Embed Optimizer

Description

This plugin’s purpose is to optimize the performance of embeds in WordPress, such as YouTube videos, TikToks, and so on. Initially this is achieved by lazy-loading them only when they come into view. This improves performance because embeds are generally very resource-intensive and so lazy-loading them ensures that they don’t compete with resources when the page is loading. Other optimizations are planned for the future.

This plugin also recommends that you install and activate the Optimization Detective plugin. When it is active, it will start recording which embeds appear in the initial viewport based on actual visitors to your site. With this information in hand, Embed Optimizer will then avoid lazy-loading embeds which appear in the initial viewport (above the fold). This is important because lazy-loading adds a delay which can hurt the user experience and even degrade the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) score for the page. In addition to not lazy-loading such above-the-fold embeds, Embed Optimizer will add preconnect links for the hosts of network resources known to be required for the most popular embeds (e.g. YouTube, Twitter, Vimeo, Spotify, VideoPress); this can further speed up the loading of critical embeds. Again, these performance enhancements are only enabled when Optimization Detective is active.

There are currently no settings and no user interface for this plugin since it is designed to work without any configuration.