How your site is kept fast

Every ContentMetric site gets the same speed work at publish time. You do not need to turn it on. This article says what that work is, and explains the two settings you can change on the Performance page in your site's settings.

What every site gets

• Images. Each picture you upload is saved in several sizes in the WebP format, and the page asks for the size that fits the visitor's screen. Pictures lower down the page load only when the visitor scrolls near them. The first pictures on a page load straight away, and a soft colour fills the space while a picture arrives.
• Fonts. Your fonts are stored with your site and served from it, not from Google. Only the parts of a font that your pages use are downloaded. The main text font starts downloading before the page is read to the end.
• Scripts and styles. The code that runs your pages is made as small as possible before it is published, and styles that no page uses can be left out (the "Remove unused CSS" switch on AI & code). Each page loads one stylesheet, and a small one is placed inside the page itself so nothing has to be fetched before the page is drawn.
• The first picture. The large picture at the top of a page is chosen for fast loading, and it is not the small logo in your header.
• Network. Your pages and files are served from a network of servers around the world, compressed. Fonts, and files whose name changes when you replace them, stay in the visitor's browser for a week. Other pictures, videos and downloads stay for at least an hour, so a replaced file reaches visitors within the hour.

Font loading

Open Settings, then Performance. Under Font loading choose one of two:

• Show a system font first. The browser shows your text in a standard font straight away and switches to your font when it has downloaded. This is the default and the right choice for most sites.
• Wait for your font. The browser keeps the text hidden for up to about three seconds while your font downloads, then shows it in your font. There is no switch from one font to another, but a visitor on a slow connection sees blank text for longer.

The change goes live the next time you publish.

Delay third-party scripts

Scripts you add through Integrations (Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, Hotjar and the others) and through Custom code normally start as soon as the browser reaches them. With Delay third-party scripts turned on, they start only after your page has finished loading and the browser has a quiet moment, or as soon as the visitor taps, clicks, presses a key or scrolls with the mouse wheel, whichever comes first. Your own content no longer waits for them.

Before you turn it on, know what changes:

• A visitor who leaves within the first second or two may not be counted by your analytics.
• A cookie banner or chat button that one of those scripts draws appears a moment later.
• A script that must run before the page is drawn, such as an A/B testing snippet that hides the page until it has chosen a version, or a consent tool that hides content until the visitor agrees, will not work with this on. Leave it off for those.

Only scripts from Integrations and Custom code are delayed. The code that runs your pages, your installed apps, and structured data for search engines are never delayed.

The change goes live the next time you publish. It is on for sites created from now on, and for new sites made from a template. Sites that already existed keep their setting until you change it, so nothing about an older site shifts without you choosing it.

Google Analytics and Tag Manager, the Meta Pixel and HubSpot are also told not to hold up your page while they download, whether this switch is on or off.

Timing for your own scripts

A script you add yourself in the code editor has a Timing option in its script settings. Choose Idle for a script that is not urgent, such as a small widget: the browser then waits until the page has been read before it runs the script. DOM ready and Immediate behave as they always did.

A script you upload is also made smaller when you publish, and every page that uses the same script shares one copy, so a visitor downloads it once.

Common questions

Will search engines still see my site? Yes. Pages are served complete, and delayed scripts still run once the page has loaded.

Does this change how my site looks? No. Both settings change when things load, not what is drawn.

Can I delay some scripts and not others? Not yet. The switch is for the whole site. If one script must not be delayed, keep the switch off.

My site was made before this. Do I have to do anything? No. Publish as usual and the speed work above applies. Only the delay switch stays as you left it.