3.12.5.3 – This is the last mirror version that no longer has the option to remove jQuery migration.
The reason for this is that most WordPress plugins and themes need to use jQuery to work properly.
Also, the option may break your website when upgrading to WordPress 6.1.1 version.
If you still have jQuery, we sincerely advise you not to remove it by checking the option just because there is a danger of breaking your website!
Wp Rocket Review
As you probably already understood from the first few paragraphs of this article – everyone who wants to be successful with their website needs to make sure that it loads very fast.
And here comes the Wp Rocket plugin.
Wp Rocket is a WordPress caching and optimization plugin.
It is one of the most popular options available to the WordPress community.
Wp Rocket Caching Options
Caching is probably the best and easiest method to improve your WordPress site speed and there are many caching plugins out there.
So why exactly would you choose Wp Rocket?
WP Rocket tries to get ahead of the other caching plugins in two different ways.
The first is that it offers a very beginner-friendly user interface.
Second – that it includes tons of different and smaller built-in performance optimizations that usually don’t appear in most other caching plugins.
Let’s look at its biggest tweaks and do a quick review of them.
Minification
Wp Rocket plugin offers a feature called minification.
This feature allows you to reduce the size of your website by removing excess content like spaces or whitespace.
Therefore, it improves the speed of the code but does not affect its functionality in any way.
Combine Files
This option allows Wp Rocket to combine multiple files into one.
For example, multiple CSS files that are used for website design can be combined into 1 file and therefore load even faster.
Remove Query Strings
This Wp Rocket feature removes additional strings that might be used on your website, such as “?Ver1.8” and many similar to it.
This will not have an impact on the user experience, but it will still increase your page speed results.
Fix render hang for CSS and JavaScript
This option does what it says – helps you eliminate the so-called “render hang” warning you get from page speed analysis.
Lazy Loading
Lazy loading is another great feature of the Wp Rocket plugin.
Its main function is to speed up your website by loading only what is needed by the user’s viewport.
Let’s take this explanation to a simpler one – if your user opens your website on their phone, for example.
It will only load the stuff in the footer when the user scrolls down and reaches it.
Not before.
This is a very cool feature and it speeds up the website and improves its performance.
Wp Rocket has easy CDN integration
Wp Rocket plugin has easy CDN integration.
It helps you easily connect with CDNs like Cloudflare, for example, and thus you can speed up your website even more.
The Database Optimizer
The database optimizer is another amazing feature of the Wp Rocket plugin.
This feature allows you to clean up your database right from the Wp Rocket menu and you don’t have to install any additional plugins to do it.
It’s quick and easy!
Optimize Your Site With WP Rocket.
After discussing what WP Rocket does, let’s see how to speed up your website!
The first thing you may notice is that WP Rocket starts working once it is installed and activated.
This means that you really don’t have to do much more to get your benefits.
Without configuring any of your settings, you already have your web page caching, browser caching, and GZIP compression enabled.
And they will give your website a huge boost.
You can start with the “Clear cache” option that clears the cache of the website and your users will be able to see all the changes that have already been made.
In the cache tab, you can configure the caching features of your site.
You can enable caching for mobile visitors.
This is a great option because they will be served by the most recent version of your website and therefore will have a streamlined user experience.
Enabling caching for logged-in users is another option you can use.
This option gives you the opportunity to enable caching for your logged-in users only, but if you don’t have a website login functionality, we suggest you skip this option.
File Optimization is the next tab that allows you to use minification along with a few other settings.
These settings allow you to reduce your websites’ HTML, JS, and CSS without changing any of their functionality.
In the Database tab, you can manually exclude some CSS or JS to avoid problems.
However, this functionality is a bit advanced and we do not recommend using it if you are not familiar with these options because it could cause some problems on your website.
In the Media tab of the Wp Rocket plugin, you have several options to optimize your images, videos, and other media files that are used on your website.
If you use youtube videos on your website, the plugin will suggest the option to replace the video with a static image that will display the video on click, thus improving your website speed really significantly.
You can also use the disable emojis and disable Wp Embeds options.
The Preload Tab
The Preload tab is another great feature that allows you to use cache preload.
With almost all WordPress caching plugins – a single page is only loaded into the cache after a user visits it – this means that the first visitor after the cache is purged does not get the purged version.
If your website receives infrequent traffic, this could reduce its performance.
The prefetch feature allows your content to “prefetch” into the cache even if it hasn’t been visited yet.
The way Wp Rocket does this is by using two different approaches.
The first is the Sitemap – where you have to enter a URL and then Wp Rocket preloads the content of this URL.
And the second one is the Bot – when a real bot crawls the website and creates a cache.
The difference between sitemap and bot preloading is that the sitemap way of preloading costs less resources but only runs when the cache lifetime is expired whereas the bot will preload certain pages when it is published or edited.
The Advanced Rules tab is a tab that gives you control over everything.
You can choose what content to cache, who will see the cached content, and when certain content should be purged.
You can use several options, for example:
Also, You can specify which pages will be included and which pages will be excluded from caching.
You can exclude certain user agents or cookies if you do not want some of your content to be served to them.
You can also specify some URLs of your website that you want to always remove after a post or page update.
And you can also force caching of some specific strings.
All up to you!
The Database Tab
The database tab is where the database caching options are located.
You can clean your database of all the junk and it is really easy and requires no prior knowledge of the subject.
You can clean your database manually or you can schedule a database cleanup and it will be done automatically.
CDN
CDN or Content Delivery Network is another feature that can be enabled through the WP Rocket plugin.
The CDN is a geographical group of servers that are located all over the world and when your website is visited from a certain country, it tries to load from the nearest server.
This improves the loading time of the website and improves the user experience.
Another Great Feature
WP Rocket has even more stylish and cool features!
It allows you to implement tracking pixels on your website so that you can follow every movement of your visitors.
Where they click, how much time they spend on each page, and even more!
Last but not Least – The Price
Wp Rocket is a paid plugin that comes with 3 different license options.
You can buy it for $49 – which includes a single license for 1 website that will receive support and updates for 1 year.
Or you can get the PLUS version which costs $99 and gives you 1-year support and is usable by 3 websites, and the last and most expensive is the INFINITE plan – it gives you 1 year of unlimited updates and support and the possibility to be used on unlimited websites.
The cost of the INFINITE plan is $249.
You will receive a 50% discount on renewals.
Our Final Thoughts on WP Rocket
If you are going to invest time and money in your website or have some serious ideas to achieve with a WordPress site – the Wp Rocket plugin will be one of your biggest investments.
Its price is not that great and it is worth it.
You get convenience, compatibility, support, and updates, and that’s just $49 a year for your website!
What we like about WP Rocket
We like the fact that this plugin does its job really well.
Reduce page loading speed by 50% or even more.
It is very easy to use and includes many different features that can be applied.
What we don’t like
The only fact we don’t like is that it’s not free like most other caching or optimization plugins.
However, if you are looking for a premium feature – this is probably the best caching and optimization plugin you can use!
Thanks for Reading
Q: What is WP Rocket?
WP Rocket is a caching and performance optimization plugin that improves loading speed for WordPress-powered websites. You can install and configure it in less than 3 minutes!
Q: Why is it important to have a fast site?
A fast site is important mainly for visitors who may leave a website that is too slow, but also for SEO performance since search engines consider site speed as a ranking factor.
Q: What makes WP Rocket better than other caching plugins?
WP Rocket integrates the latest performance features: lazy loading of images, lazy loading of Javascript, concatenation, and minification of CSS and JavaScript files. We also have a sitemap-based preload and sitemap functionality so that humans who visit your website immediately receive the fast, cached version of the page.
Although it is very complete, WP Rocket is also very easy to set up even for beginners. Unlike other plugins, you don’t need to be a rocket engineer to set up ours.
Q: Can I easily switch from other caching plugins like W3 Total Cache or WP Super Cache to WP Rocket?
Yes, it’s easy, but before configuring WP Rocket you must disable any caching plugins you are using in your WordPress to avoid conflicts.
Q: What are performance indicators?
Performance indicators are essentially just indicators of good practice. Assessment tools verify that those optimizations have been made. However, these ratings do not indicate the actual speed of a site. Good ratings do not guarantee a fast site, nor vice versa. The actual page load time is the most important metric to look at.
Q: Is WP Rocket compatible with all browsers?
Of course! All browsers can enjoy the optimizations made by WP Rocket.
Q: Is WP Rocket worth the money?
Yes, WP Rocket is a popular caching plugin that helps to speed up WordPress websites. It offers a variety of features such as page caching, lazy loading, database optimization, and minification. The cost of the plugin varies depending on the type of plan you choose. While some users have reported significant improvements in website speed and performance after using WP Rocket, others have found it to be expensive compared to other caching plugins. Ultimately, whether WP Rocket is worth the money depends on your specific needs and budget.
Q: Does WP Rocket work?
Yes, WP Rocket is a popular WordPress caching plugin that claims to improve website speed and performance by reducing page load times. Many users have reported positive results and improvements in their website’s speed and performance after using WP Rocket.
Q: Can I use WP Rocket for free?
No, WP Rocket is a premium WordPress caching and optimization plugin, which means it is not available for free. However, they offer a 14-day money-back guarantee, so you can try it risk-free for two weeks. Also, sometimes WP Rocket offers discounts or special deals, so keep an eye out for those.
Q: How long does WP Rocket take to work?
Once you install and activate WP Rocket, it should start working immediately. WP Rocket is designed to improve website speed and performance by caching and optimizing various elements. Depending on the size of your website and the complexity of the optimizations you have configured, you may notice improvements in website speed and performance within a few hours or a few days.
1 thought on “WP Rocket Review (2023) – Why You Should Buy This Plugin”