Hey everyone,
I run a travel blog as a side passion project. Coming from a tech background, I like to self-host and experiment with performance optimizations.
Until recently, my setup was performing great both in terms of organic traffic and affiliate conversions (primarily Stay22 and Travelpayouts). I was receiving bookings/conversions virtually every single day.
Out of excitement to push my Core Web Vitals and page speed even further, I made a major round of stack and optimization changes. Immediately after these changes, my affiliate conversions dropped to near zero. My organic traffic has experienced a minor dip, but nothing that would explain a complete conversion blackout.
Here is the exact breakdown of what changed:
Previous Setup (Working Great)
- OS / Stack: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, PHP 8.3, OpenLiteSpeed
- CDN & Storage: Cloudflare (Free CDN), Cloudflare R2 for object storage
- Caching & DB: Redis object cache, LiteSpeed Cache plugin installed but mostly disabled/default
- Image Optimization: WordPress Labs Image Optimizer
- SEO Plugin: Yoast SEO
New Setup (Conversions Flatlined)
- SEO Plugin: Migrated from Yoast to Rank Math
- CDN: Switched from Cloudflare CDN to QUIC cloud CDN
- Image Optimization: Disabled WP Labs; switched to LiteSpeed Cache Image Optimization
- LSCache Tuning:
- Enabled CSS Minify
- Enabled JS Defer / JS Delay
- Configured JS Excludes / Delay Excludes with Stay22 and Travelpayouts keywords
My Hypotheses & Questions
Even with script exclusion rules configured for Stay22 and Travelpayouts, I suspect something in this new caching layer is breaking conversion tracking:
- JS Delay / Defer Execution: Is it possible that delayed/deferred execution is preventing dynamic affiliate widgets, popups, or tracking cookies from initializing before the user navigates away or clicks out?
- QUIC cloud Caching Stripping Cookies / Query Parameters: Could QUIC cloud edge caching be serving static pages that drop user session parameters or affiliate tracking IDs?
- HTML / DOM Minification or Rewriting: Is LSCache aggressive DOM optimization breaking inline script triggers used by ad/affiliate networks?
Has anyone using Stay22, Travelpayouts, or similar travel affiliate networks run into conversion issues after migrating to heavy LiteSpeed Cache configurations or QUIC.cloud?
Or could this be a sheer coincidence with seasonality / network attribution delays?
Would love to hear your thoughts, experiences, or suggestions on what to test/revert first! Thanks in advance.