To speed up a Divi website, start with Divi’s built-in Performance settings: enable Static CSS File Generation, defer jQuery to the footer, and turn on Critical CSS. Then add a caching plugin (WP Rocket or LiteSpeed Cache), enable Cloudflare, and compress your images. These five steps alone typically move a Divi site from a mobile PageSpeed score of 35–50 into the 70–80 range without touching a single line of code.
11 Ways to Speed Up Divi — The Short Version
- Enable Static CSS File Generation in Divi → Theme Options → Performance
- Enable Critical CSS — eliminates render-blocking stylesheet load
- Defer jQuery to footer — saves 150–400ms on mobile
- Disable unused Divi modules globally — cuts CSS payload significantly
- Host Google Fonts locally — eliminates external DNS lookup
- Use WP Rocket or LiteSpeed Cache — page caching, minification, lazy load
- Enable Cloudflare — free CDN, HTML caching, image optimization
- Compress all images to WebP — single largest performance gain available
- Reduce active plugin count — audit and remove anything redundant
- Upgrade to PHP 8.2+ — measurable server response time improvement
- Disable Divi’s Google Maps and Portfolio modules if you don’t use them
Divi has a performance reputation problem — and honestly, a fair chunk of it is deserved. A default Divi install on average shared hosting with a few plugins will score somewhere in the 30s on Google’s mobile PageSpeed test. That’s not a slight exaggeration. I’ve inherited client sites scoring 28.
But here’s the thing: Divi is not the unoptimizable disaster that developer-Twitter would have you believe. I’ve taken Divi sites from a 34 mobile score to an 83 without switching builders, without custom code heroics, and without spending money on premium hosting. These 11 fixes are in order of impact. Work through them sequentially and check your PageSpeed score after each group.
I’m testing on WordPress 6.7 with Divi 4.25, running on Cloudways Vultr High Frequency (2GB RAM), PHP 8.2, with WP Rocket 3.17 and Cloudflare free tier. Your numbers will differ based on your hosting, but the relative improvement from each fix is consistent.
Before We Start
My Baseline: What an Unoptimized Divi Site Actually Scores
I rebuilt a standard Divi site from scratch for this test: home page with hero section, three-column feature row, testimonials, image section, and a contact form. Stock Divi theme, Divi Builder, Contact Form 7, Yoast SEO, WooCommerce inactive. No caching, no CDN, no optimization whatsoever.
| Stage | Mobile PageSpeed | Desktop PageSpeed | LCP | Total Blocking Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raw Divi (no optimization) | 38 | 64 | 5.2s | 890ms |
| After Divi Performance Settings only | 57 | 76 | 3.4s | 540ms |
| After adding WP Rocket + Cloudflare | 71 | 89 | 2.1s | 280ms |
| After all 11 fixes (full stack) | 81 | 96 | 1.6s | 110ms |
Use Google PageSpeed Insights (pagespeed.web.dev) — this is what Google actually uses. GTmetrix and Pingdom measure different things and will show different numbers. Always test the mobile score specifically: that is the score that affects your Core Web Vitals and rankings.
The Fixes
11 Fixes to Speed Up Your Divi Website
Enable Static CSS File Generation in Divi Performance Settings
Impact: High · Divi-specific
This is the single most impactful Divi-specific fix. By default, Divi generates your CSS dynamically on every page load. Enabling Static CSS File Generation tells Divi to generate that stylesheet once and serve a physical cached file.
How to enable it: Divi → Theme Options → General → Performance → Static CSS File Generation → Enable.
When you make design changes, click Clear All Cached Files in the same Performance menu.
Host Google Fonts Locally
Eliminate external DNS lookups by serving fonts from your own server.
/* Load local fonts in child theme functions.php */
function toptut_local_fonts() {
wp_enqueue_style(
'local-opensans',
get_stylesheet_directory_uri() . '/fonts/opensans.css',
array(),
'1.0'
);
}
add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'toptut_local_fonts' );
Disable Unused Icon Font Loading
If not using Divi icons, add this to your child theme’s functions.php:
/* Dequeue Divi icon fonts if not in use */
function toptut_dequeue_divi_icons() {
if ( ! is_admin() ) {
wp_dequeue_style( 'et-icons-all' );
wp_dequeue_style( 'et-icons-free' );
wp_dequeue_style( 'et-icons-meta' );
}
}
add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'toptut_dequeue_divi_icons', 20 );
Generate Custom Divi CSS Without Writing It By Hand
Our free Divi CSS Snippet Generator outputs copy-paste ready CSS for buttons and headers.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
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