If you’re using The7 WordPress Theme, you may have noticed that it loads Google Fonts without optimization. This can slow down your website and affect performance scores. To improve speed and rendering, you can preload Google Fonts for The7 WordPress Theme. Preloading tells the browser to fetch the fonts early, preventing delays and ensuring a smoother user experience.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to preload Google Fonts for The7 WordPress Theme step by step. We’ll also optimize how the theme loads fonts using display=swap, which helps render text faster and reduces layout shifts.
By the end of this tutorial, you’ll know how to:
- Identify how The7 loads Google Fonts
- Append display=swap to improve rendering
- Use WordPress hooks to preload Google Fonts
- Test and verify your optimization
Let’s get started!
Why Preloading Google Fonts Improves Performance in The7
When a website loads, the browser fetches external resources like fonts, images, and stylesheets. Google Fonts, in particular, are hosted on a third-party server (fonts.googleapis.com), which means:
- The browser must pause rendering until it fetches the fonts.
- If the fonts take too long to load, users may see FOIT (Flash of Invisible Text) or FOUT (Flash of Unstyled Text).
- Google PageSpeed Insights and Lighthouse may flag font loading issues, impacting Core Web Vitals like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP).
How Preloading Helps
Preloading improves font rendering by ensuring the browser fetches the fonts as early as possible in the loading process. This prevents delays that could cause invisible text issues or unexpected layout shifts. By preloading Google Fonts, the browser knows it needs to prioritize fetching them before other resources, leading to faster text rendering. As a result, website visitors experience a smoother page load, and Google PageSpeed scores improve by reducing font-related performance warnings.
How The7 WordPress Theme Loads Google Fonts by Default
The7 WordPress Theme automatically loads Google Fonts using wp_enqueue_style(). However, it does not preload fonts or include display=swap by default.
Here’s an example of how The7 typically loads Google Fonts in the <head> section of your website:
<link rel='stylesheet' id='dt-web-fonts-css' href='https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Montserrat:400,500,600,700' media='all' />While this works fine, it doesn’t preload fonts, which means they load later than necessary. To fix this, we need to:
- Find the correct Google Fonts handle in The7
- Modify the Google Fonts URL to include
display=swap - Preload the fonts using WordPress hooks
Let’s walk through these steps below.
Step-by-Step Guide
Preloading Google Fonts in The7 WordPress Theme requires modifying how the theme loads fonts by default. The process involves identifying the correct Google Fonts handle used by The7, appending display=swap to the font URL to improve rendering, and preloading the fonts using WordPress hooks to ensure they load as early as possible. By following these steps, you can optimize font performance, reduce layout shifts, and improve your website’s overall speed. Below, we’ll go through each step in detail, providing the necessary code snippets to help you implement these optimizations efficiently.
1. Identify The7 Google Fonts Handle
Before modifying how The7 loads Google Fonts, we need to find the correct stylesheet handle. You can do this by running the following code in your functions.php file:
Steps to Find the Handle:
- Add the code above to your
functions.phpfile. - Visit the front end of your site and check the printed output.
- Look for the Google Fonts handle—in The7, it is typically:
dt-web-fontsNow that we have the handle, we can proceed to the next step.
2. Append display=swap to The7 Google Fonts URL
By default, The7 loads Google Fonts without display=swap, which can lead to FOIT (Flash of Invisible Text). We can append display=swap using the style_loader_src filter.
Add this code to your functions.php file:
3. Preload Google Fonts in The7 WordPress Theme Using style_loader_tag
Now that we’ve optimized the Google Fonts URL, the next step is to preload Google Fonts for The7 using the style_loader_tag filter.
Add this code to your functions.php file:
Testing & Verifying The7 Google Fonts Preload Implementation
After implementing the changes, you should test whether Google Fonts are preloading correctly. Here are a few ways to verify that the optimization is working:
- Use Chrome DevTools: Open DevTools (
F12), go to the Network tab, filter by Fonts, and check if the fonts are being preloaded. - Check Google PageSpeed Insights: Run a test and confirm that font-related warnings have been reduced.
- Inspect the
<head>section: View your website source (Ctrl + Uin most browsers) and look for<link>tags withrel="preload".
Final Thoughts
Preloading Google Fonts for The7 WordPress Theme improves page speed, reduces layout shifts, and enhances user experience. By appending display=swap, fonts load more smoothly without causing invisible text issues. Adding a preload directive further ensures that fonts are prioritized during the page load process. These optimizations help boost Google PageSpeed scores and enhance Core Web Vitals, leading to a better-performing website. Implement these changes today and enjoy a faster, more efficient WordPress site.
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