Cloudflare Apps are a lot like WordPress plugins. Each App adds specific functionality to my website. Like plugins, Apps are available in multiple categories such as SEO, Security, Social & Communication, etc. Another similarity – some Apps are free, some are not.
I chose my web host carefully. My sites are hosted on a LiteSpeed web server, so I am able to use the remarkable free LiteSpeed Cache (LSC) plugin. LSC provides much more than just lightning-fast server-side caching. In also includes a suite of optimization tools such as: Database optimization; Image optimization – which seems to be equal to or better than the paid/premium versions of competing plugins; Connection to Cloudflare so I can put CF in development mode or purge the CF cache; and Miscellaneous settings like ‘Remove query strings from static resources’.
Using my two favorite website speed checkers, WebPageTest.org and GiftOfSpeed.com …
When researching WP security, I come across a number of suggested additions to my child theme’s functions.php file. Examples include code to disable login hints, and to remove WordPress version information from metadata. These are helpful suggestions, but … is the functions.php file really the best place for these changes? My child theme should address theme-related changes, not general security issues. If I put these changes into functions.php, then at some point switch to a new theme, the changes would be lost.
Better to implement these changes in a custom WP security plugin.
