Five Ways to Speed up Website Performance

There are lots of ways you can work efficiently to speed up a website. There are plenty of simple techniques such as choosing the right server and minimising redirects but there are other techniques which web developers should know so they can give their clients that little bit extra when it comes to speedy web performance. Below is a closer look at five distinct, often underused ways you can speed up website performance and keep your clients satisfied.

Internal CSS

Choosing internal CSS over external is the first way of speeding up website performance. Every time a webpage is accessed, many HTTP requests are made to ensure the content is fully accessible and external files such as images are fully visible. Internal CSS will speed up website development and usage as it will minimise the number of requests for external CSS files.

If you do choose to use internal CSS it is necessary to repeat the same code on every page rather than linking to a single .css file. This can make website maintenance more difficult.

Single File Javascript Code

If the website development you’re working on uses Javascript you can put your whole code into a single external file. Using this single file option rather than multiple files will speed up the website as it eliminates additional HTTP requests when downloading content and image files. If you use a single external file then only one HTTP request will be sent rather than multiple.

Website speed can further be increased by embedding Javascript code at the end of the document but this has drastic consequences from an SEO perspective as most search engines have difficult reading Javascript. This is best avoided to ensure client’s SEO is kept as high priority.

Use ASCII encoding

Choosing ASCII encoding over UTF-8 is one definite way of ensuring an increased speed for the website. ASCII is the smallest available charset. Put simply, browsers only display HTML and XML and therefore every character is translated into its code. Using the smallest charset guarantees the quickest translation process. Adding in this code is essential to use ASCII encoding:

<meta charset = “us-ascii” />

ASCII only falls down when you need to use characters which don’t appear in their charset such as the copyright sign or you need to use characters specific to some languages. In these instances you’ll need to use UTF-8 or another set which includes the characters you require.

Avoid .htaccess

When developing a new website project it’s likely you’ll use .htaccess quite regularly. Every time you use this code to rewrite a URL you are slowing down your website development. It is a fast command but it will still slow down website response times and it makes more sense to allow access to pages directly.

One of the points to keep in mind here is again SEO friendliness. If you can’t make URLs SEO friendly without rewriting then it’s important you continue to use .htaccess. It’s worth dealing with a slightly slower website that’s fully search engine optimised and URL rewriting is also recommended if you use URL parameters

Use Caching Systems

Caching systems are a great idea for almost every website development. A caching system means the website will only need to create content once instead of recreating it every time a page is visited by users. It will speed up the website for the end-user in almost every instance and can be regularly refreshed.

Web developers need to ensure their clients get the best possible end-product and the speed of their website is important. These tips provide quick and easy ways to get the best possible performance for your client’s projects.