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What exactly is Lazy Loading?
The term lazy loading is a commonly used pattern/technique in web designing wherein there is a deferred initialization of certain content that is below the fold on your page. Lazy loading decreases the time it would take for the website to load.
To make it simpler, when the user opens your page, he/she will only see the content that is present above the fold, such as the pictures and information that are covered on the first page, without having to scroll down.
Through this method, the user gets quick access to your page, making your WordPress website faster than any other site. As the user scrolls down, the rest of the aspects, too, get downloaded easily. This method is called on-demand loading.
Why should you make use of a Lazy Load Plugin?
As you must be aware, WordPress already makes use of the HTML attribute ‘loading=lazy,’ which leads to the lazy loading of selected items of your site. But, this attribute gets assigned to only images and iframes; what about the other content?
That is where a Lazy Loading Plugin comes into the picture. Your WordPress website might have the lazy load setting for your page, but you cannot customize it for other objects and parts on your page.
The Plugins give you the ability to do just that without having to do any advanced coding. Apart from that, the other feature that the plugin offers you is that you have ‘cross-browser compatibility.
With the use of Lazy Loading Plugins, you can easily have access to lazy loading on any of the browsers. Now, since you are made aware of what and why this is beneficial for you, let’s have a look at a few of the excellent Lazy load Plugins available that could make your WordPress website faster.
Let’s begin!!
A3 Lazy Load Plugin – Best Beginner-Friendly
The A3 Lazy Load plugin is perfect for people who aren’t well versed with technology and prefer their work to be done easily yet quickly. It is mobile-oriented and very easy to use.
As the majority of the users these days make use of their mobile phones to access your page, it becomes much more beneficial to you. It is known for increasing the performance of your site.
The best feature of A3 lazy load is that the heavier or, the more amount of content you have on your site, the better performance is obtained. A3 makes sure that the site is made visible to your users in a fraction of seconds.
As far as videos are concerned, A3 lazy load supports all the possible video embeds. Starting from Youtube to HTML5 videos, A3 lazy load has got it all covered. It also has great compatibility with the popular WooCommerce Plugins.
This plugin can be installed with bare minimum steps as compared to most of the other plugins in the market that take a lot of time to set up completely. Through A3 lazy load, you get complete control on which elements you want to make visible and when.
If you make a large number of posts or create thumbnails, then this plugin is the best for you. It is so widely known for a particular reason. The fact that this plugin is solely meant for the purpose of lazy loading makes it one of the best Plugins on the internet.
You can not only make content load faster, but you also have various other features that you can gain access to. For instance, you are provided with the option of adding animation effects to your images when they load. For example- Fade-in effect, Spinner effect, etc
It also works brilliantly with other available advanced plugins and is a hundred percent user-friendly. There is absolutely nothing you have to be worried about with the A3 lazy load Plugin.
It has over 100,000 active installations available. The options that it provides to you in its settings are just excellent. The configuration options, such as enabling lazy loading for content images, widgets images, etc., just make your work easier and much more fun.
Through this plugin, you can make n number of changes and adjustments for all the possible kinds of media you make use of on your site. What excites me the most is that not only does A3 lazy load help you take complete control, but it is also made sure that the creativity level doesn’t drop and people actually enjoy viewing your site.
Whether your content consists of 4 images or maybe 100 images, it doesn’t affect the performance of this particular plugin. A3 lazy load provides the viewer with the content that should be visible on his/her front page.
The rest of the content gets loaded easily as the viewer scrolls down. So if better performance and easy usage are something that you are looking for, you should surely go for A3 Lazy Load Plugin.
Lazy Load by WP Rocket – Best for Images
The Lazy Load Plugin by WP Rocket is a free plugin. It is known for reducing the HTTP request mechanisms and thus decreasing the loading time for your WordPress site.
I would highly recommend you to opt for this Lazy Load Plugin if your site content consists of many images, videos, thumbnails, etc. You also get the option to replace your Youtube iframes with a preview thumbnail. It is just like a mini frame for WordPress.
The script weight of this plugin is not more than 10kb. Lazy load is completely open-source software. The plugin does extensive work on your videos, images, text, avatars, etc., thereby boosting up the speed of your site.
One of the best features of the Lazy Load by WP Rocket is that it gets updated regularly. Through this, you get access to all the recent and advanced features available so as to be up-to-date with all the other plugins available on the market.
Now, it’s fascinating to find that this particular plugin has much more than just the basic features. It has those aspects for which you have otherwise installed other extra plugins.
For instance, with WP Rocket, Google Analytics code can be hosted on your site. You get the data optimization feature and so much more. Also, as compared to the other plugins you could find, the WP Rocket is easier to figure out and work with.
You also are provided with the ability to delay the time for the JavaScript execution. This leads to having a great impact on your site too.
Installing it too is no biggie; just a few mini-steps, and you’re all set. There is absolutely no need for any coding knowledge required. Also, if you already have or are using the WP Rocket Premium caching plugin, you have access to the in-built lazy load feature. So, there is no actual need for you to install this particular plugin.
The fact that this plugin does not rely on any external libraries makes it more reliable and efficient to use. Once this plugin is activated, you can go to the settings and select where and what content should be applied with lazy load, based on your requirements.
It could be either to your videos or images or iframes or maybe all. It’s completely up to you. Lazy Load by WP Rocket has more than 80,000 active installations.
The price too is quite affordable. Imagine getting all of these excellent settings and options for just $49. It’s like having all the possible good things wrapped in one package.
Also, if within the first 14 days of usage you seem to be not satisfied by the experience, you can ask for a refund.
Lazy Load for Videos – Best for Videos
For websites that have heavy content due to the video load, they should certainly opt for the lazy load plugin specially designed for videos. This plugin is really great to speed up Google Page-Speed Score.
It can easily replace your embedded Youtube or Vimeo videos with a preview image that is clickable. What happens with this is that the video gets loaded only when the viewer clicks on the preview image.
This then saves the loading time and also makes sure that there isn’t unnecessary JavaScript that gets loaded. Most importantly, for the sites that contain many such videos, it is best advised to opt for this lazy Load plugin.
You are also free to switch your plugin on or off whenever you want it. There are also other features that make things much simpler for you. For instance, through this plugin, you can hide various annotations like “Subscribe to this channel,” hide the controls from YouTube player, hide related video suggestions as well, etc.
You can also choose the thumbnail size you want or even select the play button option you like. The Lazy Load for videos works not only with WordPress but also with other plugins like TablePress.
Another important feature that makes this plugin unique from the others is that it converts your videos into a playlist, thereby making work easier and efficient for you.
There are some additional features available as well; for example- if you want, you can set your embeds on autoplay to display a promotional video after the first video has ended.
So let the videos enhance the beauty of your site but not take the excess time it would rather take otherwise to let your site load. With the lazy load for videos, you can not only make your site faster but also keep the beauty the way it is.
Videos from the biggest to the smallest platform on the internet are supported by this plugin. Apart from that, the plugin is also lightweight. It doesn’t blow up your database capacity either.
It minimizes the amount of JavaScript required to render the page, thereby reducing the initial loading time of your site. It also works great with other devices like mobiles, iPads, etc.
The preview button or the play button can be optimized without any difficulty for any device the viewer views your page on. The installation process of this plugin, too, is very simple.
All you have to do is upload the Lazy Load for Videos into your Plugin directory. Then go to the Plugins menu in WordPress and activate the plugin. It’s as simple as that.
You get huge support from the brand, and it also ensures that your webpage gets loaded with more speed than any other webpage. Due to its simple usage, many people find it beneficial.
There is no double thinking required if you’re planning to opt for this plugin. It’s just going to work like a charm and make your thing much easier for you.
Wrapping it up
Speed has become a very important factor in our day-to-day lives. Especially in the internet world, the world slow just doesn’t seem to exist. Nobody likes or wants to visit a site that would take ages to load.
Most of the time, it’s the content that causes this issue. If you, too, are facing these issues, it’s high time for you to opt for a lazy load plugin.
Yes, making the right choice of a plugin could be a little intimidating, but that’s absolutely fine. If you are facing the issue of not being able to decide which Lazy Load Plugin to go for, for your WordPress site, I’m sure any of the above-mentioned plugins could help solve your problem.
The only thing you have to do is have a look at your webpage, make a note of all your requirements and then select the appropriate plugin. Please make sure that you do not end up installing all the plugins at the same time.
Also, the money factor plays a very crucial role here. The above-mentioned plugins are quite reasonable and can be afforded by almost anybody. So you do not have to worry about that.
What mainly matters is that your page gets loaded within seconds, and you get the maximum number of viewers on your WordPress Site. You can also check our article on What is a DNS Server and You can also check our article on 3 Plugins To Help You Clone Your WordPress Site.