Specify Cache Validator for WP Stats?

  • Resolved Patrick0sborne

    (@patrick0sborne)


    8 years, 5 months ago

    I started doing some site speed optimization for a client recently. Now their homepage scores in the 90s on Google Insights, Pingdom Tools, and Gtmetrix.

    But on Pingdom and Gtmetrix, I have a very bad score for “Specify cache validator”. It is 50/100 (on both). The only file listed in the details is “http://stats.wp.com/x-xxxxxx.js“. This is an external file from Jetpack Stats which (i have learned) I cannot specify a validator for.

    The page has a 94/100 on Pingdom. In the Performance Grade tab, “Specify cache validator” is 50/100 and all the others are 100/100.

    Here’s where it gets weird:
    On my previous Pingdom test, “Specify cache validator” was 83/100, “Serve static content” was 86/100 (all others were 100/100), and my overall Pingdom score was 96/100. When I fixed “serve static content”, my overall score dropped to 94, and “Specify cache validator” dropped to 50.

    Here’s what I’m curious to know:

    • Why would it change from 83/100 to 50/100?
    • Is 50/100 a typical score for this metric?
    • Can I do anything to improve the score for this metric?

    Also, since I have you here..

    How important is it to specify image dimensions? My images all display at the correct sizes, why do I need to specify dimensions? I currently have a score of 25/100 for this metric in Gtmetrix.

    Thanks

    https://wordpress.org/plugins/jetpack/

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • Plugin Author Jeremy Herve

    (@jeherve)

    Jetpack Mechanic 🚀

    8 years, 5 months ago

    Can I do anything to improve the score for this metric?

    I’ve let our Stats team know about this, and we’ll see about adding a new Last-Modified or ETag header to that file. I’ll let you know as soon as I have some news!

    How important is it to specify image dimensions? My images all display at the correct sizes, why do I need to specify dimensions?

    You can read more about this here:
    https://gtmetrix.com/specify-image-dimensions.html

    Thread Starter Patrick0sborne

    (@patrick0sborne)

    8 years, 5 months ago

    Hi Jeremy,

    Thanks for your help- I look forward to hearing what the stats team has to say!

    Thread Starter Patrick0sborne

    (@patrick0sborne)

    8 years, 1 month ago

    Hey Jeremy, Any update from the stats team?

    Plugin Contributor csonnek

    (@csonnek)

    Happiness Rocketeer 🚀

    8 years, 1 month ago

    What our stats team reported is that for the vast majority of users, adding an ETag does nothing because there is already a far future expires header. ETags are only useful if the content could potentially be unchanged after the expiration date provided to the end user.

    However, as a minority of browsers don’t play nice without ETags, we’ve submitted a request with our systems team to add this support. However, while we’ve made the request, I don’t have any estimated date as to when or if the support will be added. As such, I won’t be able to provide a specific update to you when or if that happens.

    Sorry I don’t have a better answer for you. Marking as resolved as there’s nothing else we can do at this time.

    Thread Starter Patrick0sborne

    (@patrick0sborne)

    8 years, 1 month ago

    No worries at all – Thank you for the information!

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
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