Our Strong mode has advanced resource loading features, which the Standard and Medium configurations don’t.

These features give your website a speed boost, without delaying resources. This makes the Strong mode more stable, but not as fast as the Ludicrous mode.

The Ludicrous mode takes things a step further. It’s designed to delay JS scripts and prioritize the HTML and CSS.

That way, your visitors can instantly see content, even before the page becomes interactive (i.e., before the JS is processed). That’s why the Ludicrous mode produces the highest possible page speed results.

The Ludicrous mode can be suboptimal for some JS-heavy websites. Here’s a quick check you can perform to see how your website would handle this mode.

You can quickly see how much your website relies on JS with Chrome’s DevTools.

Open your website in Chrome, right-click and select “Inspect.”

From there, click on “Customize and control DevTools” (the three small dots next to the “Settings” button) and select “Run command.”

When the new field appears, type in “JavaScript” and select “Disable JavaScript.”

Now, when you refresh your page, you’ll see how it looks without the JS.

If your website looks fine without JS, you’re okay to use the Ludicrous mode.

If some crucial elements disappear without the JS code, you should run a quick test to see if this mode is right for you. Check out this article to see how you can easily do that.

Now, let's take a look at two examples that illustrate what you can look for.

This is the Yahoo News homepage with all the JS enabled:

And this is the same page without the JS:

The only difference is the missing ad. All the vital elements - the featured story and the main articles - are there.

This website can make great use of our Ludicrous mode. The ad might load a bit slower because it’s generated via JS. But the main content will load lightning fast because it’s generated entirely with HTML and CSS.

On the other hand, look at what happens to YouTube when you disable the JS:

All of YouTube’s video recommendations are based on things like the user’s location and preferences. Without JS, the website can’t generate these recommendations.

Now, in YouTube's case, all that JS not only provides functionality but also creates an amazing, personalized experience.

But this is more of an exception than a rule. Most websites use JS for things that can easily be achieved with only HTML and CSS.

If your website relies heavily on JS and your test with the Ludicrous mode wasn’t successful, use our Strong mode.

It still provides great results, without being as aggressive as the Ludicrous mode.

Now, if you absolutely must use Ludicrous, get a tech expert to work on your website’s code. In some cases, only a few changes to the code might be required.

For example, some websites use JS to serve images and videos when they could easily use HTML and CSS instead. Other websites might have an unnecessary slider, generated with JS. In both cases, a few minor tweaks can reduce the excessive JS usage.

Other websites don’t have an easy solution to this issue.

For instance, some WordPress themes and plugins have a ton of JS baked into them. In these cases, changing the entire website theme (or the plugin) would usually be the only way to safely use the Ludicrous mode.

Regardless of the situation, always work with a tech expert on these types of problems.

Even if it turns out that your website isn’t right for the Ludicrous mode (as some websites inevitably will be), don’t worry about it. Our Strong mode can still vastly improve your page speed results.