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.
Website Optimization
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.
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.
Use a Web Page Optimization Tool – html optimizers and validators, speed analysis and optimization tools
Sure you can remove whitespace by hand, but why bother? A number of web page analysis and optimization tools are available that can help locate performance bottlenecks and automate whitespace and redundant code removal. But some tools don’t stop there. You can optimize your JavaScript and images and even CSS with some of these tools. While no replacement for hand-tuned CSS-based pages, webpage optimization tools can give you a good start on your web page dietary plan.
JPEGmini: More Efficient Image Compression – jpeg reoptimization software review and interview – Speed Tweak
JPEGmini is image optimization technology that reduces the size of JPEGs by up to 5 or 6 times their original size, while maintaining resolution and perceived quality. Developed by ICTV, an Israeli startup company, JPEGmini works within the existing JPEG standard to optimize the size of JPEGs for faster downloads and lower storage costs. The patented algorithm developed by ICVT allows JPEGmini to compress images just below the level where perceived artifacts appear. The results, as you will see below, are smaller files that look visually identical to the original images. In this article we test the new service, and interview the CTO.
Velocity 2011 Web Performance Conference
I’m back from my combined business and hiking trip out west, visiting the Velocity 2011 Web Performance Conference in Santa Clara, California. The second part of my trip was devoted to hiking and photography in the great Northwest, which we won’t review here. This year’s Velocity was bigger and better and yes, sold out again. Here are some highlights.
Page Speed Online – web-based performance tool based on Page Speed Browser Extension
Page Speed Online is a web-based version of the Page Speed plugin, that allows developers to analyze web pages without the need of downloading an extension. Page Speed Online also features a mobile page analysis, which lets developers analyze their mobile sites like they are viewed in a mobile browser, with mobile-specific optimization recommendations. This article shows the new free service in action.
Serving 2012 Olympic Tickets: London2012 15, CoSport 0 – olympic website performance
The race is on to get tickets to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England. Millions of people (some 2.3 to 2.7 million signed up to request tickets so far) are clamoring to attend events featuring the likes of Michael Phelps, Ian Thorpe, and Usain Bolt. To distribute the load in the initial ticket request phase, Olympic organizers are using a batch system to accept requests over a six week period. Even with this even-handed approach, the servers were under tremendous load in the early hours of this past Tuesday. We investigate and show how performance could be improved.
Speed Optimizing Google Analytics – localize javascript and put javascript at the bottom to improve performance
Many sites now use Google Analytics to track their metrics. Google Analytics gives some useful statistics not normally found from server-side log files, including PPC versus natural SEO traffic and visitor behavior. Used as directed however, Google Analytics can slow down your pages. This article shows how improve the speed of web pages using Google Analytics with a few simple changes, while maintaining its advantages for faster-loading sites.
ETags Revisited – configure entity tags to improve cache performance on websites
An Entity tag (ETag) is a unique identifier assigned to a specific version of a given resource on a web server. ETags are used as a cache control mechanism to allow client browsers to make conditional requests. This lets caches work more efficiently by reusing unchanged resources on the client, and avoiding full server responses if the content has not changed. Efficient caching saves bandwidth and improves performance by delivering only what the client needs, not what it already has.