Content Mask vs Smush – Image Optimization, Compression, Lazy Load, WebP & CDN

Read More & View Demos Here Embed Any Content†‡ Into Your WordPress Website Content Mask allows you to embed any external content onto your own WordPress Pages, Posts, and Custom Post Types. The end result is fairly similar to setting up a Domain Mask, but the content is embedded into the front end of your website and is fully contained inside your WordPress permalink ecosystem. Example: If you built a landing page on landing-page-builder.com/your-landing-page/, you can simply create a new Page on your website at your-site.com/landing-page/ and paste in the URL of your landing page. The Content Mask plugin will then download and cache of copy of your landing page directly on your website, so any visitors that come to your-site.com/landing-page/ will see the landing page you built. This allows you to keep all of your links integrated into your WordPress Website. † Do not use Content Mask to embed any content that you do not own or do not otherwise have license to share, embed, frame, or distribute. Simple 2-Step UI With a simple 2-Step UI, you can embed any external content into your website without any complicated URL Forwarding, DNS Records, or .htaccess rules to mess with. Just enable the Content Mask on any Page, Post, or Custom Post type by clicking on the check mark. Then put in the URL that contains the content you want to embed. It’s that simple! Powerful Embedding and Redirect Options Using the Download method (default) will fetch the content from the Content Mask URL, cache it on your website, and replace the current page request with that content. By default, this cache lasts 4 hours – but it can be changed anywhere from “Never Cache” all the way up to “Cache for 4 Weeks”. Caching prevents the need for additional requests that slow down your site. Using the Iframe method will replace the current page request with a full width/height, frameless iframe containing the host URL. This method is ideal if the URL you want to embed won’t serve scripts, styles, or images to other URLs or IP Addresses. If you use the Download Method, and links or images look broken, you can try the Iframe method instead. Using the Redirect (301) method will simply redirect the visitor to the host URL. Simple Integrated Vistor Tracking In the Content Mask admin panel, you can enable tracking for Content Masked pages. This will allow you to see how many visitors are viewing these links. This is ideal for when you need to track acquisition, such as on a Landing Page. [Views] shows how many times that Content Mask page has been viewed by anybody (even logged in users) [Non-User] shows how many times it’s been viewed by visitors that are not logged in to the website. [Unique] shows how many times it’s been viewed by unique IP addresses. Note: IP addresses are one-way hashed and are not identifiable in any way. Creating a Content Masked Page Using the Content Mask Admin Panel Notes: Do NOT use Content Mask on any content you aren’t explicitly authorized to share or use. Please confirm you’re allowed to utilize and embed the content before embedding any particular URL. Content embedded using the Download method is cached using the WordPress Transients API for 4 hours by default. If the content on the external URL is updated and you would like a fresh copy, you may just click the “Update” button on the Page, Post, or Custom Post Type to refresh the transient, or click the “Refresh” link in the Content Mask Admin panel. You may also change the cache expiration timer per page anywhere from “Never” to “4 weeks”. You may use the Transients Manager plugin to manage transients stored with the Download method. All Content Mask related transients contain the prefix “content_mask-” plus a stripped version of the Content Mask URL, such as “content_mask-httpxhynkcom”. ‡ Your site may be prevented from processing page requests for any reason; Reasons include, but are not limited to: masking unauthorized content, at the request of the masked URL site owner, masking hateful content, masking illegal content, circumventing IP bans, etc. A dual one-way encrypted hash of your masking URL may be used to check for infraction. No identifying information will be used for this check, and no information is saved other than as a transient to prevent unnecessary duplicate checks per site Read More About Content Mask

Compress images, optimize images, and enable image lazy load automatically with the powerful Smush image optimizer to keep your WordPress site fast, without losing quality. Smush makes it easy to optimize images, compress images, and deliver images faster across your entire WordPress site. This all-in-one image optimizer automatically reduces image file sizes, enables image lazy load, and serves modern formats like WebP and AVIF, all without breaking image quality or adding extra work. Whether you’re running a blog, store, or portfolio, Smush helps you optimize images at scale and keep your site fast with a trusted WordPress image optimizer. Trusted by 1+ Million Sites | 4.8/5 Star Rating Get everything you need to optimize images and speed up your site. Smush works out of the box with no complicated setup – just install and let it handle the rest. Compress images without losing quality Reduce image file size automatically while keeping your images sharp and clear. Smush is an easy-to-use image optimizer which let’s you compress images using both lossless and lossy compression, giving you the best balance of quality and performance without extra work. You can also compress images outside the media library using Directory Smush, making it easy to optimize images stored in theme folders, plugins, or other directories on your server. Lazy load images for faster pages Enable image lazy load across your site so images load only when needed. This image optimizer improves initial page speed and creates a smoother experience for visitors without extra configuration. Serve WebP and AVIF images automatically (PRO) Convert images to WebP and AVIF and serve them automatically to supported browsers. Smush helps you optimize images using next-gen formats to reduce file size and improve load times across your WordPress site. Deliver images faster with an Image CDN (PRO) Serve images through a global image CDN to reduce latency and improve load times for visitors around the world. 119 global CDN servers Up to 500 GB of bandwidth Faster image delivery based on visitor location Improved performance for image-heavy and high-traffic sites Automatically resize and fix image dimensions (PRO) Eliminate common PageSpeed warnings and improve layout stability with automatic image sizing. Smush dynamically resizes images to perfectly fit their containers, regardless of original size, helping fix the “Properly size images” warning in Google PageSpeed Insights. It also automatically adds missing width and height attributes to your images, improving rendering speed and reducing layout shifts. This helps you meet the “Ensure images have explicit width and height” recommendation without any manual work. Optimize your entire site, automatically Smush works across your whole site as a powerful image optimizer to optimize images as you upload them and maintain performance over time without manual work. Optimize images automatically on upload Compress images in bulk or individually Works with your existing media library No need to re-upload images Enable image lazy load across your site Convert images to WebP and AVIF Deliver images with an integrated image CDN Automatically resize and serve correctly sized images Optimize images outside the media library with Directory Smush Built for performance Smush improves page speed and overall performance by reducing image weight and improving how images are delivered. Reduce page load times Improve user experience Better performance for image-heavy pages Supports image lazy load and preload images (PRO) for faster perceived performance Works with your existing setup Smush is built to work with your current WordPress setup, including popular themes, page builders, and plugins. Compatible with Gutenberg, Elementor, WPBakery, and more Works with WooCommerce stores No need to change your workflow Easy to enable and configure Designed to be simple You don’t need to be a performance expert to optimize images with Smush image optimizer. Works out of the box Simple settings when you need them No technical knowledge required Safe to use on any site Why choose Smush? There are plenty of image optimization plugins, but Smush focuses on making it easy to optimize images, compress images, and improve performance without complexity. As a leading WordPress image optimizer, Smush gives you powerful optimization tools without the technical hassle. Trusted by over 1 million WordPress users Built specifically for WordPress Regular updates and improvements Backed by the WPMU DEV team Get started in minutes Install Smush, activate it, and start to compress images, optimize images, and enable image lazy load right away. This easy-to-use image optimizer helps most sites see improvements immediately without changing how they upload or manage images. About Us WPMU DEV is a premium supplier of quality WordPress plugins, services and support. Learn more here: https://wpmudev.com/ Don’t forget to stay up to date on everything WordPress from the Internet’s number one resource: WPMU DEV Blog Hey, one more thing… we hope you enjoy our free offerings as much as we’ve loved making them for you! Contact and Credits Originally written by Alex Dunae at Dialect (dialect.ca, e-mail ‘alex’ at ‘dialect dot ca’), 2008-11.