Web performance consultant for Cloudflare
Optimize Core Web Vitals via Cloudflare
Cloudflare offers the best market levers for web performance: Polish, Cache Rules, Workers, Early Hints, Brotli, HTTP/3, APO. Still, they need activation in the right order and proper calibration. I handle it.
They trust me
Symptoms justifying a Cloudflare audit
🎯 Core Web Vitals stalling despite Cloudflare active
Cloudflare alone isn't enough if Polish, Cache Rules, Early Hints and APO are at defaults. Properly calibrated, the combination gains 30 to 50% on LCP and stabilizes TTFB.
🛠️ Cache Rules and Page Rules piled up incoherently
Stacks of rules added over the years. Legacy Page Rules conflicting with recent Cache Rules. An audit cleans things up and frees cache hit ratio.
🐌 TTFB at 800ms+ on WordPress despite Cloudflare
Missing APO (Automatic Platform Optimization) lets every visit hit the WordPress origin. Perceived TTFB stays at the origin, not at the edge.
🖼️ Images served without Polish, LCP capped
Polish (image optimization), Mirage (mobile lazy loading), Auto Minify: every option tested through RUM before generalization. Calibrated, mobile LCP gains 200 to 400ms.
⚡ Workers and Early Hints unused on the stack
Workers enables A/B and edge personalization without origin round-trip. Early Hints (HTTP 103) preloads critical resources. The combo gains 200 to 400ms on mobile LCP.
🌐 HTTP/3 and Brotli disabled or untested
Free or nearly-free uplift on modern protocols. Activation tested and measured to validate no client-side compatibility regression.
Cloudflare optimization methodology
4 steps to transform your performance
1. Dashboard and rules audit
Cache Rules, Page Rules, Workers, Origin Rules, Redirect Rules. Complete inventory, identification of duplicates and contradictions.
2. Edge cache optimization
Calibrate TTLs, Stale-While-Revalidate, Tiered Cache, Argo Smart Routing where relevant. Maximize offload to drop TTFB.
3. Performance feature activation
Polish (WebP/AVIF), Mirage if mobile traffic is heavy, Auto Minify, Brotli, HTTP/3, Early Hints. Every activation tested through RUM (LUX, mPulse, or Cloudflare Analytics) before generalization.
4. Workers for the critical path
Identify edge use cases that win performance: flicker-free A/B, geo redirect, header manipulation for cache, image proxying. Clean implementation with tests.
1. Dashboard and rules audit
Cache Rules, Page Rules, Workers, Origin Rules, Redirect Rules. Complete inventory, identification of duplicates and contradictions.
2. Edge cache optimization
Calibrate TTLs, Stale-While-Revalidate, Tiered Cache, Argo Smart Routing where relevant. Maximize offload to drop TTFB.
3. Performance feature activation
Polish (WebP/AVIF), Mirage if mobile traffic is heavy, Auto Minify, Brotli, HTTP/3, Early Hints. Every activation tested through RUM (LUX, mPulse, or Cloudflare Analytics) before generalization.
4. Workers for the critical path
Identify edge use cases that win performance: flicker-free A/B, geo redirect, header manipulation for cache, image proxying. Clean implementation with tests.
Mission commitments
Frequently asked questions
Does Cloudflare actually improve Core Web Vitals?
Is Cloudflare APO worth the cost on WordPress?
Are Cloudflare Workers a real performance lever?
Cloudflare vs Akamai vs Fastly for performance?
Get your Core Web Vitals green via Cloudflare
Data 2023-2026
What my clients say
Excellent work.
Paul has significantly improved the site's speed and perfectly aligned it with Google's recommendations.
Professional, thorough, and efficient, I highly recommend.
Nicolas - April Moto
Digital & E-commerce Director
We are very satisfied with Paul's work. He is quick, available, and particularly effective. Since his arrival, very good results have been observed, both in terms of performance and responsiveness. A real asset for our team.
Léo - Luxury brand
E-commerce Product Owner
I don't know if we've said it enough.
But if you want to improve your loading speed,
Make Google happy and get your Core Web Vitals in the green,
Contact Paul Delcloy.
Florian Darroman - Les Makers
Co-founder
Cloudflare, the most complete performance platform for SMBs
Cloudflare offers the best features/price ratio on the CDN market. Polish (automatic image optimization), Cache Rules, Workers (JavaScript at the edge), Early Hints (HTTP 103), Brotli, HTTP/3, APO (Automatic Platform Optimization for WordPress): every performance lever you'd want to activate exists natively.
The problem: Cloudflare active with default settings only delivers a fraction of the possible gain. Uncalibrated Cache Rules, Polish disabled, Early Hints untested, Workers unused: the standard case on most accounts I audit. Properly calibrated, the combination gains 30 to 50% on mobile LCP and turns the origin green on Search Console.
Cache Rules, the TTFB-shifting lever
When a Cloudflare mission kicks off, I start with Cache Rules. Stacks of historical rules, legacy Page Rules conflicting with recent Cache Rules, Cookie exclusions breaking the cache for nothing: a complete audit frees hit ratio. Paired with Tiered Cache and Argo Smart Routing (on international traffic), perceived TTFB drops 30 to 50%.
The other critical angle is Cloudflare APO on WordPress. APO caches the HTML page generated by WP directly at the edge — origin TTFB of 800ms+ becomes edge TTFB of 50ms. $5/month on a typical site pays off within the first month of recovered SEO traffic.
Workers and Early Hints for the critical path
Workers enables flicker-free A/B testing, origin-roundtrip-free geo redirect, edge image proxying, header manipulation for cache optimization. Low cost, near-zero latency, underused on most accounts. Paired with Early Hints (HTTP 103) preloading critical resources before the HTML response, the combo gains 200 to 400ms on mobile LCP.
A Cloudflare mission's goal stays constant: drop TTFB, shorten the critical path, improve LCP, without touching application code when possible. For sites where Cloudflare arrives after application-level technical debt, a complete web performance audit typically precedes the CDN intervention.
Other expertise CDNs
Angular
Angular optimized: lazy modules, OnPush change detection, SSR Universal or Analog, signals, zone.js elimination. Stable Core Web Vitals on enterprise SPAs.
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Astro
Astro optimized: islands architecture, image optimization, view transitions, content collections. Near-static sites with green Core Web Vitals.
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Drupal
Drupal optimized: Render API and cache contexts, Dynamic Page Cache + BigPipe, Views performance, MySQL tuning. Core Web Vitals green on strategic templates.
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