Jan Hoek

<p>Vital Video is a WordPress block plugin designed to improve Core Web Vitals performance when displaying YouTube videos.</p>
<p>Instead of traditional embedding, it provides a lightweight, performance-optimized solution that first loads a clickable video thumbnail.</p>
<p>The Vital Video Block doesn’t play videos in the WordPress editor. It’s designed to prioritize performance and user experience on your frontend. To test video behavior, simply preview your post or page.</p>
<h3>Features</h3>
<ul>
<li>Performance-first YouTube video display.  </li>
<li>Automatic video thumbnail and title retrieval.  </li>
<li>WebP image support for faster image loading.  </li>
<li>Customizable aspect ratios (4:3 and 16:9).  </li>
<li>Displays the video title in the image.  </li>
<li>Multiple thumbnail quality options.  </li>
<li>Minimal initial page load impact.  </li>
<li>Option to disable WebP images if unavailable.  </li>
<li>Advanced video playback controls.  </li>
<li>Uses YouTube’s no-cookie thumbnail service.  </li>
<li>Respects modern browser autoplay policies.  </li>
<li>Alt text matches the video title.</li>
<li>Thumbnail dimensions set based on selected image size:
<ul>
<li>HQ (480×320): Default size  </li>
<li>SD (640×480): Standard size  </li>
<li>MAX (1280×720): Highest available resolution</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>Vital Video Settings</h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>Aspect Ratio</strong>: Choose between 16:9 and 4:3.  </li>
<li><strong>Mute Toggle</strong>: Control video playback behavior.  </li>
<li><strong>Thumbnail Quality</strong>: Select from High, Standard, or Maximum resolution.  </li>
<li><strong>Disable WebP</strong>: Turn off WebP usage if unavailable.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Mute Toggle</h3>
<p>The Mute Toggle feature is designed primarily for mobile devices, adhering to browser autoplay policies.</p>
<p><strong>Mute Toggle Off (Sound On):</strong></p>
<p>Videos require two clicks to start playing:</p>
<ol>
<li>The first click loads the video.  </li>
<li>The second click begins playback. Ideal for maintaining user control and preventing unexpected audio.</li>
</ol>
<p><strong>Mute Toggle On (Sound Off):</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Videos play with a single click.  </li>
<li>Automatically starts muted.  </li>
<li>Perfect for situations where immediate video playback is desired.  </li>
<li>Complies with browser autoplay restrictions.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Disable WebP Images</h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>WebP is enabled by default.</strong> Most thumbnails will use the WebP format.  </li>
<li>However, if you encounter a dummy placeholder image, try selecting a different thumbnail size to see if another WebP version exists.  </li>
<li>If no WebP images are available, you can enable the “Disable WebP Images” option as a last resort. This – will use fallback formats like JPG instead.</li>
</ul>
<p><em>Only use “Disable WebP Images” when absolutely necessary!</em></p>
<h3>External Services</h3>
<p>This plugin connects to YouTube’s services to embed videos and retrieve video information:</p>
<p><strong>YouTube Video Service:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>The plugin connects to YouTube’s embed service (youtube-nocookie.com) to display videos</li>
<li>When a video is played, it loads the video player from YouTube’s servers</li>
<li>YouTube’s terms of service: https://www.youtube.com/static?template=terms</li>
<li>YouTube’s privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>YouTube oEmbed API:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Used to fetch video titles when adding videos to your content</li>
<li>Sends the YouTube video ID to retrieve the video title</li>
<li>API documentation: https://developers.google.com/youtube/v3/docs/videos</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>YouTube Thumbnail Service:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Retrieves video thumbnail images from i.ytimg.com</li>
<li>Only loads thumbnails for videos you’ve embedded</li>
<li>No personal data is sent to this service</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> This plugin uses YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode by default, which helps protect your visitors’ privacy by not setting cookies until the video is played.</p>
<h3>Contributing</h3>
<p>Contributions are welcome! You can support Vital Video in various ways:</p>
<ul>
<li>Write about the plugin on your blog or share it on social media.  </li>
<li><a href="https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/vital-video-block/" rel="nofollow ugc">Translate the plugin into your language</a> using your WordPress.org account.  </li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/vital-video-block/reviews/#new-post" rel="ugc">Review the plugin here on WordPress.org</a>.</li>
</ul>


Vital Video Block

A YouTube block optimized for performance, allowing you to embed YouTube videos without harming your Core Web Vitals.

Gunjan Jaswal

<p>FetchPriority Featured Image is a lightweight plugin that automatically adds the <code>fetchpriority="high"</code> attribute to featured images on your WordPress site. This helps browsers prioritize the loading of these important images, improving your site’s performance and Core Web Vitals scores.</p>
<h4>Key Features</h4>
<ul>
<li>Automatically adds <code>fetchpriority="high"</code> to the hero / featured image</li>
<li>Optional <code>fetchpriority="low"</code> for below-fold images — paired complement that tells the browser to defer non-critical loads</li>
<li><code><link rel="preload" as="image"></code> for the hero featured image on singular pages — strongest LCP signal</li>
<li>AVIF / WebP detection — when a sibling <code>.avif</code> / <code>.webp</code> file exists on disk, an extra <code><link rel="preload" type="image/avif|image/webp"></code> is emitted so the browser picks the supported modern format automatically (works with ShortPixel, Imagify, Optimole, and similar)</li>
<li>Theme presets — auto-detects Astra, GeneratePress, Kadence, Divi, and Hello Elementor and excludes their site-logo / header-image classes so the priority budget is spent on the real hero</li>
<li>Avatar / Gravatar exclusion — never tags images with class <code>avatar</code> / <code>gravatar</code> or hosted on gravatar.com</li>
<li>Settings page (Settings <span aria-hidden="true" class="wp-exclude-emoji">→</span> FetchPriority) for per-context toggles, first-N control, preload, and exclusions</li>
<li>Admin-bar debug badge showing how many images were tagged on the current page (total + how many got <code>high</code>)</li>
<li>Compatible with most WordPress themes including Divi, Elementor, Astra, GeneratePress, Kadence, and any theme using standard <code>the_post_thumbnail()</code> / <code>wp_get_attachment_image()</code></li>
</ul>
<h4>Why Use FetchPriority?</h4>
<p>The <code>fetchpriority</code> attribute is a modern web standard that tells browsers which images should be prioritized during page load. By marking featured images as high priority, you can improve:</p>
<ul>
<li>Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) scores</li>
<li>User experience with faster loading of important images</li>
<li>Overall page performance</li>
</ul>
<h4>Developer-Friendly</h4>
<p>The plugin uses WordPress’s native filters and doesn’t modify your database or image files.</p>


FetchPriority Featured Image

Automatically adds fetchpriority="high" attribute to featured images to improve page loading performance and Core Web Vitals.

Vital Video Block vs FetchPriority Featured Image