Why it matters
Each link in the chain is a round-trip on a mobile connection. Long chains delay First Contentful Paint and LCP.
How to fix it in WordPress
- Add preconnect hints for the third-party domains your page needs early (for example your CDN or font host).
- Preload the one or two fonts used above the fold.
- Remove @import rules from your theme CSS — they create chains.
- Reduce the number of separate CSS files with your optimization plugin.
Plugin-specific steps
Already using one of these plugins? Follow the exact steps for your setup.
Perfmatters
- 1Go to Settings → Perfmatters → Preloading.
- 2Under 'Preconnect', add the origins from Maki's report (e.g. your CDN domain). Check 'crossorigin' for font domains.
- 3Under 'Preload', add your main above-the-fold font file (.woff2) as type 'font'.
- 4Save and clear your cache.
LiteSpeed Cache
- 1Go to LiteSpeed Cache → Page Optimization → HTML Settings.
- 2Add the third-party domains to 'DNS Preconnect'.
- 3Save and purge all caches.
Autoptimize
- 1Go to Settings → Autoptimize → Extra.
- 2Add the domains to 'Preconnect to 3rd party domains'.
- 3Add your main font file URL to 'Preload specific requests'.
- 4Save and empty the cache.
How to verify the fix
- Run Maki again — the 'Network dependency tree' insight should show a shorter longest chain.
Be careful
- Only preconnect to 2–4 domains and preload 1–2 files. Too many hints compete with each other and make things slower.
