How to Remove Render-Blocking Fonts in WordPress (Ultimate 2025 Guide)

Render-blocking fonts are one of the most common reasons WordPress websites fail to achieve a 90+ PageSpeed score, especially on mobile. If you’re seeing warnings like:

• Eliminate render-blocking resources

• Ensure text remains visible during webfont load

• Preload key requests

• Reduce the impact of third-party fonts

…then your fonts — especially Google Fonts — are slowing down your First Contentful Paint (FCP) and Largest Contentful Paint (LCP).

In this detailed guide, I’ll show you exactly how to remove render-blocking fonts in WordPress, fix your Core Web Vitals, and make your site load instantly without breaking your design.

This guide is based on real-world performance optimization for WordPress websites, including WooCommerce stores, page builders (Elementor, Divi, WPBakery), blogs, and custom themes.

Let’s begin.

What Are Render-Blocking Fonts in WordPress?

When your site loads, the browser stops rendering the page until font files are downloaded. These are usually:

• Google Fonts (Roboto, Poppins, Open Sans, Montserrat)

• Custom font files (WOFF2, TTF, OTF)

• Icon fonts (Font Awesome, Elementor icons)

Because fonts load early in the process, the browser treats them as critical render resources, which delays:

• FCP (First Contentful Paint)

• LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)

• CLS (if fonts swap late)

• Time to Interactive

Why does it happen?

Because fonts are usually loaded through:

This <link> tag blocks the page until the font file is downloaded.

Even local fonts can block rendering if loaded incorrectly.

Why You Must Remove Render-Blocking Fonts (SEO Reason)

In 2025, Google’s Core Web Vitals algorithm focuses heavily on:

• FCP

• LCP

• CLS

• INP (Interaction to Next Paint)

Fonts directly affect all four metrics.

Websites with optimized fonts load:

• 25–40% faster

• Higher on mobile rankings

• Better conversion and retention rates

Google specifically recommends:

• Preloading font files

• Using font-display: swap

• Serving fonts locally

• Reducing font weight requests

So fixing render-blocking fonts isn’t optional — it’s required if you want traffic.

How to Check If Fonts Are Render-Blocking

Use any of these tools:

1. PageSpeed Insights

You’ll see warnings like:

• Eliminate render-blocking resources

• Preload key requests

• Ensure text remains visible during webfont load

2. GTmetrix

Look for:

• “Blocking time caused by fonts”

• “Webfont loading impact”

3. Chrome DevTools → Network → Fonts

You can clearly see which fonts load first (blocking) and which load late (causing CLS).

Methods to Remove Render-Blocking Fonts in WordPress

Below are 8 proven methods that work for all themes, builders, and hosting environments.

Use as many as needed — but method #1 and #2 are mandatory.

1. Host Google Fonts Locally (Best Practice)

External Google Fonts create extra DNS lookup, TLS handshake, and render-blocking CSS calls.

Hosting fonts locally:

• Removes external requests

• Improves speed

• Prevents GDPR issues (EU requirement)

• Gives more control over caching

How to host Google Fonts locally using OMGF plugin (easy)

1. Install OMGF – Host Google Fonts Locally

2. Go to Settings → Optimize Google Fonts

3. Click “Scan for Google Fonts”

4. Click “Download & Use Locally”

5. Save settings

OMGF automatically:
✔ Downloads fonts
✔ Generates local files
✔ Adds preloads
✔ Removes render-blocking calls

Host fonts locally manually (advanced)

Download fonts from Google Webfonts Helper:

https://google-webfonts-helper.herokuapp.com

Add CSS:

Add this to your functions.php:

This instantly removes render-blocking external font requests.

2. Add font-display: swap (Prevents invisible text)

Google recommends using:

This prevents FOIT (Flash of Invisible Text).

If you’re hosting fonts locally, add:

If you still use Google Fonts directly, add display=swap:

This reduces render-blocking because browsers don’t wait for the font to load before showing text.

3. Preload Key Font Files (High Priority Fix)

Preloading font files tells the browser:

“Load these fonts FIRST.”

This eliminates render-blocking and fixes PageSpeed’s Preload key requests warning.

Add preload in your header:

For Google Fonts (not recommended, only if not using local):

4. Remove Unused Font Weights (Huge speed boost)

Most themes load useless weights:

• 100

• 200

• 300

• 400

• 500

• 600

• 700

• 800

You only need 2 or 3 weights:

• 400 (normal)

• 500 or 600 (semi-bold)

• 700 (bold, optional)

Remove unused weights from:

• Theme settings

• Elementor → Custom Fonts

• Google Fonts link

• Local fonts folder

This can cut your font size by 70%.

5. Use Variable Fonts (2025 recommended)

Variable fonts combine multiple weights into ONE file.

Benefits:

• One request instead of many

• Smaller file size

• Smoother transitions

• Faster rendering

Example:

Replace multiple font weights with one variable font file.

6. Disable Font Awesome / Elementor Icons If Not Needed

Icon libraries are often render-blocking:

• Font Awesome (100KB+)

• Elementor Icons

• Theme icon packs

If not needed, disable them.

Disable Font Awesome in Elementor:

Go to:

Elementor → Advanced → Experiments → Font Awesome
Set to: Inactive

Disable theme icon fonts (e.g., Astra)

Add this to functions.php:

7. Use a Performance Plugin (One-click fixes)

These plugins automatically:

• Host fonts locally

• Add preload

• Add display: swap

• Combine font files

• Remove unused CSS & font requests

Best plugins:

1. WP Rocket

2. Perfmatters

3. FlyingPress

4. Asset CleanUp

Example: WP Rocket Font Optimization

Go to:

WP Rocket → File Optimization
✔ Optimize Google Fonts
✔ Remove Unused CSS
✔ Preload Key Requests

This alone can fix render-blocking fonts for most WordPress sites.

8. Inline Critical Font CSS (Advanced)

Critical CSS improves rendering by injecting only necessary CSS in the header.

Add inline:

Load the full font asynchronously:

This method is extremely effective for very fast hosting.

Best Practices for Removing Render-Blocking Fonts

✔ Always host fonts locally

✔ Use font-display: swap

✔ Preload only the main font

✔ Reduce font families (max 1–2)

✔ Reduce font weights (max 2–3)

✔ Use variable fonts where possible

✔ Avoid loading fonts site-wide when used on few pages

✔ Disable unnecessary icon fonts

✔ Purge unused CSS to reduce dependencies

Follow these and you’ll see:

• Higher PageSpeed score

• Faster First Contentful Paint

• Lower LCP

• Reduced layout shifts (CLS)

• Better SEO performance

Final Thoughts

Removing render-blocking fonts in WordPress is one of the easiest and most impactful performance improvements you can make.

Whether you run a blog, WooCommerce shop, or agency site — fonts are a huge part of your loading experience.

By hosting fonts locally, adding preload, reducing weights, and using modern font-loading techniques, you can dramatically speed up your site without changing your design.

If you follow every method in this guide, achieving 90–100 PageSpeed Insights score becomes realistic even on shared hosting.

FAQs

1. How do I know which fonts are render-blocking?

Use PageSpeed Insights → Diagnostics → Render-blocking resources. It will list every blocking font file.

2. Should I host Google Fonts locally?

Yes. It improves speed, privacy, caching, and eliminates external blocking CSS calls.

3. Do system fonts remove render-blocking completely?

Yes. System fonts require no downloads, so there’s zero blocking. But they look less custom.

4. Why does Google Fonts slow down WordPress?

Because they load via CSS from external servers, causing DNS lookup delays and blocking text rendering.

5. What is font-display: swap?

It tells the browser to show fallback text immediately instead of waiting for the font to load.

6. Are variable fonts faster?

Yes. They replace multiple font files with a single flexible file, reducing requests.

7. Do Elementor, Divi, and WPBakery cause render-blocking fonts?

Yes — they load extra icon fonts and multiple weights. Disable unused settings to fix it.