 Minimize the HTTP Requests: Combined files are a way to reduce the number of HTTP requests by combining all scripts into a single script, and similarly combining all CSS into a single stylesheet. Combining files is more challenging when the scripts and stylesheets vary from page to page, but making this part of your release process improves response times.
Use External JavaScript Files: Don't embed your javascript, instead use external javascript files to speed up the download of your Web pages.
Use relative call-ups: Try to avoid absolute call ups as they take up more space. An example of an absolute call up is: <a href="http://www.URL.com/filename.htm">. Much better would be <a href="filename.htm">. But what if some files are in different folders to other ones? Use these shorthand properties:
Use / at the end of directory links: <a href="http://www.URL.com/directoryname/">
Why? If there's no slash at the end of the URL the server doesn't know if the link is pointing to a file or to a directory. By including the slash the server instantly knows that the URL is pointing to a directory and doesn't need to spend any time trying to work it out.
Use shorthand CSS properties: You can use the following shorthand properties for the margin CSS command.
Use: margin: 2px 1px 3px 4px (top, right, bottom, left) ...instead of margin-top: 2px;
margin-right: 1px;
margin-bottom: 3px;
margin-left: 4px
Avoid Nested Tables
I'm not a big fan of using tables for layout anyway (I'm one of those people that believes content and presentation should be separate.. but thats another tip page). With that said, if in your templates tables seem necessary (or the easier way to do it), try to avoid nesting. Why? When you place a table inside another table, it takes a lot longer for the browser to work out the spacing since it has to wait to read the entire html and then work out the layout. If at all possible, try using CSS to create the columns on your page.
Keep Your Code Clean
If you do use a wysiwyg editor, most times the will add useless code to your pages for example, many will leave empty tags (ie. <font> </font>). Removing any of those excess tags will not only speed up your load time, but make you pages validate a lot cleaner
 Don't include white Spaces and line returns: Once you've moved all the scripts and CSS to external locations and optimized your graphics what can you do? Whitespace, whether you put it in deliberately or because of programming adds a lot of it, causes a longer download time.
Don't put too many HTML Comments: to Speed Download Time
Comments can be as big or small as you write them, but even small, they slow Web pages down.
Don't embed your style sheet: CSS styles embedded within the page can make up large chunks of code. Switch to external CSS for more standards compliant code that downloads faster. |
