SiteGround Optimizer V6

Since the launch of the SiteGround Optimizer plugin, we have been constantly working on adding new features, improving existing ones, and making sure that we use the best technology available to achieve a blazing fast loading speed for all of our users. That being said, we’re happy to introduce a major update to the SiteGround Optimizer plugin – v6. 

Brand New Design and Structure

One of the biggest changes you’ll notice is our brand new design with separate pages and a brand new dashboard. We have been adding more and more features to the plugin recently and we decided that the previous tab structure was not the best interface for the numerous improvements we have in mind. That’s why we have divided the interface into 5 pages, consisting of separate sets of carefully crafted tools, designed to optimize your website, improve loading speed and even decrease your resource usage. 

New Page – The Dashboard

The entirely new Dashboard offers a quick look at the current optimization status of your website, along with shortcuts to the relevant pages where optimizations may be in order. Since keeping your WordPress application, plugins, and themes up to date is important for your website speed and security, we’ve made sure to add a notification in the Dashboard in case your WordPress and/or plugins need an update.

Recommended Features Tag

While we’ve always done our best to explain the different features you can find in the Optimizer, we realise that some of them may still sound complicated to the regular WordPress user and one can find themself struggling to figure out which of the features they need to use. To help you make the best choice for your website, we have added a “Recommended” tag to all SiteGround Optimizer features that we’re certain to speed up your website without breaking something or interfering with other settings.

Improved Image Compression and Image Features

We have significantly improved our image compression technology to ensure that even at the highest compression and size savings, your images continue to look as good as ever. Additionally, we have added a “Preview” option so you can ensure that the compression level you have selected does not visibly affect the quality of your images. You can also choose to do a backup of your original images before you start the compression process – this is a great feature in case you plan to change the compression level in future or you just want to have a piece of mind.

WebP image generation has also been improved and a new option was added for larger images – automatic resizing for all images whose width is larger than 2560px, which is more than enough for most displays where websites appear. 

Code Refactoring

The plugins redesign and restructuring gave us an opportunity to refactor our code and make sure that everything is optimized and tested for the best possible performance. While the whole plugin has benefited from the refactoring, there are two tools where the change was noticeable – the WordPress Heartbeat Optimization (available in the Environment page) which precision and options were improved, and the Automatic Cache Purge (available in Caching) which now includes the option to purge the WordPress API Cache too. 

We have really enjoyed making this brand new version of the SiteGround Optimizer and we’re confident that the tools we have developed will help you serve the fastest and best version of your site. Drop us a comment to say which of the Optimizer features you like most and what would you like to see in future releases.