The Smart Features settings gives you control over 10 site behaviours directly from your WordPress dashboard — no code required. Each feature is a simple on/off switch. This guide walks you through what each one does and when you might want to turn it off.
Getting to the Settings Page
In your WordPress admin sidebar, go to Settings → Smart Features.
You’ll see the settings organised into four collapsible sections (accordions): User Experience, Performance, Security / Privacy, and SEO / Head Cleanup. Click any section header to expand it. By default, User Experience is open and the others are collapsed.
Every feature comes with a toggle switch. Green means on, grey means off. When you’re happy with your changes, click the Save Changes button at the top of the page.
User Experience
Smooth Scrolling
When someone clicks a link that jumps to a section on the same page — like a “Back to top” button or a navigation link that says “Our Services” — this makes the page glide smoothly to that section instead of jumping to it instantly.
Leave it on if you want a more polished, modern feel on your site. Turn it off only if another plugin is already handling this, or if you prefer the instant-jump behaviour.
Open External Links in New Tab
When a visitor clicks a link that goes to a different website (or a PDF file), this feature automatically opens it in a new browser tab. That way, your site stays open in the original tab — visitors don’t have to use the back button to return.
It also adds a small, invisible note for screen readers (“opens in a new window”) so the experience is accessible for visitors using assistive technology, as required by WCAG accessibility guidelines.
Leave it on for most sites. It’s especially useful for blogs, portfolios, and business sites that reference external resources. Turn it off only if your theme already handles this, or if you specifically want external links to replace the current page.
Performance
Remove Emoji Scripts
By default, WordPress loads a small script on every page of your site just to display emoji characters (like 😊). If your site doesn’t use emojis in its content, this script is pure dead weight — it adds a small but unnecessary download for every visitor.
Leave it on (meaning: remove the scripts) for most sites. Only turn this off if you rely on emoji characters appearing correctly in your posts or page content.
Remove jQuery Migrate
jQuery Migrate is a compatibility script WordPress includes to support very old plugins that were built years ago. If all your plugins are reasonably up to date, this script does nothing useful — it just adds extra weight that every visitor has to download.
Leave it on for most modern sites. If you notice something breaking after enabling this — like a button or slider that stops working — turn it back off and check which plugin depends on jQuery Migrate.
Security / Privacy
Hide WordPress Version
By default, WordPress quietly announces which version it’s running in your page’s HTML source code and in your RSS feed. Automated bots scan the web for sites running older versions of WordPress with known security gaps, and this information makes it easier for them to target you.
Hiding the version doesn’t fix underlying vulnerabilities, but it removes one layer of information attackers use to find targets.
Leave it on for all sites. There’s no reason to broadcast your WordPress version publicly.
Disable XML-RPC
XML-RPC is an older remote-access protocol that allows external apps to communicate with your WordPress site. The WordPress mobile app and some third-party publishing tools use it. However, it’s also a well-known entry point for brute-force login attacks.
Leave it on (meaning: keep XML-RPC disabled) for most sites. Only turn this off if you’re using the official WordPress mobile app to manage your site, or if a specific tool you rely on tells you it needs XML-RPC access.
Disable Application Passwords
Application passwords are a WordPress feature that lets external apps and integrations log in to your site using a special password generated just for that app. If you’re not using any third-party integrations that require this (and most sites aren’t), leaving this enabled is an unnecessary open door.
Leave it on (disabled) for most sites. Only turn this off if a specific tool or integration you use requires application password support.
Disable Comments
This turns off the built-in WordPress comment system across your entire site. It also removes the Comments section from the WordPress admin menu, so the admin area looks tidier.
This is ideal for brochure sites, portfolios, business sites, and landing pages that don’t need visitor interaction.
Leave it on if your site doesn’t use comments. Turn it off if you have a blog or community site where people leave comments on posts — disabling this would prevent that.
SEO / Head Cleanup
Remove Unnecessary Head Tags
WordPress adds several lines of code to the <head> section of every page on your site. Most of these are leftovers from older versions of WordPress that very few sites need today — things like links to your RSS feed discovery, the XML-RPC endpoint, and references to the block editor’s REST API.
Removing them keeps your page’s HTML cleaner and slightly reduces the amount of code sent to visitors’ browsers.
Leave it on for most sites. These tags are harmless, but there’s rarely a reason to keep them. Only turn this off if you know a specific plugin or service on your site relies on one of these tags being present.
Redirect Attachment Pages
Every time you upload an image or a file to WordPress, the platform automatically creates a separate page for it — a mostly blank page with just the image on it. These pages are rarely useful, often confuse visitors who stumble onto them, and can dilute your site’s search ranking by creating low-quality pages.
This feature automatically redirects anyone who lands on one of those attachment pages to the actual file (or to the post the image belongs to, if there is one).
Leave it on for almost all sites. The only reason to turn it off would be if you’re intentionally using attachment pages as part of your site’s design — for example, a photography portfolio where each attachment page shows a full-screen image with metadata.
Saving Your Changes
After toggling any settings, the Save Changes button at the top of the page becomes active. Click it to save. You’ll see a confirmation message once your settings are stored.
Your changes take effect immediately — there’s no need to clear any cache for these settings to apply (though if you use a caching plugin, clearing the cache will ensure visitors see the updated behaviour right away).