How We Improved AuxiliumTechnology.com Website Speed from 53 to 93

Main Goal: Speed up the homepage and key landing pages for better user experience and SEO
Tools Used: WordPress + Divi Theme, Hummingbird Pro, Cloudflare Observatory, Custom PHP

Initial Performance Issues: Homepage Score Only 53

When we started the optimization, the homepage was scoring 53 on Cloudflare Observatory. The user experience was poor, especially on slower connections. These were the core issues:

• Too many plugins loading on every page
• JavaScript was not deferred or delayed
• Heavy CSS files loading globally
• No Critical CSS to prioritize above-the-fold content

We needed to reduce what loads on the homepage and optimize the rest.

Step 1: Disabling Non-Essential Plugins on Homepage

WordPress loads all active plugins on every page, but not all are needed on the homepage. We added a simple function to the theme’s functions.php to disable plugins only for the front page:

add_filter( 'option_active_plugins', 'disable_plugins_on_homepage' );
function disable_plugins_on_homepage( $plugins ) {
    if ( is_front_page() ) {
        $plugins_to_disable = array(
            'advanced-custom-fields-pro/acf.php',
            'snapshot-backups/snapshot-backups.php',
            'popup-maker/popup-maker.php',
            'broken-link-checker/broken-link-checker.php',
            'custom-post-type-ui/custom-post-type-ui.php',
            'ditty-news-ticker/ditty-news-ticker.php',
            'sassy-social-share/sassy-social-share.php'
        );
        foreach ( $plugins_to_disable as $plugin ) {
            if ( ( $key = array_search( $plugin, $plugins ) ) !== false ) {
                unset( $plugins[ $key ] );
            }
        }
    }
    return $plugins;
}

Result: Reduced homepage plugin load by 35–40%, which instantly cut down the number of scripts/styles loaded.

Step 2: Asset Optimization with Hummingbird Pro

We configured Hummingbird Pro to aggressively optimize CSS and JS files:

• Minification: Combined and minified scripts and styles
• JavaScript Delays: Deferred non-critical JS until scroll or interaction
• Critical CSS: Loaded only what’s above the fold first, removed unused CSS
• Font Loading: Set font-display: optional to prevent render-blocking

These changes were made using advanced options in the plugin settings and exclusion lists to avoid breaking the Divi builder or Gravity Forms.

Result: Reduced render-blocking time, improved First Contentful Paint (FCP) to 0.66s and Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) to 0.98s.

Step 3: Speed Test Results — Before vs After

We used Cloudflare Observatory and Lighthouse to measure the performance impact.

• Homepage Improvement: 53 ➝ 93
• Contact Page: 72 ➝ 94
• SEO Page: 72 ➝ 93
• Commercial Page: 68 ➝ 91

Visual Progress

We tracked and saved multiple screenshots to monitor the performance at every stage:

• Waterfall views from dev tools
• Google PageSpeed screenshots
• Cloudflare Observatory graphs

Key Things That Worked

• Selectively unloading heavy plugins only on pages that need them
• Minifying and combining assets using Hummingbird Pro
• Using Critical CSS and async font loading for faster visual paint
• Deferring non-essential JavaScript

These optimizations together delivered a 40+ point boost in performance.

Pro Tip

Never rely only on caching. Speed requires smart loading: load only what you need, when you need it.

Want a Speed Makeover for Your Website?

Whether you’re using Divi, Elementor, or custom themes, if your site is slow, you’re losing leads. Get in touch with our team at Auxilium Technology to schedule a free performance review.