Pearl – Header Builder vs Smush – Image Optimization, Compression, Lazy Load, WebP & CDN

Headers play an essential role in a website’s overall appearance and functionality. In most cases, this is where potential customers immediately look to find out what the site has to offer. You have just a few seconds to make the crucial first impression; if the person doesn’t like what they see, they will move on to the next site. The header should answer the website user’s basic questions immediately on them arriving at the site’s main page. These include: * Who are you? * What do you do? * Why should I buy from you/ use your service? Headers are additionally used to allow site users to quickly and easily navigate through the contents of a website It is very important that they are clear and match the requirements of the service that you are offering. Introducing the Pearl Header Builder Plugin The Pearl Header Builder is an effective business WordPress plugin created by StylemixThemes. It allows you to easily build any header layout for your website. This handy plugin, which is available completely free of charge, is suitable for use with WordPress version 4.6 and above. The plugin itself comes equipped with a range of ready-made headers that you can alter and apply to your website if they match the style you are looking for. If not, then just create your own from scratch. The intuitive drag and drop editor makes it easy to build a customized header which will provide website users with a great experience on any device or platform that they are using to access the website. Alongside including the text and various images, animations, and logos, you can also alter the size and the colors of the design and the text. Additionally, you can choose where you wish to position the header on the page. Selecting the top, left, or right can alter the overall appearance of the entire page. This level of detail allows for maximum creativity for you in making your website look exactly as you would want it to look. Sticky header is another helpful feature provided by this plugin. Sticky headers move on the page and allow the users to easily navigate through the website without having to keep scrolling back up to the top of the page. These can be altered for use on different devices. Who is it for? This flexible WordPress heading builder is designed for use by any WordPress business user. It is essential for those looking for a professional-looking website design that will help promote their business to potential customers using a computer, tablet, or cellphone. As you can build virtually any type of header with the header builder, this plugin is an extremely versatile tool. It will benefit those looking to be able to customize their website fully, allowing for a website that can really help potential customers to get a feel for the products and services on offer. How do I install it? To successfully install the plugin, you need to first go to the plugin tab on the WordPress main screen. From there, you need to search for Pearl Header Builder. Once you have found it, you need to click on the button to download the relevant files. When they have finished downloading to your computer, you need to then either upload the plugin files to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory or install the plugin through the WordPress plugins screen directly. Once completed, you will need to activate the plugin through the Plugins screen in WordPress. After you have done this, you can use the Header Builder to configure the plugin. Ensure you include a header builder shortcode into your theme header. Further details on the installation process can be found in the documentation included with the download. How do I use it? Once installed, you will be able to access the plugin from the main admin menu. The six primary tabs included here are ‘header options,’ ‘header builder,’ ‘top bar,’ ‘main header,’ ‘bottom bar,’ and ‘import header.’ In the header options section, there are facilities for selecting the website’s logo, specifying the width of the header container and content as well as a feature for choosing the sticky part of the header (top, main, or bottom). A sticky header, also known as a fixed header, is one that is always at the top of a screen even as the user scrolls down the page. Additionally, in this area you will be choosing the header colors including the main color, secondary color, third color and background color. You also have the option of adding a header background image. Further to this, you can add in all the links to any social networks that you wish to display here under the’ header socials’ section of the page. The header builder tab takes you to the central part of the plugin, where you will be adding in the header elements. The builder divides the header into three main parts: top, main, and bottom. If you click on the plus icons, you will be able to see the selection of elements available to add. These include text, images, buttons, socials, popups, and sign in, among other things. As you might expect, the next three tabs enable you to customize these specific parts of the headers. Included here are options on padding – which is the space between the contents of a box and its border, background color or image, text colors, and link hover colors. As previously covered, the builder supports drag and drop capabilities, so you can easily move around the different elements within your header. Finally, under import header, you have the option of importing header templates. Here you will find twelve pre-designed options that include pre-built heading structures. In order to import one of these, you simply click on the preferred template image and then on the ‘import header’ button. The page will be refreshed, and you will be able to view the header under the ‘header to edit’ drop-down menu. After either creating or selecting a header, you simply copy one of the codes and insert it into the header.php file of your theme. How do my customers use it? A header is a crucial aspect of your website that immediately allows potential customers to get a clear understanding of who you are and what you do. You will want to create a professional-looking header that will appeal to potential customers while providing a good impression of the company. Your header should also provide ways for your potential customers to quickly navigate their way around the different parts and pages of your website with ease. Why should I get it? The Pearl Header Builder plugin is a key tool for building and formatting a personalized header for your website. The simple to use drag and drop builder included with this plugin is easy to get the hang of. In no time at all, you will be able to quickly and easily build professional-looking headers for your website, which will help it to stand out from the crowd. This useful plugin will save you valuable time and money while supporting the growth of your online business. What are the optional extras? Alongside the Pearl Header Builder plugin, StylemixThemes have also developed a full Pearl Multi Purpose WordPress theme that further extends your site’s capabilities. This is available at the cost of $23 for a regular license and $1600 for an extended one. This multi-niche WordPress theme has been optimized for speed, with perfect picture loading on GTMetrix, Google PageSpeed, and Pingdom. It comes with a whole host of premium-level features for your business website alongside the header builder. These include: * Pearl Mega Menu. This feature allows you to design and create your own menu. You have complete creative control over such details as type, columns, and background parameters. * Theme Options. The Pearl Theme Options global settings enable you to easily tailor all areas of your website to match your specific needs without the need to alter any coding. * Translation. This offers you the ability to translate and localize the content of your website to eight different languages, including French, Italian, German, and Russian. * Templates. Here you are provided with more than 250 different ready-to-use page templates to meet your business website needs. * Pearl Slider. This excellent slider lets you effortlessly create and manage responsive slideshows with seamless transitions. This reasonably priced theme will save you a great deal of money on the premium plugins that would be required to get the same level of functionality for your website. The Pearl Header Builder plugin is an excellent resource aimed at helping you to create an eye-catching header for your website which will seamlessly blend into the style of the rest of the site while providing vital information for would-be customers. The user-friendly interface, efficient tools, and quick to master drag and drop builder make it particularly easy to use. Overall, the plugin gives you the ultimate freedom to design and build a heading that accurately represents your business and will appeal to your customers. Watch the Plugin Demo here More Awesome Free Plugins by Stylemix ⭐ Cost Calculator & Price Estimation Plugin ⭐ Zoom Meetings and Webinars Plugin — eRoom ⭐ MasterStudy – All-in-One WordPress LMS Plugin ⭐ Free Classifieds and Listings Plugin – uListing

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.