LCP Image fetchpriority, Render-Blocking CSS & Reflow Warnings

Hello Woodmart Support Team,

I’m currently optimizing my homepage for performance using LiteSpeed Cache + Asset CleanUp. PageSpeed Insights reports several issues related to the theme. I’d like your help resolving the following:

<b>1. LCP Image: fetchpriority=”high”</b><br>
My hero image (above-the-fold) is the LCP. PageSpeed suggests adding fetchpriority="high" but I can’t find a way to apply it manually inside Woodmart’s slider HTML.<br><br>

<b>2. Render-Blocking CSS</b><br>
Woodmart CSS is reported as blocking render.<br>
Example file: /css/1b4f44e….css?ver=66d85<br>
Can I inline or defer this without breaking layout?

<b>3. JavaScript Forced Reflow</b><br>
The report shows forced reflow caused by jQuery and theme JS.<br>
Example: jquery.min.js:3:27323<br>
Any suggestions on how to delay or optimize this in the theme?

I’ve already excluded LCP images from lazy loading and enabled async CSS & JS loading.

Any theme-level advice or hooks would be appreciated. Thanks!

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1. The problem is that the image in the slider is output as a background-image, and for such images it’s impossible to directly add the fetchpriority=”high” attribute. In this case, the optimal solution would be to add the image to preload. This will allow the browser to load the LCP-image in advance, even if it’s used as a background. Usually, such optimization is automatically performed by cache plugins, for example WP Rocket. In the future, we plan to add the ability to manually add images to preload directly through the settings.

2. This is a cached file by Lightspeed – https://take.ms/X09S2S , so it’s difficult to check where it comes from. You can disable the Lightspeed and recheck the issue.

3. Please disable all plugins except these ones:

Elementor
Woodmart Core
WooCommerce
Enable the Parent theme

Then activate the plugins one by one, checking the issue to detect which one causes the problem.

Also, you have the highest score – https://take.ms/FhV67

Kind Regards

Hi there,

Thanks for your earlier detailed response, it was really helpful.
I wanted to follow up with two additional questions:

1. About Object Caching (Redis/APCu)

I’m currently using LiteSpeed Cache, not WP Rocket, and I understand that object caching (like Redis or Memcached) can significantly improve performance. especially for dynamic sites like mine (WooCommerce + Elementor + WoodMart).
Unfortunately, I’m on Namecheap’s Stellar Plus shared hosting, which doesn’t allow Redis/Memcached due to shared resource restrictions. While APCu is available in the PHP selector, it doesn’t seem fully active server-side, and Namecheap’s support confirmed it can’t be guaranteed on this plan. They’ve recommended moving to VPS or EasyWP for persistent object caching support.

My question is:
How much impact would proper object caching (Redis/APCu) have on real user experience?

2. High Initial Document Request Latency

I’ve noticed PageSpeed Insights reports high document request latency, particularly:

• Mobile: Estimated savings of 2,630 ms, server response observed ~2.7s
• Desktop: Estimated savings of 1,110 ms, server response ~1.2s

This seems to be affecting my LCP and overall load speed, even though I’ve enabled full-page caching with LiteSpeed.

Here’s what I’ve already done:

• Enabled LiteSpeed Cache (page cache, browser cache, guest mode)
• Minified and deferred JS/CSS
• Lazy-loaded images
• Removed unnecessary plugins

Despite this, the first document load (HTML) is still slow.

Would you recommend any WoodMart-specific techniques to reduce this initial response time?<br>
Or is the only real fix to upgrade hosting (e.g., EasyWP or VPS) to reduce backend processing time?

Thanks again!

Hello,

1. It may affect the server response, but it’s all very individual and you need to test it yourself.

2. Check the article below for help (https://take.ms/dKZ2c):

https://developer.chrome.com/docs/performance/insights/document-latency

Kind Regards

[Author]

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