Increase Site Speed and Performance (Page loading slow)

When a client submits a ticket with concern over their site speed, the first thing we need to do is to run these three page-speed tests:

• https://gtmetrix.com/
• http://webpagetest.org/
• https://tools.pingdom.com/

After you run each test, you will get a url with the results. Paste each result in a note and then assign the ticket to a senior dev. (Stefano first, then Jewel)

Action Items to Improve Page Speed

1. Optimize images
   1. Install Smush plugin to optimize images
   2. set max image size to 2880×9999 and remove EXIF data (if not a photography website, where meta like Fstop and shutter speed is needed)
2. Install caching plugin
   1. Install Autoptimize
   2. Other caching plugins are not recommended since WP Engine does this already
3. Utilize WPE CDN
   1. Turn on in wp-admin > WP Engine 
4. Optimize WordPress database
   1. run SQL query
      1. SELECT option_name FROM wp_options WHERE autoload = ‘yes’;
   2. then run for each returned from the above query
      1. UPDATE wp_options SET autoload=’no’ WHERE option_name='[OPTION_NAME]’;  
5. Limit post revisions
   1. In functions.php, look for the setting WP_POST_REVISIONS and set to the desired number (3-5 is advised). If not found, this feature is not used (it’s set to 0).
6. Disable AJAX cart fragments
   1. Install Disable Cart Fragments plugin https://wordpress.org/plugins/disable-cart-fragments-littlebizzy/