# The great WP-Optimize Debacle

- Author: Maciek Palmowski (https://maciekpalmowski.dev/)
- Published: 2022-09-06, updated 2022-09-08
- Topics: wordpress, development
- URL: https://maciekpalmowski.dev/blog/the-great-wp-optimize-debacle/

> A full breakdown of the WP-Optimize PageSpeed controversy — what Gijo claimed, what WP-Optimize actually does, and who was really at fault in this WordPress drama.

Gijo accused WP-Optimize of cheating the Google Page Score. It wasn't true, but the news about WP-Optimize cheating reached many people.

In case you missed it - some time ago **Gijo** published a Tweet in which he accused WP-Optimize of using quite shady practices in their plugin.

*[Image: Screenshot of a tweet saying that WP-Optimize cheats PageSpeed and other testing tools by loading its JavaScript only for real users.]*

Also, **WP Tavern** published two articles about that:

Of course, WP-Optimize also published a response to those [allegations](WP-Optimize completely rejects false allegations of ‘gaming’ page speed results).

As you can see - a lot happened. So, why did I decide to publish it now? Because I had enough time to test everything myself and I could analyze everything having all the opinions from all sides.

## My initial opinion

I won't lie, when **Gijo** published his tweet I thought that it was not the first time some company does something like this. I even read [an article](https://blog.vuestorefront.io/youre-probably-using-lighthouse-wrong/) from **Filip Rakowski**, where he mentioned a similar case. So, it was possible that **WP-Optimize** was doing the same.

## Who messed up?

Well - everyone.

### Gijo

While Gijo was right that in some cases **WP-Optimize** does hide some scripts from Google Page Speed, he did forget to mention that it's not the default behavior, but it only happens when you'll select the **Defer all the JavaScript files** option. At some point, he did mention it later on, but this should be stated from the beginning.

Hiding this information really changes a lot.

### WP-Optimize team

They also messed up, but mostly thanks to poor UI. 

There are two options in their plugin:

In my opinion, adding those few words would solve the problem. Another way would be to remove this `if` when using the **Defer using JS.**

But do **WP-Optimize** cheat? No, I don't think so.

Did they cause the whole situation thanks to a lack of one sentence? Yes, they did. Thanks to better UI they could just respond with a simple "Read the... manual" and end the whole thing.

A totally different thing is the fact, if a possibility to exclude some scripts from page speed is needed? From my experience, I can say that "yes" sometimes it's quite useful. But only the variant where we can pick the scripts.

### WP Tavern

**WP Tavern** wasn't the only medium that wrote about it, but they are the medium that appears in every WordPress dashboard. This means that for a while many users could see one or both article titles about WP-Optimize cheating the PageSpeed score.

**WP Tavern** could do at least one of the things better:

In general, with great power comes great responsibility and this time this power was misused. Waiting some time more and providing a better article would be much more valuable for everyone.

## I hope next time we'll all do better

As you see, all the involved parties did something wrong. I really hope that during the next debacle like this we'll start with more fact-checking.