Turbo Admin vs Smush – Image Optimization, Compression, Lazy Load, WebP & CDN

Work faster with WordPress using a quick-access command palette and a collection of Dashboard improvements. Simply install, activate and go! Ugh, this Dashboard menu is so cluttered? Where is everything? Is it in Tools? Or Settings? Or some menu of its own? How am I supposed to work with this clutter? If the WordPress Dashboard is slowing you down, Turbo Admin is here to speed you up. Turbo Admin’s main features are: A fast-action, keyboard driven command palette: Think Apple Spotlight, or Alfred, but in WordPress! The command palette is pop-up/modal by default, but has an option to be present in the admin bar. A “barkeeper” that hides non-critical admin-bar items in a slide-out panel. (Experimental) Notice hiding: Tidy your dashboard by hiding admin notices in a separate, slide-out panel. (Experimental/Beta): List table keyboard shortcuts – use vim-like keys to navigate list tables. If you love this plugin, you can get Turbo Admin on ALL your sites without needing to install the plugin, PLUS additional premium features, with the browser extension version! PLUS the browser extension has features not present in the plugin. Some features only make sense in the extension, others are considered “premium” and are only available in the browser extension. WooCommerce search (premium – extension only) Gravity Forms Search (premium – extension only) Full screen block editor killer Block editor welcome guide remover Live/dev site labels Remember, the browser extension works everywhere that it can detect WordPress, without needing a plugin. And it carries your preferences with you! It’s WordPress, your way! Check out the Browser Extension and try it for free Usage Install, activate and go! Using the Command Palette The command palette is a keyboard-driven, pop-up menu. The default keyboard shortcut to activate the command palette is: Windows: Ctrl-Alt-Shift-P (Linux also?) Mac: Cmd-Alt-Shift-P You can customise the keyboard combination used in the settings in your user profile. Be careful not to choose a keyboard combination already used by your browser! Close the palette with Escape, clicking outside of it, or pressing Ctrl/Cmd-Alt-Shift-P (or your custom key combination) again. Hover over the snail in the admin bar for a reminder of your shortcut at any time. You can: type to filter the commands use up and down arrows to select an item press enter to select an item hit escape (not too hard) to close the palette You can also select items with your mouse/trackpad. If you hold Ctrl/Cmd when selecting an item it will open in a new tab/window (you may need to allow your browser to open popups). Search modes As well as commands, the plugin can also search content that is made available through the REST API (as long as the REST API can be discovered). This is done using “search modes”. For example, if you type “post” and then press the tab key (or type a colon) you will switch to the “post” search mode. In this mode you are searching for posts. Turbo Admin automatically creates search modes for any public post types on your site. It also creates the following search modes: user plugin site (for WordPress Multisite sites) There is full documentation of search modes on the Turbo Admin website Admin bar search mode The command palette is pop-up/modal by default. But if you forget it’s there then you can opt to have the command palette as an always-displayed search box in the admin bar. To use this mode, visit your user profile, find the “Turbo Admin settings” section and check the “Admin bar search” option. Be sure to click “Update Profile” to save the change. Barkeeper The “Barkeeper” hides away non-critical admin-bar items in a slide-out panel. Click the arrow to toggle the panel open and closed. The Barkeeper keeps a few items that I’ve deemed as critical, such as the site name and the updates icon/notification. To enable the Barkeeper feature, visit your user profile, find the “Turbo Admin settings” section and check the “Barkeeper” option. Be sure to click “Update Profile” to save the change. This feature pairs really well with the admin bar search mode, freeing up space for the admin-bar search box. Using the (experimental) Notice Hiding feature Notice hiding lets you move unwanted notices into a separate panel at the top-right of the dashboard. To turn on the Notice Hiding feature, visit your user profile, find the “Turbo Admin settings” section, and check the feature in the “Additional features” section. Be sure to click “Update Profile” to save the change. I have attempted to be somewhat “intelligent” in how I hide notices, automatically handling obvious cases, and giving you choice in other cases. This is why this feature is flagged as “Experimental” – I may not have the “intelligence” right just yet. Read more about Turbo Admin’s Notice Hiding The “Notices” tab in the top-right will show a red-circled number if there are notices to see. If Turbo Admin gives you the option of hiding a notice it will have a “Move to panel” button. Click this to move it to the panel. You can always move it back if you change your mind. Using the (experimental) List Table Keyboard Shortcuts feature This feature is documented on the Turbo Admin website To turn on the List Table Keyboard Shortcuts feature, visit your user profile, find the “Turbo Admin settings” section, and check the feature in the “Additional features” section. Be sure to click “Update Profile” to save the change.

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.