The “network payload” is the overall size of the resources needed to render your website pages. Excessive use of code (e.g. JavaScript or CSS) or media (e.g. images or videos) requires more time and cellular data.
Recommendations
- Compress images, ideally with a plugin such as ShortPixel.
- Regularly remove unnecessary functionality, including plugins.
- Enable caching and compression (often managed by a good host; explained in more detail in other sections).
- Minify files.
- Combine the contents of all files into just one or two.
- Load content later when it isn’t immediately needed.
Related Plugins
- Autoptimize (free plugin)
- WP Rocket (requires a paid subscription)
- LiteSpeed Cache (provided by some web hosts)