Performance Max Features: Complete Guide

In this comprehensive guide, we will walk you through every tool within our Performance Max suite, helping you master each feature to optimize your site like a pro.

What is Performance Max?

Performance Max is a collection of advanced optimization features typically found in premium performance or caching plugins. At Copilhost, these tools are built natively into your dashboard. Our goal is to streamline your workflow while ensuring your WordPress sites achieve peak performance.

Included Features:

• HTML Minification
• CSS Minification
• Lazy Load (for images and iframes)
• Disable Emoji Scripts
• Local Google Fonts Hosting
• Remove Google Fonts
• Delay JS Scripts (JavaScript Execution Delay)

Note: By default, enabling Performance Max activates all features except "Remove Google Fonts."

How to enable Performance Max

Activating the suite on your site is simple:

1. Go to your site's dashboard in Copilhost.
2. Click on the "Performance" tab.
3. Switch the Performance Max toggle so it turns green.

How to use Performance Max

General Precautions

After enabling Performance Max, always check your website in a private/incognito window to ensure everything is functioning correctly and nothing looks "broken."

Don't worry: nothing is irreversible.

What to do if you encounter an issue:

If you notice any bugs after activating Performance Max, simply deactivate it.

Then, follow these steps to identify the cause:

1. Enable each feature one by one.
2. Check your site after each activation until you find the one causing the conflict.
3. Once identified, simply leave that specific feature disabled.

These conflicts are natural and can occur due to the infinite number of possible site configurations (themes, plugins, etc.). You can still keep all the other optimizations active to enjoy a faster site! 😊

When to enable Performance Max

You have the option to enable Performance Max as soon as you create your WordPress site.

However, we generally do not recommend doing this while your site is still under development.

Our Recommendation

The best approach is to finish building your site first.

Once your design and content are ready, activating Performance Max should be your final step.

To do this, head over to the "Performance" tab of your site settings in Copilhost (as shown earlier in this article) and click the toggle.

If you encounter any issues during this final phase, please refer back to the "General Precautions" section above for troubleshooting.

How to use PageSpeed Insights correctly

#1 Managing the Cache

Whenever you enable or disable a feature, a purge is triggered across our Cloudflare CDN and its built-in page cache.

This means that if you run a test in a tool like PageSpeed Insights (PSI) immediately after a change, the first result might be poor.

This happens because the cache hasn't been "warmed up" by an initial visit yet.

Our Recommendation: Before testing with tools like PSI or GTMetrix, always visit your site once in a private/incognito window. This loads the page and stores it in the cache.

You will quickly notice that once this first visit is done, your pages load significantly faster. This is because you are benefiting from the world's most advanced caching system here at Copilhost! 🤗

#2 Best practices for performance audits

When using PSI, you should always perform multiple tests. Scores can fluctuate significantly from one test to another due to network conditions or server response times.

To get an accurate picture of your site's performance, we recommend running the PSI test 2 or 3 times in a row.

You are now ready to hit those top scores on PageSpeed Insights! 🎉

Performance Max Features

HTML Minification

HTML minification optimizes your site's code by stripping away unnecessary spaces, indentations, comments, and any other "overhead" that isn't required for the code to run.

This feature rarely causes issues, so you can enable it with total peace of mind. 😮‍💨

While it may not drastically change your PageSpeed Insights (PSI) score, the impact is beneficial (especially for long, content-heavy pages) and it requires zero effort to maintain.

Minification is a "must-have" whenever you are looking to optimize page load speeds.

CSS Minification

CSS minification follows the same principle: it cleans up your stylesheets by removing redundant spaces and comments to make files as light as possible.

Important: This feature can occasionally affect your site's web design.

We highly recommend checking your site in a private/incognito window once activated. This is a general rule of thumb for any form of minification (HTML, CSS, or JS).

If your design looks perfect after activation, you can enjoy the slight performance gains it provides! 🎉

Lazy Load

Our Lazy Load feature uses native HTML5 attributes to defer the loading of your images and iframes.

In practical terms, this means that images visible on the visitor's screen load instantly, while images "below the fold" (outside the initial screen view) only load as the user scrolls down.

This significantly speeds up the initial page load for your visitors. ✨

Note: WordPress already has built-in support for native HTML5 lazy loading, and many modern themes include it by default. If your theme already handles this, enabling it in Copilhost won't make a noticeable difference. However, if you are using an older or lightweight theme without native support, this feature is an excellent optimization.

Disable Emojis

To display emojis on your site, WordPress includes a JavaScript (JS) file that loads automatically on every page. This file is primarily used for compatibility with older browsers; however, most modern browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge) no longer require it.

A simple trick to improve performance across your entire site is to eliminate this "wp-emoji-release.min.js" file. In 99% of cases, disabling it won't cause any issues because emojis are now natively supported by modern operating systems.

If you don't use emojis at all, the choice is even easier: disable this file to lighten your page load. With Performance Max, you can do this in just one click!

Local Google Fonts Hosting

Most WordPress themes and page builders use Google Fonts, which are popular all over the web.

The issue is that these fonts require calls to external servers (fonts.googleapis.com). These external calls are often flagged by PageSpeed Insights as "render-blocking resources."

The impact on your performance scores is quite significant for a simple font issue; our teams have seen scores drop by as much as 10 points due to these requests alone. 🤐

A simple and effective solution is to host your fonts locally. This means storing them directly within your WordPress files (wp-content/uploads/...) on your own server. Instead of fetching fonts from Google every time a page loads, your site serves them directly.

Our "Local Google Fonts Hosting" feature automates this in one click: it scans your site for Google Fonts, downloads them to your server, and serves them locally for a faster and smoother user experience.

Remove Google Fonts 🔥

An even more radical option (which requires sacrificing beautiful Google typography for maximum gains on tools like PSI) is to completely remove Google Fonts.

If your site currently relies on Google Fonts, this is the single most impactful setting for your performance scores.

Our team has observed jumps of nearly 10 points just by enabling this option.

Why is it disabled by default?

Most users prefer to keep their custom Google typography. That’s why we leave this option off by default, as it significantly alters the visual appearance of your site.

What happens if you enable it?

Your site will fall back to the default system fonts installed on your visitor's device. This is similar to selecting the "Inherit" setting in your theme or page builder.

Note: You can achieve the same result manually by selecting a system font directly in your theme settings.

The Benefit of System Fonts:

Since system fonts (like Arial, Times New Roman, Segoe UI, or Impact) are already pre-installed on the visitor's device, they require zero loading time.

This results in the fastest possible performance.

Delay JavaScript Execution 🔥

This feature is a game changer for PSI scores, especially on heavy websites with numerous JavaScript (JS) scripts loading at once. In our experience, the larger the site (with dozens of animations and 30 or 40 active plugins) the more impactful this feature becomes.

The concept is simple yet incredibly effective: all non-critical JS scripts do not load immediately. Instead, they are delayed until the visitor’s first interaction (click, scroll, or mouse movement).

Why it works:

Tools like PageSpeed Insights (PSI) use automated bots to load and analyze your page.

Since the bot doesn't "interact" with the page like a human, these scripts are never triggered during the test. For the bot, they simply don't exist! 😎

This is a favorite "cheat code" for experienced webmasters, often leading to a spectacular jump in performance scores.

If you see little to no difference, it simply means your page already carries very little JavaScript.

Troubleshooting Delay JS: If you enable this feature and notice something isn't working correctly, you have two options:

1. Deactivate the feature: It is not essential for your site's core functionality; it is primarily an optimization for performance audit tools like PSI.
2. Exclude specific scripts: If you are an advanced user, you can exclude the problematic JS files in Copilhost so they load immediately without delay.

Is your PSI score lower or unchanged after enabling Performance Max?

There are several reasons why your PageSpeed Insights (PSI) score might not improve immediately.

If your score is lower:

• Natural fluctuations: PSI results vary from one test to another. Run the test 2 or 3 times to get an average.
• Empty Cache: As explained in the "How to use PageSpeed Insights" section, your first test might fail to benefit from the cache. Always visit your site once in a private/incognito window to "warm up" the cache before testing.

If your score is identical or similar:

This usually means your site was already well-optimized or isn't heavily reliant on the features you enabled:

• HTML/CSS Minification: These improvements are often marginal; it’s common to see no visible score change.
• Lazy Load: Your theme likely already had native lazy loading active.
• Disable Emojis: This is "housekeeping" 🧹 to clean up code, not a feature meant to gain 10 points.
• Local/Remove Google Fonts: If you don't use Google Fonts, these settings will have zero impact.
• Delay JS: If your site has very little JavaScript, the impact will be minimal. This is common for smaller, simpler WordPress sites.

How to reach a 100 PSI score on Mobile

Is it possible to hit that perfect 100/100 score on mobile? Yes, it is. 🎉

However, remember that once you have a good score (90+), reaching 100 is often purely cosmetic.

It looks great for clients and boosts your credibility, but the "real-world" impact on your business is negligible.

Why are mobile scores often lower?

PSI officially simulates a poor 3G connection to ensure your site loads fast in the worst possible conditions. Keep in mind: PSI is not "real life." ❌ They intentionally exaggerate delays to push you to optimize further. A medium mobile score won't prevent you from having excellent SEO.

Our Pro Tips for a Perfect Score

1. "Clean House"

Every active plugin loads code (CSS, JS), even on pages where it isn't used.

• Review your plugins and delete any that aren't essential.
• Advanced tools like Perfmatters can help you disable specific scripts on a page-by-page basis, though this is a time-consuming "manual" process.

2. Optimize your images (beyond the basics)

At Copilhost, our CDN (Cloudflare) automatically compresses and converts images to .webp (via a feature called "Polish").

• The catch: To the visitor, the image is indeed a light .webp, but the URL often still says ".jpg". PSI bots sometimes fail to recognize this and will keep flagging "Serve images in next-gen formats."
• The solution: If you want to satisfy PSI, convert your images to .webp or .avif before uploading them to WordPress using tools like TinyPNG or Convertio, or use a plugin like Imagify.
• Resize: Never upload a 1920x1080 image for a 300x300 slot!

3. The Real Culprit: The LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)

The LCP is the largest element visible on the screen when the page loads (usually a hero image, a background video, or a large title). If you are stuck at a 90 score, your LCP is likely the reason.

• Compression: Run your LCP image 2 or 3 times through TinyPNG.
• Mobile Specifics: Most webmasters use a large landscape image (PC version) for mobile, which gets awkwardly cropped. Use a specific, optimized portrait image for mobile. It will drastically improve your score.
• The "Cheat" Tip: 🤫 Simply remove the image on the mobile version. Your LCP will become a simple text paragraph, and your score will skyrocket.

4. Experiment with additional Performance Plugins

If Performance Max isn't enough, you can try advanced plugins like WP Rocket or Perfmatters for specific needs:

• CSS Used/Unused: Removing unused CSS can help with "render-blocking" warnings.
• JS Minification: While we offer Delay JS, some sites might benefit from different JS handling methods (like Defer).

Updated on: 27/04/2026