Web Site Optimization: Maximum Website Performance

Web site optimization produces highly competitive web sites that out-perform on every measure; traffic, speed, conversion rates, sell-throughs, and, most importantly, return on your investment.

We offer expert website optimization services and a book Website Optimization: Speed, Search Engine & Conversion Rate Secrets.

Try our free Web Page Analyzer, our free website spell checker, and our new SEO analysis tool. New Internet dental marketing service.

Site Highlights

Website Tools

Optimize Start Render Time – web page optimization of start rendering times

Start render optimization takes place before the first content appears to the user, and is critical for good HCI feedback. A fast start render time gives the user visual feedback
that the web server is responsive. Ideally you want a start render time (and useful content
display) of under 1-2 seconds (see Website Optimization Secrets for details). The start render (the time it takes for the first visible changes to appear) is composed of Time to First Byte (TTFB) connect time, server response time, processing objects in the HEAD of your document, and initial page parsing and rendering. Optimizng your start render time is a matter of optimizng each of these delay components.

By Website Optimization on June 26, 2013

Flush HTML Early and Often – flushing html to speed up start render times and page rendering

When a user requests a page, it can take from 200 to 500ms for the backend server to create the HTML. During that time the browser is idle, waiting for data to arrive. Developers can speed up start render times and the display of useful content by flushing the buffer. Flushing HTML sends a partial HTML response to the browser, which modern browsers can display. Flushing allows the browser to start fetching components and rendering the response while the backend can continue creating the rest of the HTML page.

By Website Optimization on May 20, 2013

Speed Up Your Netbook: Toshiba NB205 & Toshiba NB525 – upgrade laptop boot time speed optimization with RAM, SSD & software

Figure 1: Toshiba NB205-N210BN-G

Netbooks are small, low-cost laptop computers first launched in 2007. Typically powered by low voltage CPUs (like Intel’s Atom or AMD’s Fusion series) netbooks omit certain features of full-featured laptops like optical drives to keep cost and weight down. Netbook screen sizes typically range from 10.1″ to 12″ diagonal in later models. Netbooks are being replaced by thinner ultrabooks and tablets now, but are still quite handy as a second laptop for traveling. One problem with netbooks is that they can be slow to run applications and boot. This article shows how to upgrade your netbook to boot and perform faster.

By Website Optimization on March 24, 2013

Average Web Video Duration 5.4 Minutes – internet video statistics and study trends

The length of the average web video has grown by 20% since 2010. Since our last video survey the average web video has grown from 270 seconds (4.5 minutes) to 5.4 minutes (324 seconds) in December 2012 (Comscore 2013). Figure 1 shows the growth of the average web video since 1997.

By Website Optimization on January 30, 2013

Localize External Resources – The Perils of Off-Site Widgets

Third-party widgets abound these days on the Web. Widgets, typically implemented with a snippet of JavaScript, are an easy way to add useful functionality to your website. The problem with all these widgets is they can cause indeterminate delays if any third party servers are slow.

By Website Optimization on November 26, 2012

Average Number of Web Page Objects Breaks 100 – web page object statistics and survey trends

The number of objects in the average web page has reached triple digits. In just under 4 years, the number of objects in the average top 1000 web page has doubled from 49.9 objects in January 2009 to 100 objects in November 2012 (see Figure 1). By the end of the year, the average top 1000 web page is on track to break 100 objects per page.

By Website Optimization on November 14, 2012

Splitting PDF Files – How to split large PDF files to fit in email limits

The average web page is now over 1MB in size, with each of its various components increasing in file size as well (HTTPArchive.org June 2012). PDFs can become so large that some email programs and gateways will not allow them to pass (with 5MB or 10MB file size limits). This article shows how you can efficiently split your PDF into multiple files to fit within the 5-10MB email gateway limits.

By Website Optimization on June 9, 2012

Blocking JavaScript with Web Page Test – simulate eliminating JavaScript on web page load times

With the proliferation of content management systems we’re seeing an increase in the use of JavaScript. WordPress, Movable Type, Joomla, Drupal all employ JavaScript to add enhanced functionality to their sites. Plugins abound promising Web 2.0 features, higher interactivity, and increased user engagement. The problem with this trend is that JavaScript usage is inceasing at an alarming clip (see Figure 1). The HTTArchive shows the average page uses 14 external JavaScript and 190K of code.

By Website Optimization on April 28, 2012

Blocking CSS with Web Page Test to Simulate Elimination of CSS

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are a powerful way to style your XHTML code. Used properly, CSS can use modular layered rules to style similar elements in the same page or across an entire website. CSS optimization is an entire field in itself, utilizing shorthand properties, colors, modular CSS techniques, and even object-oriented CSS techniques ala Nicole Sullivan. CSS files like JavaScript files, however, can be overused. This article shows how to simulate the elimination of CSS file to approximate refactoring your CSS code to be smaller and to be combined within a single file.

By Website Optimization on March 29, 2012

Diagnosing Slow Web Servers with Time to First Byte – slow server response time to first byte metric – Speed Tweak

Although 80% of web performance problems are typically due to front-end issues (Souders 2009), back-end bottlenecks can slow your site down to a crawl. One thing to watch out for is when static pages load relatively quickly, while dynamic pages load slowly. This article shows what to look for when a server slows down a web site.

By Website Optimization on December 10, 2011