Above the fold issues

Hi!

Long time user of the “basic” functionality, and so far very happy. I recently decided that I wanted to increase the page and posts load speeds. I then ran into some problems with the plugin. My basic settings:

HTML:
Optimized HTML Code (ON)

JacaScript:
Optimize JS (ON)
Also aggregate inline JS? (ON)
Exclude scripts from Autoptimize: seal.js, js/jquery/jquery.js, editor.min.js, thrive-leads, wp-add-custom-css

CSS Options:
Optimize CSS Code? (ON)

The problems started when I tried to inline and defer CSS. FYI, I have bought access to criticalcss.com

First of: When I installed Autoptimize CriticalCSS.com plugin I got a new tab on the Autoptimze plugin. As I understood from the plugin description, here is where I would add critical CSS rules. I then used the criticalcss.com to generate my CSS and added new rules.

Question 1: When using the criticalcss.com rules, do I have to also check the inline and defer css checkbox on the original plugin? In that case, which CSS should I input?

Question 2: When I input the critical css in the original plugin, my frontpage looked OK with the exception of the “recent posts” sliders in the sidebar and widgets. How can they be fixed? Is there a way to exclude them?

Question 3: When I used the critical css to inline “above the fold css”, there was nothing happening on google page speed insights. I still got the same “above the fold” and “render blocking” issues as before I inserted the css. Why does this happen?

Question 4: The styling on all my posts was not good. Is this possible to fix by using another critical css with the help of the autoptimize criticalcss.com plugin?

I have really high hopes for this plugin, and got a small glimt of the amount of speed increase I can achieve (even though the styling was not 100% correct). I really hope you are able to help me.

My domain is: https://trailsofnorway.com/

Thank you ??