Optimized for Speed

QNRWP-A has been optimized for fast load times and high ranking by the Google Page Speed test.

Initial page loads take about 0.5 seconds. Images are better optimized than what WordPress does by default, if the PHP ImageMagick module is installed on the server. CSS and Javascript files are combined and minified, and Javascript files load at the end of the document. Page Speed rankings vary between 74 and 91 on the mobile, and up to 97 on the desktop (click to see screenshots of the rankings):

• Home page, ranking 74. This is a good example of a lower ranking due to the complexity of the page. It is possible to improve on this, but the effort would be unduly expensive in terms of the custom work required. CSS would need to be inlined and images sized specifically for the page. Realistically, if the Home page should rank better than this, complexity should be reduced.
• News page, ranking 90. This page should rank lower than the Home page. The fact that it ranks higher shows the imperfect nature of the Page Speed test (to put it politely).
• News item page, ranking 91. A good example of a simple page that ranks highly.
• Full-page carousel, ranking 91. QNRWP-A includes a carousel widget, and this is now optimized; the size of the images will dynamically adjust to smaller screens. However, consider that an iPhone 4, the lowest platform to measure against, has 960px on the longest side. An iPhone 6 Plus or better has 1920px, more than most desktop/laptop displays have in height. What this means for a full-page carousel, is that there is little scope for responsive adjustment. Still, it is responsive and the ranking is high (though the ranking would be the same without the responsiveness).

To compare, tests were done of some major websites, and here are their rankings (click for screenshots):

• Amazon – 48
• Apple – 56
• Blogger – 64
• Google Developers – 69
• Ebay – 70
• Github – 58
• Twitter – 62
• WordPress – 64
• Yahoo – 67

In addition to page load improvements, image handling is greatly improved in QNRWP-A. The theme defines three additional sizes (1600px, 2000px and 2500px width, height proportional) and exposes to the user the “hidden” size of “Medium Large”, 768px width. Further, thumbnails and intermediate sizes can be regenerated simply by clicking a checkbox on the Media Settings admin page. And original uploads are sized down to 2500px width, to avoid taking up disk space unnecessarily.

Small incremental improvements will continue to be made, but for the most part, QNRWP-A is as optimized as possible.