Web Performance Essentials: A High-Level Overview

In today’s digital world, website speed is crucial. Users expect fast load times, and a slow website can lead to high bounce rates. Improving site performance not only enhances user experience but also boosts SEO rankings and conversion rates. This guide will cover essential techniques for optimizing your web application’s performance, focusing on JavaScript, CSS, HTTP, images, and fonts.

Optimizing Javascript

JavaScript often accounts for a significant portion of the resources in web applications, but following best practices can substantially improve its performance:

• Minify Your JavaScript: Minification reduces the size of JavaScript files by removing unnecessary characters like whitespace and comments. This step can cut loading times by up to 40%.
• Async and Defer Attributes: Adding async or defer attributes to your <script> tags prevents scripts from blocking page rendering. Async loads scripts as soon as they are ready, while defer waits until the HTML parsing is complete, providing a smoother user experience.
• Code Splitting: Instead of serving a large JavaScript bundle, split the code into smaller modules that load only when needed. This approach accelerates the initial page load and ensures that users download only the necessary resources.

Optimizing CSS

CSS defines the appearance of your web application, but it can also affect performance if not…