On Episode 547 of the Your Website Engineer podcast, host Dustin Hartzler explores the benefits of optimizing WordPress sites using the WP Optimize plugin. The episode is inspired by a Twitter thread detailing a significant reduction in site size achieved through WP Optimize.

Topics Covered:

• Overview of WP Optimize: Dustin introduces WP Optimize as a trusted plugin used on over a million WordPress sites. It focuses on boosting performance, reducing page load times, and improving user experience and Google rankings.
• Caching: Explains the caching feature, emphasizing one-click optimization, cache preload, Gzip compression, and serving cache content to logged-in users.
• Image Compression: Discusses how WP Optimize compresses images, allowing users to choose between maximum space saving and best image quality. Highlights WebP conversions, auto compression, and bulk compression.
• Database Cleanup: Details the plugin’s ability to clean and optimize the WordPress database by removing unnecessary data, with options for scheduled cleanups and retaining specific data.
• Minification: Explores how WP Optimize minifies HTML, JavaScript, and CSS, with options for custom minification, asynchronous loading, and excluding files.
• Premium Features: Provides an overview of premium features, including multisite support, scheduled optimizations, WPCLI support, lazy loading, optimization preview, and premium support.

Links Shared:

• WP Optimize: The featured plugin for optimizing WordPress sites.
• Media Cleaner: A complementary plugin is mentioned for cleaning unwanted images.