LazyLoad is the best free lazy load plugin for WordPress to lazy load images, videos, and iframes on WordPress. In a nutshell, LazyLoad displays images, videos, and iframes on a page only when they are visible to the user – that’s one crucial way to
speed up your WordPress site and
optimize images for Google PageSpeed.
You can lazy load images in post content or widget text, plus thumbnails, avatars, and smilies. LazyLoad takes care of iframe lazy load, too: you’ll easily replace Youtube iframes with a preview thumbnail to further speed up the loading time of your website.
No JavaScript library such as jQuery is used, and the script weight is less than 10KB.
Why is lazy loading crucial for performance?
Lazy loading is a key performance technique to make your site faster. You’ll reduce loading time,
improve your Lighthouse performance score and
optimize your Core Web Vitals grades.
Lazy loading your images on WordPress will help you achieve a better PageSpeed Insights score for three main reasons:
Take a look at our complete list of reasons
why you should use lazy loading. Then, turn on LazyLoad and make your WordPress website faster!
Dependencies
LazyLoad script:
https://github.com/verlok/lazyload
2.3.9
Updated version to fix a mismatch between the tag of the release on Github and the release version which leads to a deployment issue that.
2.3.8
Enhancement: Launchpad compatibility (see
https://github.com/wp-launchpad)
Enhancement: Raised compatibility with PHP > 7.3
Bug: Removed
wp-media/rocket-lazyload-common
from vendors
Enhancement: Raised
wp-media/rocket-lazyload-common
to 3.0
2.3.7
Bugfix: Removed
rocket_lazyload_polyfill
filter due to a vulnerability on polyfill
2.3.5
Enhancement: Test the plugin with latest version of WordPress v5.9.3
Enhancement: Change WP readme content.
2.3.4
Enhancement: Allow
<a>
tags to lazyload background images
Enhancement: Add tag to lazyloaded picture elements
Bugfix: Prevent a Fatal error related to the League Container package conflict with WooCommerce 4.4
Bugfix: Update lazyload for background images support for new version of lazyload script
Bugfix: Correctly apply the rocket-lazyload class on elements with a background-image and an empty class value
Bugfix: Correctly apply the rocket-lazyloadclass on elements with malformed HTML
Bugfix: Prevent a display issue with background-images when using different types of quotes around the URL
Bugfix: Prevent Layout from breaking when alt attribute has any html encoded characters
2.3.3
Enhancement: Add data-skip-lazy and skip-lazy class to exclusions list as part of the interoperability initiative between lazyload plugins
Enhancement: Use native lazyload only if filter
rocket_use_native_lazyload
is true
Enhancement: Apply lazyload on background images set on
figure
elements
Bugfix: Correctly add the rocket-lazyload class when class attribute is empty on an element with a background image
Bugfix: Correctly replace YouTube iframe with preview image when using relative protocol
Bugfix: Preserve
youtube-nocookie.com during LazyLoad
2.3.2
Bugfix: Incorrect characters used in Youtube thumbnail HTML code
2.3.1
Bugfix: Prevent a conflict with WP Rocket
Bugfix: apply loading="lazy" on Youtube thumbnail
Bugfix: Add autoplay attribute on iframe loaded with Youtube thumbnail
2.3
Enhancement: Add support for browser native lazyload
Bugfix: Prevent broken image in some cases for picture element
Bugfix: Prevent wrong lazy attributes for srcset and sizes on an image inside a picture element
2.2.3
- Enhancement: Improve compatibility for the picture element
- Enhancement: Apply lazyload on background images set on section, span and li elements
- Enhancement: also pass $width and $height values to the rocket_lazyload_placeholder filter
- Bugfix: Use 0 instead of 1 for the default placeholder dimensions to improve compatibility
- Bugfix: Improve infinite scroll support
- Bugfix: Exclude Enfold avia-background-fixed background images and data-large_image from lazyload
2.2.2
- Bugfix: Auto-exclude data-height-percentage attribute to prevent display issues
- Bugfix: Correctly handle responsive videos using fitVids again
2.2.1
- Enhancement: add a way to customize the lazyload script options
- Bugfix: Prevent error on Internet Explorer 11
- Bugfix: Prevent conflict with WooCommerce variation swatches
- Bugfix: Prevent empty
src
when the image is an inline base64
- Bugfix: Prevent issue when the original
src
attribute uses single quotes
2.2
- Enhancement: Update lazyload script to the latest version
- Enhancement: Use the dimensions of the original image for the placeholder size when possible, to reduce content reflow
- Enhancement: Ignore images using the new loading attribute introduce by Chrome for browser-native lazyload
2.1.5
- Bugfix: Prevent matching with the wrong data when a data-style attribute is on a div for background images
- Remove data-cfasync="false" by default
- Enhancement: Add filter rocket_lazyload_script_tag to modify the lazyload script HTML if needed
- Enhancement: Add data-no-minify attribute to the lazyload script tag to prevent it from being combined by JS combiners
- Enhancement: Improve MutationObserver code to only call the lazyload update method if an image/iframe or element with .rocket-lazyload is contained in the new node(s) added to the DOM
2.1.4
- Regression fix: Correctly exclude scripts from lazyload again
2.1.3
- Bugfix: Ignore content inside noscript tags to prevent modifying them and causing some display issues
2.1.2
- Enhancement: Update lazyload script to the latest version
- Enhancement: Add a way to lazyload the Youtube thumbnail image
- Enhancement: Add width and height attributes to the Youtube thumbnail image depending on the resolution
- Enhancement: Disable polyfill for intersectionObserver by default, added a way to activate it instead
- Enhancement: Add data-cfasync="false" to the lazyload script tag
- Enhancement: Prevent lazyload on the Oxygen Builder page editor
- Bugfix: Wrap no JS CSS in noscript tag and remove the no-js identifier
2.1.1
- Bugfix: Correctly apply lazyload on
picture
elements
- Bugfix: Prevent double loading of an image when an
img
element inside a picture
element only has a srcset
attribute and no src
attribute
2.1
- Enhancement: Update lazyload script to the latest version
- Enhancement: Apply lazyload on picture elements found on the page
- Enhancement: Apply lazyload on div elements with a background image found on the page. See FAQ for more info.
2.0.4
- Enhancement: Add filter for iframe lazyload pattern exclusion
- Enhancement: Auto-exclude soliloquy-image pattern from lazyload
- Bugfix: Prevent issue when an image/iframe is duplicated on the same page
- Bugfix: Prevent W3C validation error for the SVG placeholder
2.0.3.2
- Bugfix: Correctly ignore inline scripts with line breaks inside
2.0.3.1
- Bugfix: Correct an issue preventing lazyload from working
2.0.3
- Bugfix: Prevent incorrect display if JavaScript is disabled
- Bugfix: Don't apply lazyload on Divi/Extra/Beaver Builder Editor pages
- Bugfix: Use the correct URL for each iframe when multiple iframes are on the same page
- Bugfix: Ignore content inside inline script tags to prevent applying lazyload in it
2.0.2
- Bugfix: Fix an error in the compatibility for the AMP plugin
2.0.1
- Bugfix: Prevent a fatal error on case sensitive operating systems
2.0
- Enhancement: Lazyload is now applied on the template_redirect hook, which should allow the plugin to apply the optimization on more images and encountering less conflicts at the same time
- Enhancement: Specifically target with the lazyload script images/iframes elements with a data-lazy-src attribute
- Enhancement: Update lazyload script to the latest version
- Enhancement: Possibility to apply lazyload on background-images with a specific markup, see FAQ
- Enhancement: Use a svg image as placeholder instead of a base64 gif
- Bugfix: Only use MutationObserver if available in the browser
- Bugfix: When using the Youtube thumbnail option, correctly format the Youtube query if the video URL is encoded
- Bugfix: Improve iframe matching to prevent unexpected results
- Bugfix: Update CSS for the Youtube thumbnail option to prevent issue with the Gutenberg embeds block
1.4.9
- Enhancement: Update lazyload script to the latest available version
- Enhancement: Use lazy-sizes to prevent W3C validation error when sizes is defined but srcset is not
- Enhancement: Parse images or iframes only if the element is selected to be lazyloaded in the options
- Fix: Prevent warning for lazyload+v in Google Search Console
- Fix: Prevent PHP Notice with WooCommerce for product images
1.4.8
- Notice: Minimum WordPress version required is now 4.7
- Enhancement: Update lazyload script version
- Enhancement: Remove placeholder image to improve perceived loading time
- Enhancement: Compatibility with Youtube privacy URL
- Enhancement: Update play image to match Youtube logo
- Enhancement: Support Youtube URL parameters
- Enhancement: Lazyload images displayed with wp_get_attachment_image(). /!\ no fallback if JavaScript is disabled
- Fix: Use the correct size set in srcset for the lazyloaded image
- Fix: Prevent Youtube thumbnail replacement on playlists
- Fix: Prevent iframe lazyload on AMP pages
- Fix: Correct text domain for translations (thanks @ Chantal Coolsma)
1.4.7
- Fix compatibility with infinite scroll
- Prevent lazyload on masterSlider images
1.4.6
- Correctly include version 8.5.2 of lazyload script
- Prevent 404 error on lazyload script if URL contains "-v"
1.4.5
- Rename Setting Page Name in WP Menu
- New Product Banner in Settings Page
- Conditionally load a different version of the script depending on browser support of IntersectionObserver
- Fix a bug where images initially hidden are not correctly displayed when coming into view (slider, tabs, accordion)
1.4.4
1.4.3
- Plugin is compatible again with PHP < 5.4
1.4.2
- Update lazyload script to bring back compatibility with IE9/10
1.4.1
- Fix bug caused by a too aggressive cleanup
1.4
- New option: replace Youtube videos by thumbnail. This option can improve your loading time a lot, especially if you have multiple videos on the same page
1.3.3
- 2017-09-16
- Prevent scripts and styles being removed during html parsing
1.3.2
- 2017-09-12
- Fix images not displaying in certain conditions because image attributes exclusion was not working correctly
1.3.1
- 2017-09-07
- Don't apply lazyload on Divi slider
1.3
- 2017-09-01
- Improve HTML parsing of images and iframes to be faster and more efficient
- Make the lazyload compatible with fitVids for iframes
- Don't apply lazyload on AMP pages (compatible with AMP plugin from Automattic)
- Use about:blank as default iframe placeholder to prevent warning in browser console
- Don't apply lazyload on upPrev thumbnail
1.2.1
- 2017-08-22
- Fix missing lazyload script
- Don't lazyload for images in REST API requests
1.2
- 2017-08-22
- Update lazyload script to latest version
- Change the way the script is loaded
1.1.1
- 2017-02-13
- Bug fix: Remove use of short tag to prevent 500 error on some installations
1.1
- 2017-02-12
- New
- JS library updated
- Support for iFrame
- Support for srcset and sizes
- New options page
1.0.4
- 2015-04-28
- Bug Fix: Resolved a conflict between LazyLoad & Emoji since WordPress 4.2
1.0.3
- 2015-01-08
- Bug Fix: Don't apply LazyLoad on captcha from Really Simple CAPTCHA to prevent conflicts.
1.0.2
- 2014-12-28
- Improvement: Add « rocket_lazyload_html » filter to manage the output that will be printed.
1.0.1.1
- 2014-07-25
- Fix stupid error with new regex in 1.0.1
1.0.1
- 2014-07-16
- Bug Fix: when a IMG tag or content (widget or post) contains the string "data-no-lazy", all IMG tags were ignored instead of one.
- Security fix: The preg_replace() could lead to a XSS vuln, thanks to Alexander Concha
- Code compliance
1.0
- 2014-01-01
- Initial release.