How can I remove jquery from the frontside of my WordPress?

How to remove jQuery from the front side of your WordPress site 😎

Is your WordPress website taking forever to load? Do you notice unnecessary jQuery scripts being included on the front end? We feel your pain! But don't worry, we've got you covered. In this blog post, we'll address this common issue and provide you with some easy solutions to remove jQuery from the front side of your WordPress site.

Identifying the problem

Before diving into the solutions, let's quickly understand what's going on here. When you visit your website's front end and inspect the code using browser tools like Firebug or Chrome DevTools, you might come across references to jQuery files like jquery.js?ver=1.3.2 and jquery.form.js?ver=2.02m. These files are unnecessarily being included, causing your site to load slower than necessary.

The solution

To remove jQuery from the front side while keeping it intact on the back end, follow these steps:

1. Locate the wp-includes/script-loader.php file in your WordPress installation.

2. Open the file using a code editor.

3. Look for the code block that loads the jQuery files. It might look something like this:

   // Load jQuery if ( !wp_script_is( 'jquery', 'queue' ) ) { wp_enqueue_script( 'jquery' ); }

4. To remove jQuery from the front side, you'll need to comment out (or, in other words, disable) the code that loads these files. You can do this by adding two forward slashes (//) at the beginning of each line, like this:

   // Load jQuery // if ( !wp_script_is( 'jquery', 'queue' ) ) { // wp_enqueue_script( 'jquery' ); // }

5. Save the changes and upload the modified script-loader.php file back to your WordPress installation.

That's it! You've successfully removed jQuery from the front side of your WordPress site, improving its loading speed without affecting the back end.

A word of caution

While the solution provided above is effective, it's important to note that modifying core WordPress files can have implications for future updates. Whenever WordPress releases a new version, it might overwrite the changes you made to script-loader.php. Therefore, it's recommended to keep a backup of the modified file and reapply the changes after updating WordPress.

Let's engage! ✨

We hope this guide helped you remove jQuery from the front side of your WordPress site. If you have any questions or need further assistance, feel free to leave a comment below. We'd love to hear from you!

Also, don't forget to share this article with your fellow WordPress enthusiasts who might be facing the same issue. Together, we can make the web a faster place! 💪

Happy coding! 👩‍💻👨‍💻