The most recent WordPress update, known as version 6.4, brings some exciting improvements to your website. These changes focus on making your web pages load faster and perform better.
With this update, WordPress has made some smart adjustments in how scripts (little bits of code) are loaded on the front end of your website. These changes are built right into the core of WordPress and its default themes. This is great news because it means your website’s performance will be enhanced when it comes to loading these scripts.
Here’s the cool part: WordPress now uses some special attributes called “defer” and “async” for loading scripts. These attributes tell your web browser to either load scripts in the background (async) or wait until the rest of the page is fully loaded before fetching them (defer). This can make a big difference in how quickly your web pages become interactive, giving your visitors a smoother and faster experience.
Faster Page Loads With Intelligent Script Handling
In the past, when WordPress themes and plugins included JavaScript files, they didn’t load in an efficient way. This caused them to slow down the loading of your web pages because they held up other important downloads and rendering processes.
With the latest WordPress update, your website visitors will now enjoy speedier page loading times. This improvement, in particular, enhances the ‘First Contentful Paint’ metric that influences how quickly your web page’s content becomes visible to your users.
BTS: How WordPress Achieved This
The latest WordPress update, version 6.4, brings important improvements to your website’s speed and performance. Specifically, it affects how JavaScript files are handled.
In the past, JavaScript files for things like navigation menus and embedded media from WordPress.com were loaded in a way that could slow down your website. But now, with this update, these files are loaded more efficiently using a technique called ‘defer,’ which means they won’t block your page from loading quickly.
This change was made possible through a new feature introduced in WordPress 6.3 and fully implemented in 6.4. It gives developers a standardized way to control when their scripts are loaded.
As a bonus, the update moves certain scripts to an earlier part of your webpage (the <head> section), making them load faster. Some less critical scripts, like those for comment replies, are still loaded at the end of your page, but they are loaded in a way that won’t slow down the rest of your website. This helps your website perform better overall.
Real-World Benefits for Website Users
If you use websites powered by WordPress, you’ll notice that pages load quicker with the latest update. You’ll also experience less annoying shifting or repositioning of page elements when the page loads for the first time.
These improvements are just the beginning, paving the way for even more enhancements in the future.
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