What are some ways to make websites faster?

Software Development
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#1

What are some ways to make websites faster?

#2

Here are a few general optimization techniques for making websites faster:-

  1. Caching: This means storing data for future use. Browser caching stores cached versions of static resources (images, videos, some API data, etc.), a process that quickens page speed tremendously and reduces server lag. When a user visits a page on your website, the cached version usually displays unless it has changed since it was last cached. This means the browser saves a lot of requests to your server and improves load speed for your site.

  2. Minify JavaScript and CSS: Minification is the process of removing all unnecessary characters from the source code. By removing unnecessary line breaks, extra space, and so on, you will speed up parsing, downloading and executing. This simple task can cut bytes of data from your page, and every little bit counts.

  3. Lazy Loading: It is a technique that defers loading of non-critical resources at page load time. Instead of loading the entire web page and rendering it to the user in one go as in bulk loading, the concept of lazy loading assists in loading only the required section and delays the remaining, until it is needed by the user.

  4. Use adaptive images: Most of the data on websites due to which they get slow is of image type. You can use adaptive or responsive images that change resolution according to the internet speed and device of the user. Start by using tools such as Picturefill or Adaptive Images on your website to save bandwidth and improve page speed for your site. Another option is to adopt new image formats like WebP and JPeg XR—this can help reduce image weight by twenty to fifty percent without sacrificing image quality.

  5. Compress your content: You can compress your content significantly in order to improve your website performance. Popular web servers such as Apache and IIS use the GZIP compression algorithm to do this automatically on HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

  6. Enable HTTP keep-alive response headers: HTTP requests are simple: they grab a single file, distribute and close. That said, this process is not always fast. Keep-alive allows the web browser and server to agree to use the same connection to grab and send multiple files. In other words, the server holds the connection open while a user is on the site instead of opening a new connection with every request, easing the load for the processor, network and memory.

  7. Implement your own content delivery network (CDN)**: A collection of global servers share a website’s static files, such as CSS or JavaScript, and they deliver from the server closest to the user’s physical location. In other words, when a user clicks on a video, the file loads faster because it is distributed from a server nearby. Large websites implement CDNs to ensure visitors around the world have a much more accessible, fast experience.

There are many other techniques as well but these are usually enough for creating a fast user experience.