PageSpeed Extension

The MainWP Page Speed Extension seamlessly integrates with the Google Pagespeed Insights for WordPress plugin, enabling you to monitor your child site performances directly from your MainWP Dashboard.

The extension shows you the average speed score for each of your child sites by calculating the average load time of your Pages, Posts, and Categories and showing you tips and tricks to increase that score.

The Speed monitor will be visible on both your Sites list and in your Extension settings page utilizing a widget that is added to your Main and Individual sites Dashboards ensuring you access to the information.

Important Notes

The MainWP Page Speed extension requires the Google Pagespeed Insights for WordPress plugin to be installed and activated on your child sites.

The extension is not designed nor fully tested with the Agency version of the Google Pagespeed Insights for WordPress plugin.

Install and Set the MainWP Page Speed Extension

Installation of the MainWP Page Speed Extension requires two important steps:

• Installing the Extension itself on your MainWP Dashboard site
• Installing the Google Page Speed Insights for WordPress plugin on Child Sites

Installing the Extension

The MainWP Page Speed Checker Extension needs to be installed only on your MainWP Dashboard site. You can install it as any other MainWP Extension.

Installing the Plugin

For the proper use of the MainWP Page Speed Extension, you need to install the Google Page Speed Insights for WordPress Plugin on your child sites.

Install from MainWP Dashboard

1. Login in to your MainWP Dashboard
2. Go to the MainWP > Plugins > Install page
3. In the Search field, enter the plugin name (Google Page Speed Insights for WordPress )
4. Press enter on your keyboard.
5. After the search results appear, locate the plugin
6. Select the Install this Plugin option
7. Select your child sites
8. In the Installation Options box, make sure that the Activate after installation option is selected.
9. Click the button to complete the installation.
10. Once the installation is complete, Sync your MainWP Dashboard.

Install directly on Child Site

1. Login into your child site
2. Go to the WP > Plugins > Add New page
3. In the Search field, enter the plugin name (Google Page Speed Insights for WordPress)
4. After the search results appear, locate the plugin
5. Click the Install button
6. Click the Activate button

Important Note

After installing the Google Page Speed Insights for the WordPress plugin, it is required to Synchronize your sites so your MainWP Dashboard becomes aware that the plugin has been installed and activated.

Google Page Speed Dashboard

From the MainWP > Extensions > Page Speed > Dashboard page, you can monitor all your child sites where you have the Google PageSpeed plugin installed. In the sites list, you will be notified if the plugin has an update available or if the plugin is deactivated.

• In case the plugin is not activated, the Activate action will appear in the corresponding site row.
• If there is a new version of the plugin, the Update action will appear in the corresponding site row.

Available Actions

From the MainWP > Extensions > Page Speed > Dashboard page, you can hide/unhide the Page Speed plugin on your child sites, quickly access the plugin settings on a child site or the WP Admin section. Actions are provided in the actions menu.

Important Notes

If you know that you have the plugin installed on a child site, but the child site doesn’t appear in the list, try to re-sync your sites.

Page Speed Settings

Extension Settings

1. Login in to your MainWP Dashboard
2. Go to the MainWP > Extensions > Page Speed > Page Speed Settings page
3. Locate the MainWP Page Speed Extension Setting section
4. If you want the extension to alert you if page speed goes lower than you want it to
   1. Set the speed threshold
   2. Set how often you want to get notifications
   3. Click the Save Settings button

Page Speed Plugin Settings

The extension allows you to control a few important settings.

1. Login in to your MainWP Dashboard
2. Go to the MainWP > Extensions > Page Speed > Page Speed Settings page
3. Enter your Google API Key
4. Set the rest of the settings as per your preferences
5. Click the Save Settings button

Create the Google Pagespeed API Key

Google Pagespeed Insights requires a Google API Key. Keys are free and can be obtained from Google. To get a key, you will need a Google account, such as a Gmail account. If you do not already have a Google account, you can create one here: https://accounts.google.com/SignUp.

1. Navigate to https://code.google.com/apis/console
2. Log in with your Google Account (Create a Google account if you do not have one)
3. Click the “Create Project…” button.
4. You should now be looking at the “Services” page; if you are not, click “Services” from the menu on the left.
5. Scroll down the Services page until you find “PageSpeed Insights API.” Click the Switch to turn it on. You must agree to Google’s Terms and Conditions to continue.
6. After enabling the API, navigate to the “API Access” page from the left menu. Your API Key can be found under “Simple API Access.” Copy this key to your clipboard.
7. Paste this API Key into the Options page of Google Pagespeed Insights for WordPress

Common Issues With the Google Pagespeed Insights Plugin

I can’t see any reports in my MainWP Dashboard.

1. Access your childs site(s) and see if the plugin is generating reports properly. If yes, please try to sync your child sites and see if that helps. If the Google Pagespeed Insights plugin is not generating reports, check the common issues listed below.

I entered my API Key and saved the Options, but no Reports are showing up in the Report List.

1. Google Pagespeed needs to be able to load each page to create its report. Make sure that your pages are publicly accessible over the internet.
2. Ensure that your API key is entered correctly and that you have enabled the “PageSpeed Insights API” from the Google API Console.

Page report checks never finish all of the ways; I have to press “Save Options & Check Pages” repeatedly to get it to finish checking all of my pages.

1. If the reports seem to always run for a certain length of time before stopping unexpectedly, you may be exceeding your server’s Max Execution time. Try increasing the value in Options->Advanced Configuration “Maximum Execution Time.” Note: If PHP is running in safe mode, your Max Execution time cannot be changed from this option; you may need to contact your server administrator for further assistance.

Scheduled Events Not Occurring

MainWP Dashboard, by default, relies on a built-in WordPress file called wp-cron.php to trigger scheduled events. The wp-cron.php file is called each time your site is viewed and is sufficient in most cases. However, we suggest you install a fresh dedicated website for your Dashboard, which will probably get almost no traffic, which means your scheduled tasks may not be triggered on time.

Below are two options for automatically triggering your WP-Cron functions:

1. Have Uptime Robot trigger your WP-Cron by adding your MainWP Dashboard as a monitor
2. EasyCron.com has developed its tutorial for working with MainWP:
   1. How to set up a Cron job for MainWP?
   2. What Cron job setting shall I use?

Important Notes

If setting the WP-Cron triggers doesn’t help, ensure your MainWP Dashboard doesn’t have custom redirection rules that could redirect requests and prevent triggering the WP-Cron.

The cron job Check for available updates runs every minute to check if the process has been triggered and completed, but the actual process of checking for available updates runs once per day.