There are some occasions where automated tools such as Semrush, Rank Math, and others can return a “false-positive” error where pages or certain resources may appear unoptimized, while in reality, they are.
This article aims to show some common reasons for such “false-positive” reports, along with steps to verify them properly.
❗Double-check the report
It is often possible that the tool has checked a page that has not been optimized yet by NitroPack, or for some reason, our optimization was not served.
The first step is to check whether the reported files originate from our CDN.
An example report may look like this:
On the left side, you can see the page URL they’ve checked, followed by the unminified file paths that they’ve found.
Files served from our CDN would be coming from a domain name such as cdn-xxxx.nitrocdn.com.
If you see that the files have not been served from our CDN, proceed by exploring the most common reasons and solutions ⬇️
1. Site is not fully optimized
A common reason why you may receive a report that indicates different URLs need improvement is that tools such as Semrush scan the entirety of your website.
If you notice that your report contains a large number of URLs that require optimization, you can verify if NitroPack is currently configured to automatically optimize your website pages.
To do so, login to your NitroPack dashboard, navigate to the Cache Insights tab, and check if you have configured your Sitemap XML (only available for paid plans).
If a Sitemap XML file is not configured and only the Standard method is selected instead, there is a good chance that many pages need to be optimized due to NitroPack waiting for an organic visit to occur.
The "Standard" method reference allows up to second-level URLs to be detected – basically, only pages directly referenced on your website’s homepage.
If a Sitemap XML file is configured, ensure all page URLs are indeed added to it - this can be done either by reviewing the Sitemap file manually or by checking the relevant settings in the plugin used to generate it.
Lastly, check your NitroPack plugin/extension settings. Ensure all page types are enabled for optimization and that NitroPack is not skipping certain types.
For example, in our WordPress plugin:
Another step you can take is to check whether the reported pages have been optimized via our Cache Insights tab:
2. Excluded resources
If you have confirmed a page has, in fact, been optimized and resources are served from NitroPack’s CDN, and still get reports for unminified files – they might have been excluded from optimization.
To check whether there are any excluded resources, go to the Cache Settings > Cache and see the “Excluded Resources” feature.
If there are any files in the list there – that would explain why they are not optimized.
You can check with our Support team if there is a way to preserve the exclusions while the files are hosted on our CDN and minified.
3. Unminified files
There are some cases where a tool can report that CSS or JavaScript files are not minified, even though the pages are optimized.
In such cases, follow the steps below to ensure NitroPack is minifying resources.
1. Open the page you wish to check in your browser.
2. Right-click on the page and select Inspect. This will open your browser inspector.
The other way to access the inspector is by going to View > Developer > Developer Tools in the Chrome menu bar.
3. Go to the Network tab and sort the resources with the type of resource you wish to inspect (CSS or JavaScript).
If the resource contains “nitro-min” in its name, it has been properly minified by NitroPack.
If the name contains only the file name, then the resource has not been minified by NitroPack.
If the resources are not minified, and you’ve verified that there are no Excluded Resources, you should also check whether the Minify resources feature is enabled in NitroPack.
If everything looks good, we suggest running a new report in Semrush, Rank Math, or а similar service you used.
📌 If you need any assistance or have questions, you can always reach out to our support team at [email protected] or via this link: https://support.nitropack.io