How to improve your website speed? – Part 2
Today we present you the second article of our “How to improve your website speed” series. A faster website leads to better UX. So, here is what you should do:
1. Reduce HTTP requests
HTTP is a protocol through which the browser requests a file to be loaded, and the server sends this file to the browser. Having fewer requests will considerably improve your website speed. To reduce them:
- Combine as many CSS/JS files as possible into one or at least into a few
- Try to reduce scripts and position them at the bottom of the page
- Remove any unnecessary images and reduce the size of the rest
2. Reduce (optimize) resources (CSS/HTML/JS files)
The next step of speeding up your site is to eliminate all unnecessary data. Why? Because it negatively affects the way in which browsers processes resources. Therefore:
- Eliminate empty spaces, redundant lines, comments and formatting, unused codes, etc.
- Use shorter variables and functions.
Thus both browsers and search engines will process HTML, CSS and JavaScript files much quicker.
3. Use fewer plugins
You want to optimize your website and enhance its features, you add plugins. But at one point it becomes slower. Having too many plugins can create technical problems such as bugs, system, crashes and even compromise your web security. So, you need to clean them up! Disable those you don’t use or don’t need anymore. Do the same for the ones that hinder the speed of your website the most after a check-up.
Tip: Do a speed test after every plugin deactivation. See how your speed has improved. Thus, you will optimize your website speed more effectively.
4. Load CSS files asynchronously
Typically, browsers block the rendering of a web page until all of its external CSS files have been downloaded completely. They might even display a blank page until the download is finished. This is also a possible reason for the low speed of your site.
While there are several well-known techniques for loading JavaScript and Images asynchronously when it comes to CSS files the question is often overlooked. We recommend you to try LoadCSS – a quite handy plugin with very good user reviews.
5. Remove all query strings
Query strings are those URLs that contain the “?” And “&” symbols. Unfortunately, CSS and JavaScript resources with such strings are not cached by most proxy servers. This also affects the speed of your website and you need to remove all of them.
You can do this, using plugins such as:
or manually:
- Insert the following code into the functions.php file of your WordPress theme:
// * TN – Remove Query String from Static Resources
function remove_css_js_ver ($ src) {
if (strpos ($ src, ‘? ver =’)
$ src = remove_query_arg (‘ver’, $ src);
return $ src;
}
add_filter (‘style_loader_src’, ‘remove_css_js_ver’, 10, 2);
add_filter (‘script_loader_src’, ‘remove_css_js_ver’, 10, 2);
6. Specify the character set
“Character set” is the set of symbols used by a website. When someone visits a site, the first thing the browser does is to determine which character set it uses. Thus, browsers are able to successfully display web content to the user. If you don’t specify your character set in advance, the browser has to figure it out alone. And eventually, it will. However, if you want your content to be displayed immediately, you have to have a character set specified.
Where: The HTTP response headers
Example: Content-Type: text / html; charset = utf-8
7. Try a CDN
CDN is a content delivery network which helps users located in different parts of the world retrieve web content (usually images and Javascript) in a fast and efficient way. If your website is international – try a CDN. If not, we don’t recommend you to use one, as it may worsen your website speed.
We hope to have helped you improve your website speed with these tricks. Stay tuned as “How to improve your website speed? – Part 3“ is a fact!
