I wrote 36 blog posts this year - here are the most popular ones.

Writing has always been a form of therapy for me. I enjoy the reflection, the physical process, and just documenting my experiences for future reference. I write about topics ranging from personal events, entrepreneurship, WordPress, mindfulness, politics, health, and happiness.

As you would expect, some posts are more popular than others. Below are my five most popular posts in 2024 based on number of views:

1. Matt vs WP Engine: Too Far?
2. WP Business Mistakes
3. Blogging Alternative to WordPress
4. WordPress Pricing
5. Winning in WordPress

Occasionally I write on Medium. Here are my top three articles this year:

1. How to Grow from $1M to $2M ARR
2. 6 Profitable Lessons from My Startup to Exit Journey
3. Pricing Strategies That Work

Stay in The Know

While I often blog, I don't always email my list. I try to limit it to just one email a month, sometimes two. And these are typically my better posts, not my personal ones where I'm documenting my life.

If you're not already, then you can subscribe below. I don't spam my list, and I value your privacy (there is no email tracking).

Also, if you're up for it, let's connect on Bluesky!

Have a great holiday!

#WordPress #entrepreneurship

Large portions of the WordPress Twitter community are migrating over to Bluesky.

In the past week, the WordPress community has been joining the growing “X-Odus” of users leaving X/Twitter, finding a new digital home on the emerging social platform Bluesky.

As Bluesky's growth accelerates, WordPress professionals are leveraging community-curated “Starter Packs” – curated lists of WordPress developers, designers, and community leaders that users can follow with a single click. These packs are rapidly accelerating the rebuild of professional networks that took years to cultivate on X.

A Welcomed Change

The migration appears to be driven by more than just X fatigue. Bluesky's decentralized structure, customizable algorithms, and ad-free environment are resonating with the WordPress community's open-source values.

The platform also offers the ability to fine-tune feed content and moderation settings. This, combined with high follow-back rates among WordPress professionals, is fostering stronger engagement than they've seen in recent years on other platforms.

As more of the community makes the switch, these WordPress Starter Packs are becoming valuable resources for maintaining professional connections, and they are helpful for finding folks with similar interests.

One, or Both?

Does this mean X/Twitter is no longer relevant? No, of course not.

As of today, there is still a very strong WordPress community on Twitter, and that probably isn't going to change anytime soon. Many people, myself included, are posting on both platforms.

That said, I'm more active on Bluesky than Twitter now. I'll continue to maintain my Twitter account for the time being and will assess how things play out over time. I may shut down Twitter altogether.

If you're timid about getting started, don't be! It's easy to build up a network, and you can always follow me, and I’ll gladly follow you back! 🦋

#WordPress

The often forgotten protection of the First Amendment can only help Automattic.

The very public battle between Matt Mullenweg (Automattic) and WP Engine won't be ending anytime soon. From pettiness to legal challenges, to extremely questionable actions – things have been getting very messy. And not for WP Engine, but for Matt.

Given the actions of Matt over the last few weeks, WP Engine has filed an injunction. Essentially, they are trying to shut him up (and stop his actions) because of the damage he is causing to their company. The law specifically provides them with this option, and while I'm far from a lawyer, it looks to have been used appropriately. We'll see how a judge rules on the matter.

An Attack on Free Speech?

In response to this action by WP Engine, Matt wrote a blog post on how his First Amendment right has been attacked.

I can understand this reaction, on some level. No one likes to be told to “stop talking”. The emotional response is often to cite it as a violation of the First Amendment. Now, if Matt really wanted to, he could keep doing what he has been doing, but I suspect his legal team has advised against it.

The First Amendment protects free expression from government censorship or retaliation, but what people often forget is that it also inherently includes the right to remain silent.

Staying silent is prudent, and it's often underutilized. People love to spout off, and they should if they should feel so inclined. However, the sound of silence can be deafening.

The ability to not be goaded into fiery online spats and to hold your word, and peace, close to the vest is a virtue that not many people have. Very few, in fact. And it becomes exceptionally difficult when you feel like you're being attacked, personally.

Protection From Yourself

Your right to remain silent can save your ass. There's the obvious example of refraining from answering questions from the police, but its protection goes beyond just that scenario.

If you're in an ugly lawsuit, as is the case here with Matt and WP Engine, then it also protects you from yourself. Specifically, it protects you from your emotions.

Emotions aren't rational, they are jaded by your own perception. When you act out of emotion, you're broadcasting a very personalized worldview, and that worldview may be wrong in the eyes of a jury. Especially if it's emotionally charged.

Exercising your right to remain silent is honorable. In fact, I'd argue that there are times when it is more powerful than speaking freely. Matt has indicated that he will be staying silent until the judge makes a ruling on the injunction.

I hope that he sees the value in exercising this right.

#WordPress

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My favorite platform for blogging.

Given all the WordPress drama that has been going on, I've seen a number of tweets from people searching for other platforms to use. In light of this, I figured I'd share what I've been using for a number of years now for blogging.

To clarify, this is not a CMS, so if you are looking for a CMS replacement then this one isn't it. However, if you just want to switch over to something reliable and simple for blogging — then keep reading.

In the summer of 2021, I decided to move my personal blog off of WordPress. From a pure blogging standpoint, I'm not a fan of the writing or admin experience of WordPress. I searched around for some other open source options, and stumbled upon WriteFreely, and the hosted option, write.as. The main developer (and founder) is another Matt, but he's not involved in any public disputes.

It's simple, open source blogging software with an emphasis on the writing experience. I have to be honest, it has made blogging fun again for me. No plugins, update notices, clunky themes, or slow loading admin panels. Just a pleasant, distraction-free way to blog about my life. It's also worth noting that the platform supports the principles of the Social Web Foundation.

I am writing this blog post with the markdown editor (in dark mode, ah, my eyes feel so good). That said, there is a rich text editor as well, and their own built-in image hosting service. So, that takes care of both my words and images.

It's pretty easy to categorize posts by adding a hashtag (you can see an example at the end of this post). And to round it all out, there is a built-in email feature so that subscribers get notified of new posts.

And really that's it. That's all I need.

The Themes are... Bad

Not everything is great, though.

Coming from the WordPress world, I am used to an endless selection of themes. Well, this is one area that write.as really struggles in.

They have a list of user donated themes that are just CSS. I was able to cobble together a few things that I liked from each for my previous theme, and it worked nicely from a minimalist point of view. I did the same for my Spanish blog (where I admittedly don't post a lot). If you dig around GitHub, you can find some themes as well, like this one by Francesco.

The simple theme I created for my main site worked well for over three years, but I started to get the itch for something new and more elaborate (the theme you see now). I ended up hiring a developer on UpWork and he completed the project in about a week (which consists of CSS and JavaScript). I love how it all came out!

Of course, if you're proficient in CSS and JS, then you can just whip up something rather quickly and be good to go. That's what my fellow blogger Mark did, and I think his blog looks quite nice.

Getting Started

If you want to host the software yourself, then head on over to WriteFreely. There you can download what you need, and find the instructions for running the software. This is a good option for the nerds out there who like a good challenge.

The other option is to use the hosted service at write.as, which is what I use.

I'd recommend creating a free account on the hosted service first to see if you like the experience. There are some quirks, for sure. The support is mediocre at best, though you probably don't need much support if you're just blogging.

Just don't expect all the bells & whistles of WordPress, and you'll be fine. The platform isn't as mature, is less robust, and still has some odd bugs here or there.

#WordPress

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WordPress co-founder, Matt Mullenweg, picks a fight with WP Engine, even calling them a "cancer".

Did you catch Matt's keynote talk at WordCamp U.S. this year? It was pretty boilerplate, as far as his talks usually go, but there was one part that stood out to nearly everyone, and that was his comments towards WP Engine and their lack of contribution to the WordPress project.

Matt expressed his annoyance at the contributions made by WP Engine to WordPress, comparing their 47 hours per week to Automattic's 3,786 hours per week.

“Those of us who are makers, who create the source, need to be wary of those who would take our creations and squeeze out the juice. They’re grifters who will hop onto the next fad, but we’re trying to build something big here, something long term—something that lasts for generations. Think about that next time it comes up to renew your hosting or domain, weigh your dollars towards companies that give back more, because you’ll get back more, too. Freedom isn’t free.”

Those are some pretty strong words, and I'm sure it doesn't feel good to be called out in a negative light at one of the biggest WordPress events of the year. As such, I was curious to see the response from WP Engine, as these were some harsh words from the man at the top. I put a tweet out saying the same:

That post (which cited an article on WPTavern) started a lively discussion about the point raised by Matt during his talk.

As you would expect, WP Engine wasn't far behind with their response. In summary, they said something to the effect of:

• WP Engine has contributed to WordPress innovation for over a decade, advancing the ecosystem and supporting developers and millions of websites.
• They invest heavily in the community through sponsorships, educational events like DE{CODE}, and development tools such as Faust.js and WPGraphQL.
• WP Engine is committed to fostering creativity and empowering WordPress developers to keep the CMS at the forefront of web development.

For more, see WP Engine's article.

The Point vs The Delivery

Matt has become far more divisive in recent years. Call it the size of WordPress, or maybe just the demeanor of someone who has been the focus of so many attacks for two decades. Whatever the reason, he's clearly tired of being politically correct all the time.

What often happens is that he will make a point, people argue the point for a moment, then they start to get angry at the way the point was raised. They attack the messenger, for lack of a better term.

But it's not like it isn't warranted at times.

I've been around WordPress long enough to have seen Matt air out personal vendettas rather publicly, wrapped up in some kind of “I'm looking out for what's best for everyone” sentiment.

This actually ends up having the opposite effect in that the focus shifts to Matt (the person), not what it is he's trying to point out. Because, look, as far as I can tell there is a valid point there. This post by Noel does a pretty good job outlining that point:

I think what's pretty telling, though, is that this comment by Noel was a response to a poll that Matt ran, and it shows how the majority of folks disagree with his take on WP Engine's role within WordPress.

But it keeps going...

Matt has been popping up across various channels, seemingly defending his view and attempting to make points about WP Engine's lack of contributions despite their size and financial resources. Unfortunately, those points are now falling upon deaf ears because of the manner and frequency in which the “attacks” are coming.

Matt published this post on the official WordPress.org news about how WP Engine turns off revision history, an important feature in WordPress core, to save money. To drive home another point, he used a mini-story about his mom confusing the two brands (WP Engine and WordPress), which was the basis for the title of the post. To cap it off, he referred to WP Engine as “a cancer”. Yikes.

This made me wonder a few things:

1. Are a lot of people confusing WP Engine (the brand) with WordPress?
2. Is it ever okay to call businesses, and the people working there, “cancer”?
3. Should this have been posted on his personal blog, instead?

Speaking of the personal blog, Matt did write a blog post about investors, and if they are inherently “bad”. Something he likely wanted to touch on because of WP Engine's impressive investment over the years. He contends:

• Investors are essential for entrepreneurship, but there are both good and bad investors. It's important to evaluate their track record and actions after investing.
• Private equity investors can be beneficial, especially when they respect open-source values and support the community, as seen with Automattic's investors.
• Actions matter more than words; companies should be judged based on how their behavior impacts communities and ecosystems over time.

I'm not surprised by his viewpoint given that Automattic has taken its fair share of investment, though I do take exception to his claim that investors are essential for entrepreneurship. That is not true at all.

Just speaking from my own experience, I never had a single investor, and LearnDash not only did well, it thrived. In fact, we absolutely destroyed Automattic's competing product to LearnDash (Sensei). I didn't even consider them a credible competitor.

His Mind is Made Up

Matt has always taken on the role of “open source protector”, and whenever he feels that it is being taken advantage of, he attacks — and his attacks can be quite harsh. He clearly feels that this is happening with WP Engine, though it also has an adverse effect for him in that the community starts to highlight some hypocrisy:

History has shown that when Matt makes his mind up about something, nothing will shake him from it. If anything, backlash makes him dig in further. He will go down on that ship, but he knows that the ship will never go down, because the ocean is the community that contributes to, and depends on, WordPress in their daily lives.

Qualifying Contributions is in Poor Taste

If I take the time to separate the inflammatory rhetoric and poor choice of message delivery, I do think that there is an important point that Matt is bringing to the community's attention. WP Engine indeed does have the fortunate position to contribute more to WordPress in terms of hours. What I don't like, however, is that Matt is outlining what he considers to be an acceptable contribution. Sponsoring WordCamps? That doesn't count. Not to him, anyway.

This has a way of polarizing the less visible in the community. The individual developer who has a small plugin business is proud to sponsor their local WordCamp, but the message being sent from the boardroom is that this is a “meh” form of contribution. In other words, don't feel too good about it. It's not really valued.

Matt has come down hard on WordPress hosts for some time. GoDaddy, Pagely (now part of GoDaddy), and Pantheon come to mind. I think he has a higher expectation of them than the “average” WordPress user.

And maybe we all should.

They are the ones with the money and resources to really move the needle for the WordPress project. To date, it doesn't appear like any host is living up to Matt's unspoken expectation.

Legal Updates

On September 23, 2024, not too long after this post was originally published, WP Engine issued a cease & desist against Matt and Automattic.

I must say, he does not look good, especially all the threatening texts he sent prior to starting his public attacks on WP Engine.

One day later, on September 24, 2024, Matt and Automattic issued their own cease & desist with some heavy emphasis on the use of the WordPress trademark.

This is interesting, because there are many businesses that use the “WordPress” name similarly to WP Engine. This could have some far-reaching ramifications for the entire industry, depending on how it plays out.

On October 2, 2024, WP Engine filed their official lawsuit.

#WordPress

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The challenges and tribulations of pricing a product or service in the WordPress space.

Let's talk about the WordPress industry and pricing for a moment.

It's well-documented that WordPress products are underpriced because there is a certain price expectation from the community. Now, prices have slowly gone up (a good thing!) but not nearly on par when compared to other industries.

Not even close.

When I left LearnDash, the most common tier was around $199 (which would make it expensive across the WordPress space).

Teachable is like... $99/mo... for way less. And they easily make more money than LearnDash. I'm sure you can all think of 100s of other examples. But this also goes for WordPress related services.

By way of example, it's normal in non-WordPress industries for coaching to be $1,000-$2000/mo. Very normal, in fact. People pay this without blinking an eye. I could never charge this for my coaching.

And what I do charge is often met with hesitation, even though I have the background and accolades to justify charging more if I coached outside of WordPress.

The Concept of Value Fatigue

What ends up happening is prices stay low (in both products and services) and the people behind those offerings try their damnedest to pack insane amounts of value into the low price. Now, that's obviously good. But it has resulted in Value Fatigue.

All of us in the WordPress space are so used to the products and services we buy being overly stuffed with value — far beyond the price we pay — that it is driving prices down.

Newcomers go into the space (products or services) and see the main players are charging “X” for “Y”. So, they end up charging a price of “X-1” for “Y+1”.

Rinse and repeat for the next entrant. It's a race to the bottom for businesses, Value Fatigue for consumers.

I wish I had a solution for this, but it's very much intertwined with the culture of WordPress. The needle is moving up, but we are comparing that in a WordPress vacuum. By the same token, maybe it's not something that needs to be “solved”.

Maybe It’s Okay?

Maybe the way pricing is in WordPress is fine. And look, despite low prices, many WordPress businesses do very well.

• WooThemes crushed it early on and sold for tens of millions.
• LearnDash (to my knowledge at the time) was one of the most successful revenue generating WordPress businesses at the time of sale.
• Yoast has been cookin' for years.
• 10up and WebDevStudios benefit from premium rates. Heck, I coach several “small” product and agency companies that are making 7-figures.

While this is great, it's important to understand that these are all the exceptions. The freelancers out there busting their ass on the product or service they are selling are unable to charge what they really should be charging if they were outside of WordPress.

I coach WordPress folks who have started to brainstorm ways to branch outside of WordPress. Not for lack of love, but the grind is considerably more challenging, especially the pressure to continually pack more and more value wherever possible, leading to frustration and ultimately burnout.

#WordPress

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When I started LearnDash, I was going up against a very large competitor with deeper pockets. As time went on, the online course space in WordPress became incredibly saturated, and to stay relevant, I kept a watchful eye on my competitors, so that I could nullify any advantage.

#WordPress

In the competitive world of WordPress products, it's all too common to find yourself trapped in the cycle of insufficient revenue (or no revenue at all), questioning where the disconnect lies between your product and potential customers.

It’s something I come across often, when coaching and when participating in various WordPress communities. As such, I’m writing this post which outlines the most common mistakes I’ve seen by WordPress entrepreneurs.

From targeting an overly niche market to undervaluing the power of compelling calls-to-action (CTAs), each mistake is a barrier to maximizing your earnings.

They are as follows…

Market isn't big enough. Simple economics... there isn't enough demand for the problem you're solving. This is especially true if your product is an add-on for another plugin (i.e. WooCommerce add-on). I've even seen some people create add-ons to add-ons. Best to avoid that, the market will always be too tiny.

Your CTAs are lacking. If you have a free version on the repo, is the pro version enticing enough? That pro version needs to have a unique value that creates anxiety by not having it. That's not to say the free version is bare-bones. Quite the opposite. You need a kick-ass free version to build trust. But once someone has that free version, what's the flow? How do they find out about the pro version? Are there minimal steps to give payment info and get the better features?

Your sales copy is poor. If you're selling a pro version, then don't be afraid to sell. Build hype! You need to be a hype machine on every page of your website. All the stuff that you know already needs to be at play:

• Crystal clear headline (avoid confusion)
• Defined audience (it's not for everyone)
• Testimonials and case studies
• Targeted opt-ins (for email marketing)
• Value prop reiterated across headlines
• Front-end demo
• Skimmable
• Money-back guarantee (14 or 30 days)
• One primary CTA
• 3 or 4 tier pricing, only one toggle (if any)
• Single page checkout

You're not easily accessible. Making money without having to talk to people is not a realistic expectation. If you're trying to gain traction, there should be no reason you're not using online chat. At the very least, a very clear “contact us” page or form needs to be visible. Don't make it impossible to contact you.

Your support docs suck. Support documentation is a silent seller. Thorough tutorials with actual images of your software (not artistic renderings). Potential customers will see your level of detail and gain confidence that you'll be there for them should they need help.

You don't get 3rd party, expert opinions. Once you implement these strategies and fill the gaps, you benefit greatly by having your work reviewed by someone who has done it successfully before. I can review what you have now and point you in the right direction.

Email me, and we'll get on the calendar to discuss for an hour. There’s no charge, and we’ll make some progress in your business.

#WordPress

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Earlier this week, I published the longest X thread that I’ve ever published. I did this for two reasons:

1. I had a lot to say.

2. I wanted to test long content to see how much it’s shared.

The conclusion is that long content does quite well on that platform. The post itself was reposted, saved, and commented more than my shorter ones.

But the way X works, content dies a quick death. As such, I feel it’s a good idea to republish it here on my personal blog:

An Open Letter to WP Product Owners

Let's face it... Selling WP products today is a helluva lot harder than it was just 3 to 5 years ago.

In fact, one could argue that ever since COVID, the entire space has become more crowded, more competitive, and more challenging than ever before.

Your product does great things, yet no one is noticing. You're not growing. Worse, your sales are starting to stagnate. 😑

Here's the blunt truth.

What worked before will no longer work today. You know this, because you can see your company's metrics.

• It's not Matt or Automattic's fault.
• It's not because people aren't as “hot” on WP as they were during the pandemic.
• It's not because of bigger companies like Automattic, AwesomeMotive, and LiquidWeb investing into the WP space, eating up the market share.

The answer is actually more simple than that...

The market is changing, and you're not. Be honest with yourself — Have you really tried to up your game?

When was the last time you did a brand refresh? Or worked on your Inbound Sales Plan (you have one, right?) Adventured into new marketing channels? Leveled up your support experience (things like live chat... actual live chat, weekend hours, etc.)? Or made any kind of investment back INTO your customers with success tools, community building, or the like?

You haven't.

Admitting that you haven’t changed is how you start progressing.

WordPress is a cutthroat space. The competition has more money than ever before — and not just WP solutions, but the SaaS competitors who are snapping away WP users as well.

Your purpose, as a founder, is to stay on top of the market. If possible, to LEAD the market. So let's chat... how do you do that?

It's an exercise of INWARD and OUTWARD data collection.

INWARD... things like:

• Connecting with your most active users and discussing their pain points and wishes for your product.
• Listening to feedback on all the review channels, documenting themes devoid of the emotion.
• Looking at your inbound sales processes and finding the gaps that need to be filled. Optimizations that need to occur. TRAINING FOR YOUR SALES TEAM (support reps ARE NOT sales).
• Analyzing effectiveness of support in maximizing renewals. Also, strategies for decreasing churn.

This is just scraping the top. Each one of these can branch off into several other subsections for optimizing. New plans, new policies, new ways of measuring...

OUTWARD... things like:

Exploring new content marketing avenues to expand reach. Where are your competitors, and why are you not doing the EXACT same as they are?

Creating a variety of content, not just “helpful content”. Going directly after your competition IN AND OUT of WordPress.

Networking with people in the space with similar interests. Helping others make money, so they return the favor for you. Stop sitting behind your computer and put yourself out there.

Paid Ads... it's time. Do it.

Hack-y isn’t cute anymore.

There was a time when WordPress products had a “grassroots” feel to them.

Not anymore. I mean, you can go that route, but you'll lose to others who show up and put out a PROFESSIONAL, well-polished image and experience.

What do I mean?

Does your demo site just toss someone into the WordPress admin dashboard and have a bare-bones skeleton theme? That's simply not good enough.

Is your website just some cookie cutter template or Blocks Pattern with no real thought around branding? That's not good enough either.

Does your headline speak to the customer's pain points? Or is it still saying something dumb like, “XYZ for WordPress”? Yeah... needs fixing.

Does your website sales copy point back to your unique selling proposition? On every page? Do you have an about page with your face? Are you getting personal? Are you getting CLOSE TO THE CUSTOMER in their journey to build real connection?

This shit is hard. But the hard stuff makes you profitable.

I get it. This is hard stuff. These things can't be solved in a week or two. I wish this was easy, too.

Look at your business and determine where your biggest opportunity area lies. Start there. Go DEEP. Really understand the challenge and work towards resolving.

If you need help, get it.

I coach WordPress product owners on this stuff because, well, I've done this stuff. It doesn't have to be me though, there are other people in (and out) of WordPress who can provide direction as well.

The point is: start doing something different if you want to get different results. Light the fire 🔥 and don't stop... in a year from now, you'll thank yourself.

-Justin

#WordPress

I recently released a new logo and web design for GapScout. It’s not perfect, nor will it win any awards, but I’m happy with it as a first version.

The main tool used to build the design was Elementor. I insisted on this because it’s a plugin I am very comfortable in using, which meant I could make future design modifications myself once the designer was done.

The problem, however, is that Elementor can lead to some pretty crappy performance scores, in particular for mobile. In fact, I ran a Google PageSpeed Insights report for Elementor’s own homepage, and their mobile score is pretty… uh…bad.

Mobile Performance is Vital

I didn’t believe this until I saw it first hand.

The old GapScout site had a pretty bad mobile score, and when I boosted it to ~90/100, I noticed an uptick in the number of visitors. Seeing as a slight majority of visitors to GapScout are using mobile compared to laptop/desktop, this was a big win.

So, while the new GapScout homepage has a perfect desktop performance (100/100), the mobile score originally sat at a pretty depressing 50/100.

But not for long!

With just a few adjustments and was able to get it up to 99/100.

Note: PageSpeed Insights fluctuates at any given time the test is run. GapScout’s mobile score usually lands between 94-99.

Being a good internet citizen, I tweeted at Elementor to let them know that improving their mobile score is definitely possible with just a few tweaks, and this tweet elicited a few responses:

I need a list of those tweaks cuz I'm always fighting to get mobile scores over 50 on mobile ?

— Robert DeVore (@deviorobert) February 10, 2023

Yeah tell us the secrets!!

— Ross Johnson (@3pointross) February 10, 2023

Thanks to Robert and Ross, their replies to my tweet were the inspiration for this blog post. So, I’m writing it for them, but you as well, because this probably helps anyone who is using Elementor and WordPress.

How I Increased Mobile Speed

Okay, onto the good stuff. I’ll keep it short because:

1. You don’t care about backstories, just what works.

2. I’m not very technical, and can’t explain a ton of detail anyway.

STEP 1: Use a host that doesn’t suck.

I’ll start with the often overstated, but most critical part to any website performance metric: use a good webhost!!!!!!!!@*&($@*

You’re not going to get great results on some $10/mo hosting plan. Sorry.

I’m using Rocket.net, and holy crap, it’s fast. Like amazing.

I think I’m currently on the $30/mo plan, but maybe I paid yearly, so that dropped to $25/mo. I dunno, I’m too lazy to go look.

They will migrate you for free, so just switch. Also, I’m not affiliated with them nor do I get any kickback for referrals. I just take comfort in knowing that you will like me because my recommendation is a good one. 😉

STEP 2: Buy the Perfmatters plugin.

This is the other critical component, especially for mobile. Perfmatters was actually recommended to me by Rocket.net. The plugin is $29/year (there is no free version).

Okay, so now I am going to share with you my settings, but first things first:

Disclaimer: My settings probably won’t work 100% for your site because it depends on which plugins you have installed. I also can’t help you troubleshoot anything.

With that out of the way, these are the settings I have in place in Perfmatters on the GapScout website:

• Under Assets, the follow settings are turned on: Defer Javascript Include JQuery Delay Javascript Delay All Scripts (for Delay Behavior setting) Delay Timeout Remove Unused CSS
• Under Lazy Loading, the following settings are turned on: Images Add Missing Image Dimensions
• Under Lazy Loading, in the “Exclude from Lazy Loading” field: Filename of the website’s logo
• Under Fonts, the following settings are turned on: Disable Google Fonts

That last setting is because I am not using Google fonts, but have instead uploaded a custom font through Elementor. If you are using Google fonts, you will not want to turn on that setting. Instead, turn on these two:

1. Display Swap

2. Local Google Fonts

STEP 3: Add support for custom fonts in Elementor. (Optional)

If you are like me and have uploaded your own custom font to Elementor, then there is one more step to take for optimizing font display. Do not worry about this step if you are not using custom fonts or Elementor.

First, you need to preload your fonts in Perfmatters.

1. Navigate to Preloading.

2. Paste the URL where you uploaded your font in WordPress.

3. Under Select Type, choose “Font”.

4. Select the CrossOrigin checkbox.

5. Repeat for font variations as needed and save.

Now that the custom fonts are specified in the preloading menu, the last thing you need to follow this support article to add the following filter:

add_filter( 'elementor_pro/custom_fonts/font_display', function( $current_value, $font_family, $data ) { return 'swap'; }, 10, 3 );

Once you have added that (I recommend using the code snippets plugin), you have to do the following steps:

1. Head over to the Custom fonts screen at Elementor > Custom Fonts.

2. Edit the custom font you want to regenerate (simple edit and update, no changes are needed).

3. Repeat step 2 for each font you want to regenerate.

4. Head over to Elementor > Tools > click on the Regenerate Files.

And you’re done!

Most of this process took me only 15 or 20 minutes. I did run into a snag at one point and simply reached out to Perfmatter’s support (you’re in good hands, they were incredibly helpful).

In the end, I skyrocketed the GapScout homepage mobile score from a pathetic 50/100 to a consistent 94-99/100.

Want to Dig Deeper?

As always, whenever you make changes like this, it’s a good idea to use an incognito window to visit your website to make sure it still looks (and performs) the way that you expect. If something goes wrong, simply turn off the settings you activated so that you can troubleshoot effectively.

If you are interested in optimizing your WordPress site, then Perfmatters has a more comprehensive guide that I can recommend. I like that they also include references to individuals who can help you in the event that you need a little assistance.

And remember: chasing high mobile scores can be fun, but the most important thing is that your website is a pleasant user experience for your visitors.

#WordPress