Question
Answer and Explanation
The question of whether to remove polyfills from WordPress is complex and depends heavily on your specific needs and the audience you're targeting. Here's a breakdown to help you decide:
What are Polyfills?
Polyfills are pieces of JavaScript code that provide modern functionality to older browsers that don't natively support them. They essentially "fill in" the gaps, allowing websites to use newer features without breaking on older browsers. WordPress often includes polyfills to ensure compatibility across a wide range of browsers.
Why Might You Consider Removing Polyfills?
1. Performance: Polyfills add extra JavaScript to your site, which can increase page load times, especially on slower connections or devices. Removing unnecessary polyfills can improve performance.
2. Code Bloat: Polyfills can contribute to code bloat, making your website's JavaScript bundle larger than necessary. This can impact performance and user experience.
3. Modern Browser Usage: If your website's analytics show that the vast majority of your users are on modern browsers, the need for polyfills diminishes. You might be serving code that is rarely used.
Why You Might NOT Want to Remove Polyfills?
1. Browser Compatibility: Removing polyfills can break your website for users on older browsers. This can lead to a poor user experience and potentially lost traffic.
2. Accessibility: Some older browsers are used by people with disabilities who rely on assistive technologies. Removing polyfills might make your site inaccessible to them.
3. Plugin and Theme Dependencies: Many WordPress plugins and themes rely on polyfills to function correctly. Removing them might cause unexpected errors or break functionality.
How to Approach Removing Polyfills:
1. Analyze Your Audience: Use analytics tools to understand the browsers your users are using. If a small percentage are on older browsers, you might consider removing some polyfills.
2. Test Thoroughly: If you decide to remove polyfills, test your website extensively on various browsers and devices to ensure everything still works as expected.
3. Use a Plugin: There are plugins available that allow you to selectively remove polyfills based on browser usage. This can be a safer approach than manually removing them.
4. Consider Conditional Loading: Instead of removing polyfills entirely, you could load them conditionally based on the user's browser. This can help balance performance and compatibility.
Conclusion:
Removing polyfills from WordPress can improve performance, but it's crucial to weigh the benefits against the potential risks of breaking your site for some users. If you have a modern audience and are confident in your testing, it might be a worthwhile optimization. However, for most websites, it's generally safer to keep polyfills or use a plugin to manage them intelligently.