Polyfills are JavaScript code snippets that help modern features work on older browsers by “filling in” for missing functionalities. In WordPress, polyfills ensure compatibility with browsers that don’t support certain modern features. However, with the rise of evergreen browsers (those that update automatically), the need for polyfills has reduced. As a WordPress site owner, you may wonder, Should you remove polyfill from WordPress for better performance?
In this blog post, we’ll explore what polyfills are, their role in WordPress, and whether removing them is beneficial. We’ll also consider performance, compatibility, and user experience to help you decide if polyfill removal is the right step for your WordPress site.
What Are Polyfills?
Polyfills are a kind of JavaScript that ensures modern web features are available across different browsers. Think of polyfills as a fallback solution that helps older browsers understand and execute modern code.
For example, newer JavaScript methods like Array.prototype.includes() may not work in older versions of Internet Explorer (IE), so a polyfill would add this method to the browser environment, allowing your website to function correctly.
In WordPress, polyfills are included to guarantee your site works even on browsers that don’t support the latest web standards.
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Why Does WordPress Use Polyfills?
WordPress powers a significant portion of websites globally, meaning it needs to work across many different browsers, including older ones. To maintain compatibility, WordPress adds polyfills for certain features that may not be supported by all browsers, ensuring every visitor has a seamless experience, no matter what browser they are using.
Polyfills are especially important when you have a diverse audience with users who may not always update their browsers to the latest versions.
Example of Polyfill Use in WordPress
One of the common polyfills in WordPress is for the HTML5 shim. This polyfill ensures that HTML5 elements like <article>, <section>, and <header> work correctly in older versions of Internet Explorer.
The Case for Removing Polyfills
With the increasing use of evergreen browsers like Google Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge, the necessity for polyfills has decreased. These browsers update automatically, meaning they are always up-to-date with the latest standards. This shift reduces the need for fallback support for older browsers.
Removing polyfills can lead to several benefits:
1. Improved Performance
Polyfills add extra JavaScript code to your site, which can slow down page load times. Even though modern browsers don’t need these polyfills, the code still gets sent to every browser that accesses your site. Removing unnecessary polyfills can streamline your code, making your site load faster.
2. Reduced Complexity
When fewer polyfills are in use, there’s less code to maintain and troubleshoot. This reduces the complexity of your site and makes it easier to manage.
3. Decreased File Size
By removing polyfills, you can reduce the overall size of your site’s files, particularly JavaScript files. This will decrease the amount of data users need to download, improving the overall user experience, especially for those on slower internet connections.
The Case Against Removing Polyfills
Despite the benefits of removing polyfills, there are risks involved, especially if your site has a diverse audience that might include users on older browsers. Here are a few reasons you might want to keep them:
1. Browser Compatibility
While most users are on modern browsers, some may still be using outdated versions of browsers like Internet Explorer. Removing polyfills could lead to a broken or incomplete user experience for these visitors. If you serve a global audience where older browsers are still common, removing polyfills might be too risky.
2. Functionality Issues
Certain key functionalities of your WordPress site may rely on polyfills to work properly in older browsers. Features like form validation, JavaScript-powered animations, or even essential page navigation might break if polyfills are removed and a user’s browser doesn’t support certain features.
3. SEO Impact
If removing polyfills breaks functionality on older browsers, it could indirectly impact your SEO. Poor user experience, higher bounce rates, or inaccessible content could lead to negative rankings in search engines. Google places a high emphasis on user experience and page speed, and any issues caused by missing polyfills could hurt your search performance.
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Steps to Remove Polyfills from WordPress
If you’ve weighed the pros and cons and are ready to remove polyfills, follow these steps carefully:
Test Your Audience’s Browser Use Before removing polyfills, analyze your audience using Google Analytics or another tool to determine which browsers are most commonly used to access your site. If the majority of your users are on evergreen browsers, it may be safe to proceed.
Test in a Staging Environment Before making any changes on your live site, test the removal of polyfills in a staging environment. Use tools like BrowserStack to simulate older browsers and ensure the site still functions correctly.
Edit the Functions File To remove polyfills, you’ll need to deregister the relevant scripts from your theme’s functions.php file. For example, to remove the HTML5 shim, you could add the following code:
Monitor Site Performance and Compatibility After removing polyfills, monitor your site for performance improvements and potential compatibility issues. Check Google Search Console for any SEO or usability errors.
Should You Remove Polyfill?
The decision to remove polyfills depends largely on your audience. If your visitors mostly use modern browsers, removing polyfills can improve performance and reduce file sizes. However, if a significant portion of your audience is still on older browsers, removing polyfills could lead to broken functionality, a poor user experience, and even potential SEO issues.
Here’s a quick checklist to help guide your decision:
- Do most of your users access your site with modern, evergreen browsers?
Yes → Consider removing polyfills.
No → Keep the polyfills for compatibility. - Is page speed and performance a priority?
Yes → Removing polyfills can help. - Is ensuring accessibility for older browsers important to your audience?
Yes → Keep the polyfills.
Ultimately, the decision should be based on a careful balance between performance and compatibility. Regularly review your site’s analytics and make changes as necessary to keep your WordPress site running smoothly while serving the broadest possible audience.
Final Thought On Should You Remove Polyfill from WordPress
Polyfills play an essential role in ensuring older browsers can run modern WordPress websites, but they may not be as necessary as they once were. Removing them can lead to improved performance, faster load times, and reduced file sizes—but only if your audience no longer relies on outdated browsers. Analyze your site’s visitors, test changes in a controlled environment, and monitor performance and compatibility before making a final decision.
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