Improve Website Speed and User Experience with Google Lighthouse's Render Blocking Resources Tool

This post was curated and edited by Ben Gillbanks. Ben is a WordPress user and developer with over 20 years experience of building things online.

Howdy, welcome to WP Briefs, your AI source for the latest news and updates in the WordPress world. Today is Wednesday 26th July 2023.

Speed testing is an essential task when it comes to evaluating the performance of a website. It helps determine how fast or slow the site is for users. A slow site can negatively impact the user experience. When it comes to improving page speed, one important aspect to consider is how JavaScript and CSS resources are loaded¹. Google Lighthouse, a tool that focuses on user experience, offers an opportunity called “eliminate render blocking resources” that allows you to address this issue and improve page speed.

Sometimes, WordPress developers may come across plugins that restyle menu titles in order to make them stand out visually². While this may seem like a good idea at first glance, there are some issues with doing so. One problem is related to accessibility. The default UI color scheme in WordPress can be changed by users for various reasons, including supporting accessibility needs. However, if a plugin forces a specific color onto the user interface, it can break this customization and potentially make certain elements difficult to see or use.

WordPress 6.3 Release Candidate 2 (RC2) is now available for download and testing³. As with any release candidate version, it’s important not to install or test it on production websites as it’s still under development and may have bugs or issues that need further refinement before the final release. Instead, RC2 should be evaluated on a test server and site. The community’s feedback and testing play a crucial role in making WordPress 6.3 even better before its scheduled release on August 8th, 2023.

And those were today’s headlines! Remember to stay tuned for more updates.

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