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

Random Content is the easiest way to keep your WordPress site feeling fresh and dynamic. Create content groups, add as many items as you want, and display a random selection anywhere on your site with a single shortcode or widget. Every time a visitor loads the page, they see something different. That means higher engagement, more clicks, and a site that never feels stale. What can you do with it? Rotate testimonials — Show a different customer quote on every page load Randomize banners — Keep sidebar and header promotions fresh without manual updates Cycle CTAs — Test different calls-to-action to see what gets clicks Display tips or quotes — Add variety to any page, post, or widget area Shuffle FAQs — Surface different questions each visit Free features Display random content anywhere with the [random_content] shortcode Use in posts, pages, sidebars, or widget areas Organize content into groups for separate rotation sets Control how many items display at once Full WordPress editor support — text, images, HTML, shortcodes, embeds Lightweight and fast with built-in caching No coding required Getting started Create entries under the Random Content post type Organize them into Groups (works like categories) Add [random_content group_id="123"] wherever you want random content to appear That’s it. Your content rotates automatically on every page load. Need more control? Random Content Pro gives you complete control over what visitors see and when they see it: Scheduling — Set start and end dates so content appears and disappears automatically. Run time-limited campaigns without touching your site. Visitor targeting — Show different content based on user role, login status, UTM parameters, referrer, or page type. Frequency controls — Prevent the same item from showing twice in a row. Set cooldown periods between displays. Weighted selection — Assign weights (1–10) to each item. Higher weight = shown more often. Perfect for A/B testing. Display rules — Control visibility per group: logged-in only, specific roles, specific page types. Fallback content — Define what shows when all items are filtered out. Never display an empty space. Automatic updates — Get new features and fixes delivered directly to your WordPress dashboard. Learn more about Random Content Pro → Shortcode usage Display a random item from all entries: [random_content] Display from a specific group: [random_content group_id=”64″] Display multiple items at once: [random_content group_id=”13″ num_posts=”3″] Load content via AJAX (useful for sites with page caching): [random_content group_id=”64″ ajax=”yes”] Widget usage Navigate to Appearance → Widgets, add the Random Content widget to any sidebar, and select a group from the dropdown. Leave the group empty to pull from all entries.

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.