Information can be found in many places, but nowhere as conveniently and quickly as on the internet. Speed is one of the main characteristics of this service, and with countless source options, websites must offer quality content and run smoothly to attract and retain users. After all, in the age of immediacy, no one will wait more than 5 seconds for a page to load.
To help you, we've put together 10 tips that will make your website faster:
Remove unnecessary bytes
Reduce the size of your code by eliminating whitespace, indentation, and line breaks. You can do this manually or use dedicated programs available online, such as YUI Compressor for CCS, Closure Compiler, and JSMin, which compress JavaScript code.
external css
Styles hardcoded within the pages themselves make the site cluttered because they are downloaded every time someone accesses them, whereas an external CSS file is downloaded only once to the visitor's desktop.
Images
Large images take a long time to load, as do large volumes of images. If they're absolutely necessary, choose the smallest possible size or compress them to a manageable size without losing quality. This can be done in Photoshop or with some online tools that allow this type of optimization.
Another tip is to include the height and width dimensions of the images in the HTML, so the browser will read them more quickly.
Sprite
CSS has a feature that allows you to compile multiple images from a website into one and then manage it with code, which considerably reduces the number of requests to the server.
On-demand charging
Another technique that can be used is on-demand image loading, which loads images based on page scrolling. This way, only a portion of the content is visible, and because the loading is fragmented, it's faster.
Tables
HTML tables clutter the browser, making it difficult to load the page. Choose CSS lasers, which work better without impacting speed.
Cut secondary resources
Of course, you want your website to be as complete as possible, but it won't do any good if users get bored before seeing all the options it offers. Secondary features like bulletin boards, weather forecasts, tabs, and chats should be cut unless they're essential to your purpose, or else divide the pages with excessive content.
News
Choose elements that only play when the play button is pressed, such as videos. Animations and alternative media in Flash or QuickTime, which load automatically with the page, may not be as relevant and become an unnecessary burden.
Links
Having links to your company's social media profile on your website is a great way to increase engagement, but links to third-party sites like LinkedIn or Facebook, for example, can slow down your page if they're referenced at the beginning of the page code. Don't delete the links; simply move them to the end. This way, you won't risk the rest of the page's elements getting stuck in the row before loading.
CloudFlare
O CloudFlare is a content delivery network that distributes pages across multiple servers around the world. It features an HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code optimizer that compresses and minifies website files, optimizing the final version for users.
To use the service, simply register on the platform and configure the domain.
