Optimizing Website Performance: A Complete Guide

Fast websites provide better user experiences and rank higher in search results. Here’s how to optimize your site.

Measuring Performance

Key Metrics

• First Contentful Paint (FCP): When first content appears
• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): When main content loads
• Time to Interactive (TTI): When page becomes interactive
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Visual stability

Tools

• Google Lighthouse
• WebPageTest
• Chrome DevTools

Optimization Techniques

1. Optimize Images

• Use modern formats (WebP, AVIF)
• Implement lazy loading
• Serve responsive images
• Compress images

2. Minimize JavaScript

• Code splitting
• Tree shaking
• Minification
• Defer non-critical scripts

3. Optimize CSS

• Remove unused CSS
• Minify CSS files
• Use critical CSS
• Avoid CSS-in-JS overhead

4. Leverage Caching

• Browser caching
• CDN caching
• Service workers
• Cache-Control headers

5. Reduce Server Response Time

• Use fast hosting
• Optimize database queries
• Implement server-side caching
• Use a CDN

6. Enable Compression

• Gzip or Brotli compression
• Compress text-based resources

Advanced Techniques

HTTP/2 and HTTP/3

Take advantage of modern protocols for faster loading.