What exactly does Smart LazyLoad defer?

Images in post and page content, featured images, widget images, comments, avatars, and smilies, plus sources, inline background images, iframes (YouTube, Vimeo, and others), and native elements. Turn on Full-Page Lazy Loading and anything your theme's templates output directly is covered too. Each content type has its own on/off toggle, so you decide what applies.

by Jumedeen khan 5 (5 reviews)

Smart LazyLoad – Lazy Load Images, Videos and Iframes

Name: Smart LazyLoad – Lazy Load Images, Videos and Iframes
Rating: 5.0 (5 reviews)
Author: Jumedeen khan

The best lazy load plugin for WordPress. Lazy loading images, videos, and iframes to improve page speed, performance, and Core Web Vitals scores.

Smart LazyLoad ranks #10,315 among WordPress.org plugins with 300+ active installations, is #1,134 of 6,352 in the Media category, a 5/5 rating from 5 reviews, and was last updated Sep 7, 2026. Data from WordPress.org, refreshed twice daily — see methodology.

Compatible with WP 7.1

v3.0.0 Current Version v3.0.0

Updated 2 weeks ago Last Update on 07 Sep, 2026

Refreshed 7 hours ago Last Refreshed on

#1,134 of 6,352 in Media Top 25% by installs Downloads -54.3% this week Actively maintained

View on WordPress.org

Rank

#10,315

+66 this week

Active Installs

300+

-19.8%

KW Avg Position

25.5

0.5 better

Downloads

13.9K

+16 today

Support Resolved

— No change

Rating

100%

Review 5 out of 5

5 (5 reviews)

Next Milestone 400

Total Progress 39%

300+ 400+

1,561

Ranks to Climb

Growth Needed

8,000,000

Active Installs

Pro

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Rank Changes

Current #10,315

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Active Installs Growth

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Active Installs 0,000,000+

Growth +0.0%

Peak 0,000,000

Downloads Growth

Downloads

Growth

Peak

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Reviews & Ratings

5.0

5 reviews

Overall 100%

5 (100%)

0 (0%)

Security History

Source: WPVulnerability

No known vulnerabilities on record for Smart LazyLoad. Checked 1 month ago.

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Plugin Details

Version: 3.0.0
Last Updated: Sep 07, 2026
Requires WP: 5.8+
Tested Up To: 7.1
PHP Version: 7.4 or higher
Author: Jumedeen khan

Support & Rating

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5
Reviews: 5
Support Threads: 0
Resolved: 0%

Keywords

Lazy Loading lazy load lazy load images lazyload performance

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TL;DR

AI summary of the plugin's readme

This plugin is for WordPress site owners who want to speed up their pages without adding jQuery or extra bloat. It solves slow page loads and poor Core Web Vitals scores by deferring the loading of images, videos, iframes, and background images until they are near the viewport.

Lazy load images in posts, pages, widgets
Lazy load iframes and embedded videos
Lazy load background images
YouTube iframe replacement with thumbnails
First-image skipping for LCP
Native browser lazy loading support
Inline plugin CSS and JavaScript
Disable lazy loading for logged-in users

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about Smart LazyLoad – Lazy Load Images, Videos and Iframes

Images in post and page content, featured images, widget images, comments, avatars, and smilies, plus <picture> sources, inline background images, iframes (YouTube, Vimeo, and others), and native <video> elements. Turn on Full-Page Lazy Loading and anything your theme's templates output directly is covered too. Each content type has its own on/off toggle, so you decide what applies.

Most lazy load plugins stop at <img> tags. Smart LazyLoad also handles background images, <picture> responsive sources, videos, and iframes, and adds a second layer of control on top of the usual site-wide switch: a per-post override that lets a single page behave differently from the rest of the site.

Yes, safely: on any page served through the AMP plugin, Smart LazyLoad detects the AMP endpoint and skips lazy loading entirely — including its scripts and styles — since AMP's markup rules don't allow the attributes lazy loading needs. Non-AMP pages are unaffected.

Open that post or page in the editor and find the Smart LazyLoad panel in the sidebar. Set the Lazy Load dropdown to Enable to force lazy loading on for that post only, or Disable to force it off — either way, every other post keeps following the site-wide Master Switch untouched.

No. Every other option on the settings page is dimmed and can't be edited while the Master Switch is off, but its saved value is untouched. Turn the Master Switch back on and your previous configuration is exactly as you left it.

Add any of these to the element: no-lazyload, skip-lazy, data-no-lazyload, data-no-lazy, or data-skip-lazy. An element already marked loading="eager" or fetchpriority="high" is left alone too, so the hints you use for your LCP image keep working. For your own CSS classes, list them under Settings → LazyLoad → Custom Exclude Selectors — one per line, or separated by commas. The leading dot is optional, so .site-logo and site-logo both work. A class only counts when it matches in full, so .hero never accidentally excludes hero-thumbnail.

Yes. add_filter( 'smart_lazyload_enabled', '__return_false' ); Or conditionally, for example only on single posts: add_action( 'wp', function () { if ( is_single() ) { add_filter( 'smart_lazyload_enabled', '__return_false' ); } } );

Yes, in two ways. Automatically, for any element carrying an inline background: <div style="background-image:url(photo.jpg)"></div> Or manually, by writing the plugin's own markup yourself: <div class="smart-background" data-bg="photo.jpg"></div> Use a plain URL in data-bg — no url(...) wrapper and no quotes. Either way the background is restored automatically for visitors with JavaScript turned off. Only a background made of one plain url() is deferred. Gradients, image-set(), and multi-layer backgrounds are left exactly as you wrote them, so a value that can't be rebuilt safely is never taken apart.

Yes. Every <source> inside a <picture> element has its srcset/sizes deferred in sync with the fallback <img>. The browser still decides which source to use based on format and viewport — Smart LazyLoad only changes when the chosen source loads.

No. A deferred image is held open by a placeholder cut to that image's exact width and height, so the space is reserved from the first paint and nothing moves when the real image arrives.