SiteGround Optimizer - Our WordPress Plugin
In 2012 we released a SiteGround WordPress plugin. Its purpose was to connect the WordPress installations of our users with our caching service – the SuperCacher. For many years all updates we have made to the plugin were only related to the caching functionality. However, in the last few months, we have added two completely new functionalities (HTTPS switch and PHP 7.0 updater) and have changed the plugin name to SiteGround Optimizer. To learn more about what is now included in the SiteGround Optimizer read below.
Make your site faster with our SuperCacher
So, can you still use the plugin to configure your SuperCacher? Yes, and we highly recommend you do! As always, in order to take advantage of the dynamic caching and increase drastically the performance of your site you need to: use GrowBig or a higher hosting plan, switch on the service from your cPanel, and then switch on the service in the SuperCacher Config section of the SiteGround Optimizer plugin. To learn more refer to our detailed SuperCacher tutorial.
Configure HTTPS connection with a click
You can also use the SiteGround Optimizer to enable HTTPS with a single click. We’ve been automatically installing Let’s Encrypt certificates to all new domains since the end of 2016 and we wanted to make it possible for everyone to easily and effortlessly enable HTTPS for their WordPress site. The moment your site starts working through https, the HTTP2 protocol kicks in automatically since it’s enabled on all SiteGround servers. This means that on top of having your website loaded in compliance with the latest Google and Chrome encryption requirements you will also receive performance benefits that come from using the HTTP2 protocol.
Check and update your PHP Version
We’ve already written a few blog posts on this topic but I can’t get tired of emphasizing the amazing performance boost that using PHP 7.0 and above gives to your site. In a major effort to increase the use of PHP 7.0 or higher for the sites of our WordPress users, we’ve developed the third major functionality to the SiteGround Optimizer. Thanks to this new addition you can check if your site is compatible with PHP 7.0, and upgrade to it right from your WordPress admin panel. See more in our detailed PHP 7.0 blog post.
As you can see all the functionalities in the SiteGround Optimizer plugin help you use the systems and resources available on the SiteGround servers in order to make your WordPress faster and safer. If you have not installed the plugin yet, we strongly recommend you do it now!
Comments ( 262 )
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Guido
Hi Hristo! Did the SG team eventually fix the issues with the PHP7 checker? Namely, the fact that it relies on WP cron and the fact that it often hangs. Thanks, Guido
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
The plugin runs well on the majority of cases. I wouldn't say it's often causing issues. Sometimes, restrictive plugins, sites with very high number of plugins etc. interfere with it's work but in such cases our support team can step in and help you out with the check and switch :)
Inder Grewal
Hello, I have WP-Cron scheduled every 10 mins. I get error in SG Optimizer - "We've detected that the WordPress cronjob functionality is not working. Please, enable it following the instructions in this article and refresh this page." How can i fix that ? Switiching to WP-Cron is not possible for me...
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
That's awesome feedback, thanks for it! We have just added an option to use that functionality if you have a real cron job set and it will be introduced in SG Optimizer 5.0.6 which we will release later today.
Eoin
Is there a Joomla! version?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
I am afraid that we don't have the full functionality added to our Joomla plugin yet.
Matt
Hope this happens soon, thanks!
Federico
Then, I don't these 2 plugins? Really Simple SSL and WP Super Cache? Please send me yiour comments, would appreciate them. Cheers! Federicio
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Yes, you can disable both if your Dynamic cache is configured properly and SSL switch is turned on in SG Optimizer.
Chris
How much of a speed increase can you expect from using the SG Optimizer?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Using our Dynamic caching has dramatic effect on the loading speeds of the majority of sites. Of course, it depends on the actual website, what plugins it uses, how well it's written, etc.
Verdi
Really awesome that you keep innovating / improving your services. Especially when they are as tangible as this. Thank you guys!
Sander
Good News! I'm curious about further development. When will we be able to use mod page speed together with the caching options. Also when will siteground fix the conflict between mod page speed and pages containing contact form 7 forms?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
It's actually PageSpeed that has issues and unfortunatelly I don't see this happening any time soon. I am curious about Contact Form 7 though. I manage the plugin and all support queries for it but you're the first to mention such things, could you elaborate?
Alex
I think they're referring to contact form 7 not working properly when SG Optimiser is activated, I've having a problem where I get a spam message "There was an error trying to send your message".
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Please open a ticket in the SG Optimizer support forum (https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/sg-cachepress/) providing detailed information on how to recreated this on our end and we will happily look into it :)
Pavel
Hi hristo, the SG caching system really brings the results. Thank you for that. We wanted to use the plugin for easy HTTPS transition but had to leave it thoug. The problem was that it redirected not only the site links but also all off-site links to https which is unusable if some of those go to http only sites. In my opinion, the plugin should not touch the off-site links. Is there any development in that? Thanks, Pavel.
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
If offsite resources aren't set to HTTPS you will get the Insecure Content warning on your site so it will not work anyway. That's why we've decided to rewrite those too.
Toni
I have W3 Total Cache installed on my WP site but would love to move to Super Cacher. I read uninstalling W3 completely is very difficult and requires deleting specific files and not just deactivating and deleting it from my plug-in pane. I would love to take advantage of HTTPS and other performance enhancing tools. Will SG Customer Service help me remove W3 as part of my hosting plan?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Sure thing, just open a ticket in your Help Desk and ask my colleagues to completely uninstall W3TC, clear all caches and configs and set the SG Optimizer for you :)
Nicolas Aguero
hi Toni, how did those changes turned out for you? which plugins are you using now? I'm wondering what happens if I have W3 Super Catcher installed if I'm missing out on features from SG Optimizer? what do you think? Thanks, Nico
Nicolas Aguero
I meant W3 Total Cache (not super catcher)
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Our caching is faster than any plugin saving cache on the disk. Plus, cached requests cause almost zero load to your account allowing you to server much more traffic with it.
Gary McHugh
Love it but would like to see an option to turn off auto flush before I get rid of WP rocket.
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
WP Rocket does a lot of good things optimizing your website that SG Optimizer does not like minifying your JS and CSS files. Note, that we do have auto flush for our plugin so if you only modify content you shouldn't have to do that manually.
Angus Young
I did some tests on GTmetrix and it looks like WP Rocket doesn't improve speed and scores if SuperCacher (SG Optimizer) and Autoptimize are installed and active. Is maybe WP Rocket redundant on Siteground?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
It doesn't make sense to use WP Rocket if you're using it only for caching. Our caching system is faster. You can use it for minification and CSS + JS optimization. However, in case you're already using Autoptimize for that, you're simply doubling the same functionality thus not having performance boost.
Sterling
does the plugin do a 301 redirect of your domain to https?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Yes, we add a rule in the .htaccess file that handles the redirection.
Ron
Hi Hristo, When I switched to HTPS, the rule got added at the wrong level. I run Wordpress in a sub-folder and the redirects needed to be (manually) moved up a level to public_html. Maybe you have a bug?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
The rules are supposed to be added where the installation is located. In such custom structuring, you will need to tweak them accordingly.
Ron
Yep, I figured that out after a week of my redirects not working! It would be great to have a user guide to exactely what the plugin does - when switching on the https setting, while it's running, and if and when it gets switched off. To a non-techy person, the actions of the plugin related to https are a bit of a mystery :)
Angelina Micheva
Hi Ron, Thank you for the suggestion about creation of a SG Optimizer user guide. Actually we are planning improvements of our materials on the plugin functionalities that will include more detailed documentation of how it works as well. Stay tuned for upcoming updates on that.
Ron
Documentation sounds great!
Ron Wen
Ahh I've run into the same issues, scan never completes. Thanks for the answer Hristov!
Murtuza
I tried to upgrade one of my client's website to php 7 using this plugin which brought messed up the entire wordpress install and i had to reinstall to get the website working again. The plugin did the checks and said the website is compatible with php 7 but still it didn't work.
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Please post a ticket in your Help Desk or switch the PHP Version manually from the PHP Version Manager tool in cPanel.
Arby
I see that happening when a site is using OLD outdated themes.
Ray
If I install SG Optimizer on my SG hosted site, I should then get rid of my other caching plugins? I currently have WP Super Cache running.
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Yes, if the Dynamic Caching is enabled and configured, it will outperform any full page plugin including WP Super Cache.
Aang
I would prefer the use of the SG Optimizer, how would I configure the CDN as it is part of the W3TC configuration.
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
You can still use both. Just disable all caching functionality from W3TC and keep the CDN integration on.
Barayuda
Hi thanks for the post. If I testing the URL, and get NOT CACHED, what can I do? to make sure the URL cached?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
First, make sure that the Dynamic caching is enabled in the SuperCacher tool in cPanel (the second tab). Then, you can use the cache status tool in the SG Optimizer plugin in your WordPress admin panel. If it says NOT CACHED, open a ticket in your Help Desk and our support team will tell you what's blocking our system from serving cached results.
Easy tailor App
Really awesome that you keep innovating .
Eirin
After forcing https, it changed all my fonts, and support service isn`t able to help other than restoring the change made by the plugin :/ Sorry it didn`t work and spending 1 hour on nothing. I wouldn`t recommend it unfortunatley..
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
You're probably loading your fonts insecurely and when a page is loaded via https insecure resources are not even loaded thus causing your site to default to standard fonts. Unfortunatelly, we can't automate 100% of the process and some minor adjustments are needed sometimes.
Arby
The PHP checker times-out:
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
You probably have a lot of active plugins. Please, contact our support team for further assistance.
Danny Kirk
Hi, I am using comet cache pro and was wondering what is the best way to integrate it with SG optimiser so I get the best speed results. Thanks Danny
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
For full page caching I'd go for the SuperCacher and SG Optimizer, there's currently no plugin that can produce better results than it. If you use that plugin for other improvements like minification for example, you can keep that functionality.
Danny Kirk
Hi i have disabled comet cache pro and installed SuperCache. Are there specific settings i should have enabled / disabled / for both plugins Thanks Danny
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Since you've disabled the other plugin completely - no. Just make sure you have the Dynamic Caching enabled in the SuperCacher Tool in cPanel and then the Dynamic Caching and Auto Flush enabled in the SG Optimizer plugin. You can use the test functionality on the plugin's page to make sure your index and other important pages for you are cached.
Daniel Kirk
how do i minify js and css with the plugins
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
SG Optimizer does not provide such functionality at this moment. However, you can try Autoptimize, it's a great plugin that plays very well with our caching solution.
Asaf
Hello, I have a cloudflair installed. I have seen the correspondence and would like to make sure that before I activate the SG Optimizer what is the exact procedure. And I mean Step 1, Step 2 and so on. Imagine you are speaking to an ape (well - just to make a point :-)
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Most of the functionality is basically ON/OFF switches but you can take a look at the documentation in the official repo page, everything is descriebd there: https://wordpress.org/plugins/sg-cachepress/
Michael Glenn
Hi, I'm using Cloudflare and SG Optimizer, but my site is still really slow. According to Google PageSpeed it looks like I need to: Reduce server response time Leverage browser caching Eliminate render-blocking JS and CSS Optimize images Minify HTML and CSS How can I best achieve this on Siteground? Should I add Autoptimizer or WP Rocket? Is one of those plugins better than the other, or do they both do the same exact things? I'm a website owner who is *slowly* learning web design and development, so if you can explain things in a non-technical way that would be tremendously helpful!
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Checked your website. It seems, you're loading a lot of resources. This said, a plugin like Autoptimize or WP Rocket will have great effect on your loading speeds!
Michael Glenn
Thanks Hristo. Is there one that you would recommend over the other?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Both do great work, but one is free the other is paid. Each one works better in certain cases. It would be best if you test on your particular site.
Mitch
I'm curious. I have SG Optimizer installed and Dynamic cache activated. I also have a Cloudflare account with minify on. I do not have memcache on in SG as it somehow wreaks total havoc and crashes the server. (Haven't figured out that conflict yet.) I also have Autoptimize active. As well as WP Disable (turn off heartbeat, no gravitars, several other useful functions). And Plugin Optimizer (fantastic for selective Plugin load). I know I load tons of requests and I'm trying improve performance. Anyway, are you saying with that setup and SG Optimzer that I would get no further speed benefit with WP Rocket? And related, would there be any benefit with cloudflare Rocket Loader active? Thank you.
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Autoptimize should do pretty good job at handling your CSS and JS files and if working properly the Dynamic caching is unbeaten in terms of speed. There won't be a signifficant difference switching it with another plugin. As to your other question, it really depends on the JS you're using and how you load it. I would give it a try and measure changes.
Jens Kirk
Hi :-) Is SG Cache restricted to only SiteGround servers?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Yes, the idea for the plugin is to link your WordPress site with our services :)
Umang
Hi, This sounds good, We recently shifted our website to SiteGround. So can SG Optimizer will help in optimizing the speed of our website? Thanks!
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
You should totally try it!
Roger J Pivonka
Our SG website [bmwmoc.org] is running on a shared server. we currently are using W3Total Cache with some good effect. Would I get even BETTER performance boost by using SG Optimizer? I would like to also use SG Optimizers check for using PHP 7.
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Yes, our service outperforms any plugin that stores cached content in files including W3TC :)
AJ McKay
Hey All, SuperCacher's Dynamic Cache is indeed fast, but problematic on two counts -- 1.) The cache expires quite quickly, even for pages that have not undergone any changes. So, this creates lots of first-come-slow-load events for users and these events are particularly pronounced for websites that don't get constant or consistent traffic. 2.) When the Dynamic cache expires, it does not self-prime: A user must hit the page to again cache the page. So, while Dynamic Cache is very fast, it ultimately doesn't matter if people are consistently hitting uncached pages. Long story short, until and unless a cache warmer/primer is added to SuperCacher's Dynamic Cache, it can't be objectively argued as being the first, best full page caching solution. Be well, AJ McKay Managing Partner WpFASTER
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Sorry for the late reply, holidays made everything slower than usual :) For our shared services we need to have a balanced solution that does not cache over agressivelly. We're constantly tweaking our configuration and in fact I think we will soon increase the default caching time. Plus, we're optimizing the way we purge the cache for best performance. Pre-heating is good but has downsides too. Surelly, a cached response from our caching system is faster than a response you can get from any plugin due to the way technology works. As to the overall performance, that's really subjective and depends on the particular site. Note, that AutoFlush is just an option, you can set a cron to clear the cache, disable the AutoFlush and have stale caching working for you.
Aaron
That is exactly my experience, AJ. Cached pages load quickly, but the cache expires after 10 minutes and isn't re-loaded until someone visits the site. Until I can get a steady stream of visitors every 9 minutes or so, I can expect every new visitor to have to wait to download the un-cached site. Not exactly as advertised. Chron job? Sure, but then why am I paying SiteGround for their SuperCacher hosting? I wish I had seen this thread before I signed up.
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Cache regenerates pretty fast so that's usually not an issue. However, we will increace the caching time. At the moment, just implementing a mechanism to actually measure the dynamic/cached ratio on all servers so we can come up with the best possible number for default caching time. As to the cron job case - it's ust an option you can choose. When we do services, we mostly do default setting but still leave the option for customization.
Andres Lucero
This is my experience as well. In theory, nginx as a reverse-proxy *should* be faster than static files generated by plugins such as W3 Total Cache; however, in practice SiteGround's Dynamic Cache results in a cache MISS for all initial requests. Subsequent requests from the same client will result in a cache HIT, but other clients requesting the same page will get a cache MISS (i.e. there's no way to prime the cache). Explicitly setting Expires headers in Apache's .htaccess file does not appear to improve the SuperCacher's ability to keep pages in cache. Likewise, sending Expires, Last-Modified, and Cache-Control headers from the application server (Wordpress) does not improve the cache MISS rate. My recommendation to Hristo and SG's dev team is to respect the headers sent by the backend application server, if present, to allow the cache to be primed for all visitors. The current setup seems to be of limited utility, and not useful for caching a site with pages which rarely change.
Angelina Micheva
Hi Andres, Thanks for your feedback. We are constantly working on making improvements to the service and we will consider your comments in the future releases of the plugin.
Andrea Carratta
I have a dubt. Situation: site: andreacarratta.it Dynamic Cache & Auto Purge: enable (from wp-admin) Autoptimize: active When I open my site with anonimous navigation I see: - Autoptimize file (and size) grow up ... OK BUT If I open my page HTML I never see "cache/autoptimize/" path is it correct? I'd like to optimize html / css / js ... what can i do? thanks a lot!
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
You should check the Autoptimize options that are enabled. If the CSS and JS files are being combined, then the source should be from the cache folder. I would recommend contacting the plugin developers on that matter. They should be able to assist you better with that.
abdelrahman
hello, after the plugin updated i can't access my rest API from the application that gives me an error ( Error Expected ':status' header not present...) i asked if anything i need to update or make a configuration to use an API from my website
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
I would ask you to post a ticket in your Help Desk, there isn't anything in the new plugin configuration that should affect this.
Kenny
Hello Hristo, I have just come off chat with support and thought that I should post a reply here, as I was reading this prior to contacting support. I am using Buddypress, bbforum and geo directory. Geo directory have their own cache system called GDbooster. (there have been a few queries re using supercacher in their documentation as siteground gets bigger and bigger- but no options). They simply state that geo directory is compatible with WP Supercache and autoptimize. I wanted to try out siteground system as my other site is quite fast using supercacher, autoptimize and cloudflare. But support tells me that I cannot exclude loggedin users (I have people listing themselves, all logged in and will be using woo commerce). This is a big pity, is this capability of not serving cached pages to logged in users going to be available, looked at?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Probably some misunderstanding. Our caching system automatically excludes all logged-in users and serves them with dynamic content. Furthermore, for WooCommerce, even if not logged we monitor certain cookies so if they add something to their cart for example, visitors will start getting only dynamic content. As for the GDbooster plugin, we have a function for plugin developers to clear the cache so they are most probably utilizing it.
Helene
Hello, Do I need to make changes and check settings? Just enabled the plugin?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
You need to make sure the Dynamic caching is enabled if you want to get most of it!
mbj
i need disable https in my website in siteground how ??
Angelina Micheva
Hi Mbj, We have a Knowledge Base article that describes how you can apply a redirect for your website to be opened by HTTP: https://www.siteground.com/kb/redirect-from-https-to-http/ Before you add the code via the steps provided please make sure that the application you are using for your website is not domain dependable (e.g. WordPress) as this will put in place a redirect loop for the website. We will be happy to give you advice if you reach us via the Support section in your client area. When you tell us how you have activated HTTPS we’ll be able to suggest options to disable it and ensure your site will continue to work correctly. Regards, SiteGround Team
Helle
Can the SG optimizer deal with leverage browser caching? Or do you know of a plugin (not https://wordpress.org/plugins/leverage-browser-caching/ it is not good) that will work well with the SG optimizer? Or is the best option to add code to .htaccess as instructed here https://www.siteground.com/kb/how-to-leverage-browser-caching/ Would prefer clients not to have to deal with code
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
I would say use the code from the KB article provided it will work great. As to your recommendation, I agree that it would be better to put it within the plugin. Soon, we plan refactoring the plugin with a lot of new improvements and that would definitelly be part of it.
Chad Rogez
Is it best not to run W3 Total cache while using the SG Optimizer Plugin?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
I would say yes. Personally, I have best results with the SG Optimizer with dynamic caching enabled and Autoptimize configured for CSS and JS minification.
Wilfred
Hello Hristo, Do you use cloudflare as well? I use the free version + Super Cacher, the Clouflare takes care of CSS and JS minification right , wo why should we use Autoptimize? Also for Leverage Browser Caching , so you just add the code in the .httaccess ? Thanks
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
For browser caching, I use the .htaccess rules, yes. As for the minification and combination I do not rely on CloudFlare for that.
Wilfred
Ok thanks. So i should shut off "Auto Minify" in Cloudflare if i use Autoptimize correct ? Also, i can't find anything on the SiteGround site regarding recommend setting in Cloudlflare. Should i enable the following ? SG Railgun, Enable Accelerated Mobile Links and Rocket Loader ? Thanks Wilfred
Angelina Micheva
Thank you for the update, Wilfred. The point here is that you have at your disposal multiple tools that you can use for the optimization of your website. You can test each and every tool and determine what setup works best for your site in particular. Not all websites can rely on the same configuration for performance. It is best you create a testing environment (with SiteGround hosting you can use our Staging tool) where you can create different setups and test the performance and speed of your application(s). You were not able to find a knowledge base article with recommended Cloudflare settings because different websites may have different setup requirements. You should have proper control over the Cloudflare settings that will allow you to test different setups. What we can suggest as a good practice is to avoid using several different tools with the same functionality (for example: install more than one plugin that gathers page cache; to use more than one tool/plugin for CSS and JS minification). Also, if you haven't seen it already we can recommend checking the new feature we launched last week for getting WordPress web development help from our partners from Codeable https://www.siteground.com/blog/get-expert-wordpress-help-codeable/.
Chris Benge
Hi -- I've tried a couple of times to run the PHP Config on our client's large site (with 15 active plugins). And I note that it warns "Please don't close your browser until the check is completed". But each time I've had to log out because the "Checking, please wait . . ." button circles on and on for hours. How long should we expect the checking to take? And what is the reason for the warning -- is it simply procedural, or can closing the browser somehow damage the site?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
It goes through all your active plugins and checks for compatibility. In the new version we will make it much faster and better but for now, I would recommend that you leave it work.
Simon Saidi
How do I uninstall it SG . I didn't realise it couldn't work as I am with HostPapa. I accidentally clicked the recommended option in php now I cannot logon to my website, but instead downloads a php file opened with Notepad.
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
You need to clean the lines, that the plugin adds to your .htaccess file.
Evan Marshall
What lines would those be?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
All lines added by the SG Optimizer are clearly marked with a comment
Jasper Caplan
Does SG-Optimizer work with Woocommerce without causing errors?
Angelina Micheva
Hi Jasper, SG Optimizer works very well for WooCommerce sites. The plugin takes into account the specific setup for WooCommerce like checkout pages and items in shopping carts with regard to caching. In case you have any other questions regarding using the plugin for your website reach out to our team they are available 24/7 via the Support section in your client area. Regards!
Richard
I'm a little confused about how to use SiteGround's performance tools in conjunction with each other - Clouflare and SuperCacher in CPanel, and SG Optimiser in WordPress. A tutorial giving a summary of what each tool does, and the order in which they should be configured would be helpful. (It might reduce a number of SiteGround's support desk enquiries too! :-)) I understand that different websites may have different requirements, but when it comes to site speed for user-experience and search engine ranking, all sites are looking to achieve the fastest load time possible. Thanks.
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Thanks for the recommendation, we want to update several of those services and then will come up with a single piece of documentation that will cover all the best practices in setting up your account!
Javier
There is a problem with this plugin: it also applies cache on the administration panel, which is a problem ... can you implement the option that wp-admin is excluded from caching?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Oyr Dynamic caching does not cache content for logged users. This means that if you're having caching issues on your admin panel it's either because of Memcached being enabled and your configuration not working properly with it, or another plugin causing problems.
Sam
I have updated my multisite install to php 7.1 and I still see the following error message "SG Optimizer: You website doesn't run on the recommended by SiteGround PHP version" and when I try to click the provided link I get this error "Sorry, you are not allowed to access this page." How do I get ride of the error messages? SA<
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Please, open a ticket in your Help Desk. Most probably, some other plugin or configuration of your site is misbehaving and my colleagues will help you further.
Mark
Hi @Hristo Any idea if the SG Optimizer will support .webp image caching in future? Cheers!
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Yes, it's in our roadmap but I still can't give you ETA when it will be available.
sjardo
Hi! what is the status on WebP?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
I hope we will have it available by the end of the year.
Guy
Hey HRISTO, Any updates regarding webP ? Thanks,
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Still working on it! Soon, it will be available :)
H A
is there any way I can do to support webP on my SG dedicated server as soon as possible? uploading a library to my server, for example.
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
I am afraid that we can't enable it as a single feature but have to migrate to Site Tools first. Meanwhile, you can use something like the WebP Express plugin with .htaccess redirection.
Andrea
Hi - looks like the WebP Express plugin requires webp to be supported by at least one extension (imagick, gd, vips, etc) to convert images with PHP. But I was told currently this is not possible on a server that has cPanel (such as my SG hosting account now). So I should wait to be migrated to Site Tools to be able to serve WebP images, even using the WebP Express plugin?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Imagemagick and GD are available on all our servers. THe newer generation binaries and the functionality from within the SG Optimizer tool - only for Site Tools. Plus, until you get migrated, you have to do it either using .htaccess or by altering your HTML. The server-wide solution applies only on Site Tools accounts.
Rifat Rahman
Eagerly waiting for WebP image caching support. Thanks to siteground for this awesome feature.
Fank
Hello,. I hade a very bad experience with your plug-in during a migration hosting. I spend more than two days to discover that the problem of the bed migration is SG optimizer. If I didn't clean the cache (in cPanel and inside WP) if I crate a copy of the website and import (with Duplicator or All in on WP migration), I lost every CSS and some more UI configuration. So, please, write somewhere that you MUST do remove this plugin, before every migration. I hope my bad experience (and more than two days of wasting time) will help someone.
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
All caching plugins need attention when you move sites from one account to the other. I would say always disable performance plugins when migrating unless you're sure what you're doing.
Lennart
Just updated the plugin and had the white screen of death... Disabled (in file manager) the plugin and website is working normal again. On another site I updated the plugins as well and this didn't happen. Can you explain?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
I would say, please open a ticket in your Help Desk so we can look directly into it. It seems that it's some sort of conflict with another plugin running on your site.
Chad
sg-cachepress giving me a a Fatal Error Fatal error: Can't use method return value in write context in /home/simplys2/public_html/wp-content/plugins/sg-cachepress/core/Admin/Admin.php on line 25 Edited line 25 code "empty" to "!" fixed site. Now reverted back to "empty" in the code. HELP!!
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
This error shows you're using a very old PHP version. Please, update at least to PHP 5.5 and it will work just fine.
Lynne
Hristo is there a tutorial on how to config the sg optimizer. I have it installed but right now I'm getting a big fat f on gtmetrix in caching. I'm stupid in this area but really want to learn!
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Yes, here's a tutorial: https://www.siteground.com/tutorials/wordpress/sg-optimizer/
TROY
I spoke with someone from your helpdesk and they suggested I contact you via this post. SG Optimization 5.0.7 is awesome! However, I noticed a big increase in load time on one metric and I was curious if it is a shortcoming of the plugin or something I am doing. Google Speed Test Mobile 1. Eliminate render blocking resources (3.4s w/ SG Optimization, 0.49s with WP Rocket) I did notice that SG optimization seems to allow off-screen lazyload of widgets in Elementor, which is awesome because WP Rocket said they would not support that at this time. I use a lot of background images. I was able to use a combination of both plugins to get better results but it feels like there could be a better solution. It seems like the Lazyload features work better with Elementor + SG Optimization but WP Rocket still handles to cache better... at least according to Google Speed Tests. I have some additional information saved about the tests if you would like to follow up. Thanks!
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Well, someething's not right with your setup, I would say the Dynamic cache is not configured or enabled. There's no way such difference to occur if everything is set right. Our caching is much faster than any file-based plugin. This said, eliminating render-blocking JS is great optimization technique but very difficult to make on an On/Off switch and too many things can go wrong with it. Best case scenario, the theme and plugins you use should not generate them in first place but unfortunatelly not every developer out there follows best practices.
piet
Hello, a// with this version 5.0, there are a lot of NEW modifications: like image optimization, ... I'm right ? b// So we don't need anymore imagify and wp rocket ? c// And you 'll make a refresh about the doc ? Regards Regard.
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
There's a new post about everything we've done in the new version and maybe I should add a link to it! As for your other questions, I would say - check ours and see how your site performs. Ideally, the SG Optimizer will be the only performance tool you need!
Tina
Existing Images Optimization has been running for several days. I know that it says to be patient, but something must be wrong?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Can you email me your domain at hristo.p [at] siteground.com so I can look into it?
Kathy
Hi Hristo, I am not tech savvy and new toI am worried after reading reviews that the website might crash as I wouldn't know where to start. Is it possible to pay to have someone from Siteground install the HTTPS to ensure there are no errors.
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Install the plugin and enable HTTPS from its backend. Nothing scary or worrisome! People, who experience issues usually have too many other plugins doing the same thing. If something goes wrong, you can always contact us via our Help Desk.
Anthony
I have a possible bug report for SG Optimizer. Starting Dec 12, 2018, when we process refunds through WooCommerce, some (but not all) refunds get "stuck" and multiple refunds are created. Sometimes as many as 260 refunds are processed! I posted a ticket in the WooCommerce forums and one of the replies mentioned seeing this behavior before when using the SiteGround Optimizer and gave directions to disable it. I updated SGOptimizer plugin around the time when these repeated refunds started happening. I'd prefer to continue to use the Optimizer, because I like the functionality. But I can't allow my database to get filled with lots of duplicate records. What do you suggest?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
First, sorry for the late reply. The issue you're reporting was fixed with an update. Please, make sure you have the latest plugin version :)
Anthony
We began using the latest version of the plugin shortly after that original post/ bug report and you're right, we have not had any more occurrences of the "repeating refund" bug since then. No worries on the late reply; Happy New Year.
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Thanks! Glad that it worked out!
Felix
Something doesn't seem to work correctly for one of my sites (https://stottbrothers.com) since I can't use environment optimizations. I am getting the following error messages; Could not enable HTTPS, GZIP Compression and Could not enable Browser Caching. I have very few plugins installed and none that I can think of that could cause a conflict. Everything is turned on for the plugin in cPanel, I have cleared the cache etc, but no change. Any idea what could be the cause the problem?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Seems like a security plugin or insufficient permissions but I've checked your site and looks like you've figured it out since everything was enabled and looking good?
Hardeep
I get a plain white screen when clicking on the SG optimizer plugin in my backend. Tried clearing cache and using different browsers. Can you help
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Some other plugin is failing causing our interface to render blank. Please, email me at hristo.p [at] siteground.com and I will tell you what's wrong exactly :)
corina
Hi. I am pretty new and learning all these new words in a storm. I have just upgraded to GoBig, the SG Optimizer is already installed. I wanted to install now point 2 but got this message Important message from SG Optimizer plugin: We have detected that there is duplicate functionality with other plugins installed on your site: Autoptimize, Tiny Compress Images and have deactivated the following functions from our plugin: HTML Minification, JavaScript Minification, CSS Minification, Images Optimization. If you wish to enable them, please do that from the SG Optimizer config page. can anyone help?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Well, since we provide a complete optimization solution, you have plugins with duplicate functionality. Doing the same thing with two plugins is a bad idea, that's why those options are disabled. I would disable the above mentioned plugins and use the SG Optimizer features for frontend and image optimization.
Almeida
I have plugins like these installed: EWWW Image Optimizer Heartbeat Control Limit Login Attempts Reloaded SEO Optimized Images Speed Booster Pack Yoast SEO Which ones could I eliminate by correctly setting up the SG Optimizer? I have many doubts such as: Enable or disable HTTPS Switch to the recommended version of PHP Enable GZIP compression Minimize JavaScript files Minimize CSS files Optimize new images Optimization of Existing Images There is always the fear that something will not work out.
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
From the above mentioned plugins, you can disable EWWW Image Optimizer. The rest provide unique functionality not part of the SG Optimizer.
Iris
Hello, I have a couple of questions regarding the SG Optimizer plugin. I only have the start up plan. Is it still good to only use your plugin and deactivate autooptimize, cache enabler and Async JavaScript? Or would the others have a better performance in my case? I also get an error message with my site when trying to enable https in the plugin. My website is earththebeauty.com
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
You should keep Autoptimize for caching. However, you can check out whether our optimizations or theirs work better for your front end. We're adding async JS and CSS combination in the upcoming 5.1 update. As for the error, please post a ticket in your Help Desk so we can look into it.
Bethwel Lagat
Hi, The Plugin Works perfectly. But when i enable "New Images Optimization" thats when my website takes longer to load. When disabled my website takes 2 seconds to load but when Enabled it takes 19 Seconds to load. Many thanks
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
That looks like a conflict with another plugin. Please, post a ticket in your Help Desk and we will look into it.
Stéphane Najman
Hi Hristo, I just found out that there is a conflict between Gravity Forms and SG Optimizer, when you enable the "minify CSS" feature. That would be great if there would be an option to exclude specific CSS files, like in W3 Cache !
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
There are, please monitor the plugin page in the WordPress repo. You will find examples on how to exclude elements from speciffic features: https://wordpress.org/plugins/sg-cachepress/
nikki kostyun
Do either of you know which CSS or Script should be excluded in order to remove the conflict between Gravity Forms and SG Optimizer?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
I am not aware of any conflict with Gravity Forms and SG Optimizer. They are using very little CSS so you can exclude all Gravity Forms files from your optimizations. It will not affect your loading speeds that much.
Joey
Hello Hristo, I love SG Optimizer. The only concern I have is with the FRONTEND section. My site is running Fortuna theme, WordPress 5.1, PHP 7.1 and I am using a certain slider for my home page. The issue is with the "Load Render-blocking JavaScript Files Asynchronously". When I switch it on, my slider getting messed up and other content are showing wired, kind of like my Web is broken. Not sure what is the issue. Any suggestions? Thanks.
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
It seems that your theme doesn't play well with such optimizations. Check out the plugin page and how to exclude scripts from optimizations: https://wordpress.org/plugins/sg-cachepress/
Richard Schletty
When "Load Render-blocking JavaScript Files Asynchronously" was activated for my client's website, it caused the following problem: The website search input box would not allow text input if you clicked on the placeholder text. If you clicked to the right of the placeholder text, the input box would activate and allow text entry. This bad behavior happened with Chrome, Firefox and Safari in Mac OSX. When I deactivated "Load Render-blocking JavaScript Files Asynchronously", the search box immediately started to function normally. I submitted this problem to SiteGround Support (I have a GoGeek account). This was your response: "This is occurring due to an incompatibility with one of your other plugin's features and I would advise you to simply leave the feature off." An optimization tool should not cause a problem like this with WordPress search. This Ticket Support response is a very poor way of addressing the problem. SiteGround should be willing to investigate because it is your own optimization plugin which causes the search box to be crippled. So, at this point I do not know if the SG Optimizer conflict is with our Meridian Recipes theme or with a particular plugin. I assume it has to do with the z-index of some mysterious HTML element which overlaps and blocks the JavaScript trigger area of the search input box. I have no confidence at all now in activating "Load Render-blocking JavaScript Files Asynchronously" for any of the 20+ websites that I administer.
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
The plugin is doing what it's supposed to. However, some scripts cause errors when loaded in async mode or are not intended to be loaded in such way by their developers. That's why we have filters for exluding such scripts. However, I understand that might be a bit difficult, so in the next update that we will release some time next week, there will be interface introduced to easily do that.
Richard Schletty
I had a similar problem with activating the option "Load Render-blocking JavaScript Files Asynchronously". It somehow blocked text entry in the site search input box for my website that uses the Meridian Recipes theme. Not sure if it's a theme or plugin conflict. I have submitted a ticket to SiteGround Support but have not found a solution yet, other than a recommendation that I turn off this option in SG Optimizer. I did look at "how to exclude scripts from optimizations" but that looks very complicated. I am not sure what script to exclude.
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
We're releasing an update of the plugin next week that will have a very easy to use interface to exclude scripts, images and stylesheets from all our optimizations without having to use filters in your function.php file!
Keith Gardner
SG Optimizer seems to now minify HTML, CSS, and Javascript. It also combines CSS but not Javascript. Any plans to add combining Javascript files so that we can get rid of Autoptimize? Also, not clear on the automatic static cache clearing, what it clears and when. For example, when a new post is made, which usually gets added to a home page and archive page, is the entire cache cleared? The pop-up help seems to indicate that it only gets cleared when something is deleted. It seems the caches use memory from the tutorials. Should a file-based cache also be used since the cache seems to be cleared every 3 hours? I found that enabling Cloudflare CDN made things slower and placed the requirement of a "www" subdomain. Jetpack recently added a free CDN for all static resources and seems to work faster. You also get the free stats package. The downside with Jetpack is that you have to go through several settings to disable everything except what you really need for Jetpack.
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Combining JS files is something that we will not be adding to the plugin because the gain is minimal while the risk of breaking functionality is huge. Instead, we're providing functionality to load scripts in asynchronous mode. As to your other question, our plugin modifies the majority of WordPress hooks as mentioned in the posts and deletes the content acordingly in a smart way and the cache is purged completely only when necessary. The Dynamic caching uses NGINX as reverse proxy which is faster than any file-based caching system.
ZR
Hi, I switched from SiteGround, where I created the page, to another server, where my client's domain is, and even though I don't have an SSL certificate, the page has forced https address. It stops the page from working correctly, changes fonts, images sizes etc. Plus it displays an alert about an insecure page. After some time trying to figure it out I know that it is caused by SG Optimizer. in htaccess I have something like that: I am not on SG server anymore. I downloaded the plugin but there is only an option to turn the https on. But even this won't work probably, as I do not use SG anymore? In my page's database on current server the page's address is just with http. How can I turn off the forced https? I would greatly apreciate a quick response, as my client's page is due tomorrow. Thank you.
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
The plugin works only on SiteGround. If your site is hosted elsewhere, please deactivate it.
Vincent
Hello, I'm unable to enable HTTPS on my website I get the folllowing errror message : "Could not enable HTTPS". Could you support me ?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Please, post a ticket in your Help Desk. My colleagues will check your case and assist you. That's an issue with your particular account and they will help you out pinpointing what exactly is causing it.
Bob
Is SG Optimizer caching cookies as well? If so, it would be helpful to add a list of cookies that you can exclude from caching as well.
Angelina Micheva
Hi Bob, Currently, the SG Optimizer is caching only the content of the site and does not cache the cookies. The cached content returned to requests is based on the cookies stored locally by the visitor. Especially for WooCoomerce, we remind you that we do not cache cart, payment and other dynamic pages specific to online stores.
Vora Mayur
Hi, There is function "Combine CSS Files" in sg-optimizer, i enabled it but its not combining the css files!!
Angelina Micheva
Hi Vora, Last Friday we have released a new version of the SG Optimizer and we recommend you install it on your website to troubleshoot the problem with the CSS option. In case you still experience any issues please reach out directly to our support team or post in the forum for the plugin so that we can check it in more details and help you resolve it. Regards!
Quin
I'm trying to enable HTTPS on my wordpress site but the SG Optimizer plugin won't load. I've deleted, deactivated, and activated it a bunch of times and still nothing. I'm trying to hook up a store to my site but it won't allow people to enter payment information unless my site is secure. Please help :-(
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Please, post a ticket in your Help Desk, my colleagues will happily assist you further.
Nicolas Aguero
Hi Hristo Pandjarov, I'm trying to gather info to find out what is the best combination of plugins and settings for max speed. I noticed a lot of your tips are super useful and scattered around the different posts (thanks, much appreciated btw!). Is there a blog post (or tutorial) that you can recommend with a full list of recommendations or tips? *so far, from what I can see, (in most cases) the best combo is SG Optimizer + Cloudflare. How about lazyload and image optimization? and, once all of the above is set up, **what are the ideal settings? Finally, what happens with the database and other files (such as htaccess) that are 'dirty' after multiple changes and deactivated plugins, etc? ***Any tutorials on how to clean everything up? Or, is it possible to open a ticket to get help for this? (we currently don't have a technical guy in the team to mess with files/codes). Any help will be much appreciated. thanks, Nicolas
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
I would first optimize the site without a CDN infront of it. Then, enable it. There's no single solution - different sites are different to optimizer but as a general rule, I would advise you to carefully check all SG Optimizer and CloudFlare optimizations and make sure not to duplicate functionality!
Sam
I'm using DIVI, which comes with some minification functionality. I have that turned off in DIVI, and turned on in SG Optimizer. But, it doesn't seem to be minifying anything. Not the JS or the CSS. Any ideas?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Do not duplicate functionality. That will surely lead to errors. Just minify either using our plugin or the theme functionality. Plugin should be better but different sites may have different results.
Sam
That's what I am saying. I have the DIVI one disabled, yours enabled and nothing is being minified or compressed.
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Please, post a ticket in your Help Desk, my colleagues will help you out. Something in your configuration is not set right. I am sure they will be able to assit.
Kevin
Hi Hristo- I've been with SG for several years; great hosting and the great service! I've recently run into an issue that doesn't seem to have a resolution. Since early 2019 I've use SG Optimizer for cache and WP-Rocket for other speed optimization. No duplication of services and I turned off the WP-Cache (via the additional plugin they provide). Recently I noticed that out of the blue the number of requests would jump from 11 to 48 on gtmetrix. I did not purge anything, no updates to the site and this would randomly happen. I didn't write down the number of times I would see the jump but roughly 1/3 of the checks would show the number of requests at 48. I tried figuring out which plugin might be causing the issue and went back several weeks to restore an old backup and ultimately could not figure out why all of sudden gtmetrix (and PingDom) were showing a higher number of requests randomly and then reverting back to the lower number; then going back to the higher number of request....so on and so forth. Also I usually had a google page score of 90 or higher mobile (100 desktop) every single time before this started; I started seeing 50-60 scores when this would occur. I opened a ticket, provided links to the gtmetrix urls and PingDom urls showing the issue but unfortunately it doesn't appear that they recognized what's happening. I deleted the plugin and went to only using WPR and in 7+ hours since then this issue has not happened once (and I've checked dozens and dozens of times). Prior to doing this it should have happened many times. When I used SG Optimizer my site ran faster and fully plan on going back once this can get figured out. Keep up the great work!
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Please, open a ticket in the SG Optimizer plugin forum at wordpress.org. We will look into it and see what's wrong :)
Alastair
Hi There, I have noticed that the Dynamic cache doesn't appear to be flushing after a WordPress post is published. So for example, When I publish a post, it doesn't appear on my blog front page until I do a manual purge of the dynamic cache in Siteground. Has anyone else noticed this happening recently? It used to work fine. I have 'automatic cache purge' switch set to enabled... Alastair
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Please, post a ticket in your Help Desk, that's something with your particular setup and my colleagues will help you out.
Emin
Hi, How come Gziping ttf files are not supported buy SG Optimizer? I have tried so many solutions online but none worked. I have also added this code "font/ttf" \ in the htaccess existing code generated by SG optimizer but that did not work. Any solutions? Thank you
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Gzipping TTF files is supported and working properly. Check the .htaccess file for your site and the lines added by the SG Optimizer plugin regarding Gzip and the application/x-font-ttf mime type. You can make sure your files are gzipped with a simple curl request: curl -H "Accept-Encoding: gzip" -I https://pandjarov.com/test.ttf HTTP/2 200 server: nginx date: Thu, 04 Jul 2019 06:07:02 GMT content-type: application/x-font-ttf content-length: 3389 last-modified: Thu, 04 Jul 2019 06:05:55 GMT etag: "1814-58cd4c5564fd6-gzip" accept-ranges: bytes vary: Accept-Encoding content-encoding: gzip cache-control: max-age=2592000 expires: Sat, 03 Aug 2019 06:07:02 GMT host-header: 192fc2e7e50945beb8231a492d6a8024 alt-svc: quic=":443"; ma=86400; v="43,39" Most probably the tools you're using to check if Gzip is enabled or not are not working properly.
Emin
I see, my ttf file has this path /css/fonts/iconsmind.ttf?qnd6ae Could it be that ?qnd6ae part causing the WebpageTest shows that it is failing?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Can't tell, since I don't have access to their end. Test it with the curl command I gave you, it's much more reliable.
Danielle
Hello! I am excited about this plugin but I am not able to turn any of these features on. When I move the toggle to "on" a box with two X 's shows up; red/white on one side and white/black on the other. I've tried this with multiple features and got the same result. Has anyone else had the same problem?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Please, make sure that there isn't a security plugin or custom .htaccess rules preventing the WordPress REST API from working. If the issue persists, please post a thread in the plugin's forum providing your URL and we will look into it.
Dan
Hello, Can you recommend a GDPR / Cookie plugin which is compatible with SG Optimizer?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
We haven't had any issues with such plugins, they should work out of the box. Please, post a thread in the SG Optimizer support forum if you have issues with such.
Yen
Hi I installed the plugin but now when I try and access it it downloads admin.php? All my plugins are not working properly. Pages even download a .php file. How might I fix that?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Hey Yen, The SG Optimizer plugin runs only on SiteGround hosting account.I think you’re trying to use the plugin on a different hosting environment which will not work. Nevertheless, remove the rules about the PHP handler from your .htaccess file via FTP for example and you will get your site back up and running.
Per Jacobsson
Hi, Is the SG Optimizer using lossless optimization for images? I believe my images seem to have a reduce image quality after using the SG Optimizer plugin
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
For JPEG it's 85/100 setting, the same WordPress uses for cropping and other image manipulation techniques.
zhang
Hello, my domain name was freight.com before it was replaced and freight.org after it was replaced. I regret it now. Can I cancel this operation?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Please, contact our support team via a ticket in the Help Center, my colleagues will assist you further.
Nick
We want to 301 redirect to different URLs depending on the country location of the browser. However, we're having problems with geo-redirect plugins (not redirecting properly), and their support tell us it's because we have SG Optimiser caching on all our Multisites. Apparently cached information retains the country information of the first user to access it, so subsequent users from different countries won't be picked up? Is there a way you know of that we can configure SG Optimiser to get around this issue? Many thanks.
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Hey Nick, Can you email me directly at hristo.p [at] siteground.com with your particular site so we can look into it and troubleshoot that better?
Jetxpert
Hi Hristo, Kindly correct your SG Client Portal (Dashboard). It provides a link, titled "How to use SG Optimizer plugin." Click here: http://prntscr.com/ow5ufv Unfortunately, it's sending clients to this page which does not tell us how to use the plugin. This page is informative but does not tell us how to use it. For example, we could not find instructions on how Lazy Load exclusions work (for example, what do we use in the exclusion field and what else do we need to change in our website to make it work. When used, does it work with images and pages, or, just pages?). Thank you!
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Hey, we're adding few more configuration options and interface changes this week and once that's live I will update all the SG Optimizer documentation with detailed info about everything new. Thanks for the feedback!
Joshua
Hello, Is there a way to prevent my .htaccess file from being automatically edited when installing the plugin? Thanks.
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Few plugin features require the modification of your .htaccess file - browser caching, gzip, setting PHP version and HTTPS force. Keep them disabled if you don't want rules added to your .htaccess file.
Julie Copestake
I have a Prophoto 7 themed website and I have been using the SG Optimiser plugin, but it creates so many conflicts that I have had to deactivate it, the latest issue has been with images not showing up in blog posts. Are the various elements of SG Optimiser available as separate plugins?
Angelina Micheva
Hi Julie, We want to remind you that you can manage the different functionalities of the SG Optimzer separately in each tab - caching, front-end, image optimization, etc. If you have found that a particular option is causing issues for your website you can disable the respective functionality via the slider option next to it and put it in OFF mode. Find details on how you can control the settings for each functionality in our tutorial: https://www.siteground.com/tutorials/wordpress/sg-optimizer/
Ricardo
Hello, I am getting this message after installing various updates at the same time " Fatal error: Call to undefined function ampforwp_get_setting() in /home/alcolad3/public_html/wp-content/plugins/accelerated-mobile-pages/pagebuilder/modules/testimonial-mod-module.php on line 26" I restored a previous back up but the problem continues. What should I do? Thank you,
Angelina Micheva
Hello Ricardo, You can try to troubleshoot this error by installing the AMP plugin for WordPress. We suggest you check with the plugin forum and developers for any further questions on its functionality. Please note the error you're seeing is not related to our SG Optimizer plugin or your hosting account.
Steve
Do you provide any kind of API / list of hooks for this plugin? I would like to be able to run the "PURGE CACHE" from something like managewp.com where I can run code snippets across multiple sites at once
Angelina Micheva
Hi Steve, Currently, we don’t have such hooks/endpoints, but we have a global function that you could use: sg_cachepress_purge_cache().
Steve
Great thanks! If it helps anyone else I now run this in managewp to bulk clear caches <?php // Loads SG plugin include_once( ABSPATH . 'wp-content/plugins/sg-cachepress/sg-cachepress.php'); if(function_exists('sg_cachepress_purge_cache')) { $purge = sg_cachepress_purge_cache(); $site_info = get_bloginfo(); $purge = $purge === 1 ? "purged" : "failed"; echo $site_info . " - " . $purge; }else{ echo "no such function"; }
Angelina Micheva
Thanks for sharing that.
Danny
I use Elementor to build my website. Since a Wordpress (and plugin) update a few days ago, my image carousel (the default one in elementor) has stopped working. Disabling SG Optimizer entirely fixes the problem. I didn't have lazy load activated. Any ideas?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
In the last update there isn't anything related to images. Please, open a thread in the support forum for the plugin at wordpress.org and we will look into it :)
Emin
After the new update, which has the option to optimize Google fonts, I got error on all of my AMP pages, see the screenshot here https://imgur.com/z0ozsYc I hope this gets fixed soon, for now, I'll turn off the optimize Google fonts option.
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Thanks for reporting this, we will look into it and fix it :)
Pascal
Hello, I'm actually trying to figure out which settings to activate/deactivate if I am using the SG Optimizer AND Cloudflare (free version)? Questions: #1 Dynamic and Memcached are turned on (SG Optimizer) so can I also set Cloudflare Caching Level to Aggressive? #2 Enable HTTPS and Fix Insecure Content are turned on (SG Optimizer) so can I set SSL Support to Full Strict in CloudFlare? #3 Minify the HTML Output / Minify JavaScript Files / Defer Render-blocking JS / Minify CSS Files / Combine CSS Files / Optimize Loading of Google Fonts are turned on (SG Optimizer) so can I set (on CloudFlare) Auto Minify (Web Optimization) : Javascript, CSS, HTML AND Railgun on? I already know that we should not duplicate, like never. I'm trying to understand the best combination to use. Could you please help me learn whether I should use the SG Optimizer or ClouFlare for the 3 situations listed above? Thanks in advance for the tremendous help!
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
When you use a CDN, you must understand that there's a whole new layer between your server and your customers. In this case, if you set CloudFlare Caching to Aggressive, you can try disabling the Dynaimc caching. Memcached is completely different story since it handles only queries to your database (which implies a dynamic hit). The rest of the optimizations, you can do either on the SG Optimizer plugin or through CF. It is up to you and up to testing how they apply to your partiuclar site. There is no straight forward setup, otherwise we would have already preconfigured it for you :) You need to see which works best for your own site.
Pascal
Hello again, It has been almost two weeks since I have posted my questions on the blog. Is there any Siteground staff near? Thanks
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Please, the WordPress.org support forum for the SG Optimizer for feature requests and support questions. There' you can see the change log too. We have a roadmap and constantly add features to it while patch every reported bug as soon as possible.
Emin
Do you recommend turning on Level 2: Dynamic Cache In the control penal along with Level 3: Memcached? Or one of these has to be on and the other off? Thanks
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
They are completely different type of caching so you can turn them both :)
Emin
I also want to ask for feature requests if possible. Can the following be added to SG Optimizer? I have not seen any other plugin properly do these, but if SG can manage to include these features it will be much more effective then others... 1. Ensure text remains visible during webfont load (I don't know any other plugin that does this) 2. Serve images in next-gen formats (there are some that do this but not effectively.) Thank you
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Hey Emin, Yes, we're working on both. The WebP support is coming up shortly but we want to make proper critical CSS functionality which will cover point 1 from your list :)
Emin
Amazing! cant wait for it. Have a great thanksgiving, God bless!
Emin
Hi, How come your plugin's lazy loading option does not take care of the warning on Google, Defer offscreen images. Other plugins do take care of this issue. Also, there are other lazy loading plugins when you activate they cut down the image request numbers significantly. But SG's plugin does not. Thanks
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
The lazy load functionality has multiple sub-options. Make sure you enable them for best results.
Emin
They are all on, but that was not my question. :) I was talking about totally something else.
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
You can email me directly at hristo.p [at] siteground.com and elaborate :) I will do my best to help you out.
Nick
Hello, when selecting the "Defer Render-blocking JS" option, it causes Gravity Forms - Total Price field to lose it's currency formatting. I tried to exclude the Gravity Forms javascript file however it doesn't appear in the list of JS files and will not allow me to add it to the exclude field. Any suggestions on how to correct this? Btw, great plugin and hosting service!
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Please, open a ticket in https://wordpress.org/plugins/sg-cachepress/ providing your site URL and we will help you out :)
mustafa qureshi
Hey, I m using siteground optimizer and I enables combine css. So in my google speed test, there is an opportunity to remove unused CSS. So how I can remove that siteground optimizer combined css ?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
You can safely ignore that recommendation. It's almost impossible to do this automatically from the plugin. Actually, your theme / page builder should handle this.
webdev
Can I use this plugin on WP sites that are on WPEngine?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
It should work just fine :)
Johnny
Hi Hristo, Full disclosure - I'm not a developer. Forgive my ignorance. Our WP website (with SG Optimiser plugin) does not show website updates on mobile or devices that have accessed our website in the past. We've flushed/purged our static, dynamic, superchache on server side and host side. Everything is enabled. We've cleared cashe's on devices. The only thing I haven't tried is changing our WP config file from read only?? This was a common suggestion on some blogs? As I'm not a developer, I'm a little hesitant in trying this. Have you had this problem before? Any suggestions? Thanks a million!
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
There is an option in the SG Optimizer under the Dynamic Cachng tab - Browser-Specific Caching. Please, enable it, purge all caches and try again. That should do the trick. If the problem persists, you can mail me at hristo.p [at] siteground.com.
Tiffany Hernandez
Hi there! New to Siteground and just had the plugin added to my Wordpress. I see an option to optimize all the existing images on my site. I'm a little concerned because in the description I see this, "Note, that this will overwrite your original images." Do you happen to know if this means it will delete all the titles, descriptions and alt texts from my images? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
No, we won't touch the data in the media library, just physically replace the image files with their optimized versions.
Alyx
What is the latest advice on using SG Optimizer, Cloudflare, and Autoptimize together?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
I would use only the SG Optimizer with dynamic caching unless I need a speciffic reason to use CloudFlare. Just make sure you enable the Frontend optimizations one by one and check your site if exclusion of certain scripts is needed.
Alyx
so is Autoptimize completely redundant? what are the additional benefits of Cloudflare?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Yes, I would say you get all the functionality in the SG Optimizer. Cloudflare is a CDN provider and should improve your networking latency if your visitors are spread globally.
Teresa
I have enabled these one at a time and found that it is causing an issue, but I'm not familiar enough with JS to know what to exclude to fix it. Can you point me to a resource to figure this out? When enabled it makes text on one page not visible in Safari, but it is visible in Chrome.
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
There is an intuitive exclude functionality that lists all the scripts enqueued by WordPress. Check which parts of the site are misbehaving and exclude them. There is no single guide since every site is speciffic.
Zec Richardson
I started using the SG Optimizer and I have noticed when sharing to Twitter that an image is no longer showing! Could this be down to a setting I have selected in SG Optimizer?
Reneta Tsankova Siteground Team
Hello Zec, it shouldn't be related to the SG Optimizer, but sounds like another plugin may be blocking the image. Please post a ticket so we can review in more details and assist you.
Andy Galaxy
I am getting an error using WP Booking Calendar and the consensus may be that caching is a problem. See: https://wpbookingcalendar.com/faq/request-do-not-pass-security-check/ Would Supercacher/SG Optimizer be causing issue?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
This plugin obviously doesn't work with full-page caching mechanisms and requires to be fully dynamic. You can use the exclude functionality in the SG Optimizer to disable it for the pages you have the calendar on.
Graeme
When viewed on a mobile device SG Scanner is changing the fonts on my website's slider. Can any0ne help?
Marina Yordanova Siteground Team
The SG Scanner is simply scanning your website pages for any malicious content. It is not applying any changes to the actual website. Still, if you have noticed any relation to the way your website operates with that service enabled, please reach out to our Support team.
Rishav Kumar
I disabled all plugins except the SG Optimizer on my website because it did all the work that was done by 6 other plugins I was using! Thanks SiteGround!
Andrea
Hey I have updated my php to 7.4 but SG Optimizer will not activate. :( This is the Error message: Plugin could not be activated because it triggered a fatal error. The SG Optimizer plugin is designed to work only on SiteGround Servers. We've deactivated it because it may render your site blank if used on another environment. How do I fix that?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
If you are getting this error on a SiteGround server, please post a ticket in your Help Desk and we will look into it. If you are trying to use it on another environment, I am afraid it won't work.
Jennifer Q.
Hi, can I use this plugin on sites that are not hosted with Siteground?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
No, it works only for SG hosted sites at the moment.
Leo
hi, I have the basic plugins , few images that are not heavy at all and the best score I can get on speed insights is 64. What I can do to speed up my web site? the only thing I am missing is teh cdn cloudflare but that won't make miracles. I would like to reach a 90 score at least but don't know how.
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
You can post a thread in the SGO forum and we will look into your site. Probably, some script is not playing well with the optimizations - https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/sg-cachepress/
Mark Cathcart
Hristo, we have five sites running on Siteground, all wordpress. Some have SG Optimizer installed, some don't. We are having some caching issues, is there a document which discusses set-up and use when running multiple sites from a single account, or is the rule just install SG Optimizer on all of them and it works?
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
Basically, I recommend using SG Optimizer without any other performance plugins and use it on all sites you host. With Site Tools you get a separate instance for each site unless it's parked / subdomain so you shouldn't experience problems with that. You can post more info in the SG Optimizer forum and we will address it if there's something speciffic.
Emin
Hi, Are you planning to add Defer Render Blocking CSS? There is such an option for JS but not CSS. Thanks
Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team
You can't defer CSS like JS or you will have huge layout shift which is bad. We will be adding Critical CSS generation which will help with sites with too big CSS loaded everywhere.
Shweta Garg
Hi , we activated optimizer plug-in in our Wordpress installation and soon after webhook endpoints to our website for stripe are failing. . Following error is coming. How do we fix this ? 11 requests returned a HTTP 301, indicating your server is redirecting Stripe to deliver the event to a new location. This usually signifies you should update your webhook endpoint’s URL.
Lina Asenova Siteground Team
Hey there, Shweta, thank you for reaching out. It seems that the issue might be related to the settings within the Optimizer plugin, potentially causing the Stripe webhook endpoints to redirect. In order to assist you further, we'll need to take a look at your website and the specific settings of the plugin. To do so, please reach out directly to our support team by following the steps here: stgrnd.co/contactus/. Looking forward to hearing from you.
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