Title: Leaving unminified JavaScript &amp; CSS on server
Last modified: September 9, 2020

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# Leaving unminified JavaScript & CSS on server

 *  Resolved [XyZed](https://wordpress.org/support/users/xyzed/)
 * (@xyzed)
 * [5 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/leaving-unminified-javascript-css-on-server/)
 * Hello. This is an unusual one. I just signed up to semrush for a free trial, 
   and after spidering my site SEMrush has warned me that over 5000 JavaScript and
   CSS files are NOT minified. This is despite me having them minified using SG 
   optimiser.
 * I’ve exchanged several emails with SEMrush but unfortunately they seem more interested
   in defending their warning, which I, after initial concern and investigation 
   believe to be erroneous and unnecessary.
 * It seems that when SG optimiser minifies JavaScript and CSS files it leaves them
   all on the server, but creates duplicate copies with an identifying “.min” appended
   to the file extension. e.g.-
 * responsive-menus.js
    responsive-menus.min.js
 * If you open the first file it is the original file full of spaces. But if you
   open the second file there is a notice saying this file is auto-generated. The
   contents are then displayed all on one line.
 * Now I know my website is very well minified because I score 99 on Google’s page
   speed page (desktop). The problem is I’ve been essentially arguing with support
   at SEMrush who keep insisting that the warnings are perfectly valid, and I have
   thousands of unminified JavaScript and CSS files on my site, which they claim
   is potentially damaging. They’ve even said that Google will see them when it 
   crawls.
 * My position has been that surely Google doesn’t remotely care about unminified
   files and is only crawling files looking for content to display in Serps? And
   surely Google only does its page speed test by actually rendering pages, which
   SG optimiser ensures are all served using the minified files?
 * However, they have been quite insistent that their tool is right to warn me of
   these files and warn me they are unminified even those far as I can see they 
   are never actually used whilst ever minification is selected on SG optimiser?
   But it’s got me thinking I should at least doublecheck?
 * Andy

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

 *  Plugin Author [Hristo Pandjarov](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hristo-sg/)
 * (@hristo-sg)
 * SiteGround Representative
 * [5 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/leaving-unminified-javascript-css-on-server/#post-13385662)
 * Indeed, Google doesn’t care if a script is minified or not as a direct criteria.
   Google cares about speed and minification has affect on that.
 * As a rule, we do not minify files that have *min* in them because such files 
   are already minified by a third party script – either a theme or a plugin. The
   files modified by us are moved to the uploads folder / siteground-optimizer-assets
   named oroginal-file-name.min.js.
 * In addition to that, we don’t minify external resources.
 * If I were you, I would just open the files reported by SEMrush direcctly and 
   check if they are minified. If they are – just tell them to fix their checkers
   because that would mean that they fail to detect properly minified content. If
   not, check why that script is not minified depending on what’s the script and
   how it’s named.
 * Anyway, I wouldn’t bother with that too much if you already have a fast loading
   site and such a great score at PageSpeed.
 *  Thread Starter [XyZed](https://wordpress.org/support/users/xyzed/)
 * (@xyzed)
 * [5 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/leaving-unminified-javascript-css-on-server/#post-13386625)
 * Hi Hristo. Thank you for your reply. So the duplicate minimised files are not
   SG optimizer’s? I had assumed that they were because I am using SG optimiser 
   to minify JavaScript and CSS files. So the duplicate files must be from WP rocket
   who I have previously used for minifying files that changed over to SG optimiser.
 * I checked the uploads folder / siteground-optimizer-assets and was surprised 
   to see there are only 9 JavaScript files and no CSS files. Is this normal? I 
   would have expected to see all of my JavaScript and CSS files minified there?

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

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## Tags

 * [minification](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/minification/)

 * 2 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [XyZed](https://wordpress.org/support/users/xyzed/)
 * Last activity: [5 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/leaving-unminified-javascript-css-on-server/#post-13386625)
 * Status: resolved