8 Web performance improvements recommended by engineers to site operators

Today, with the popularity of the internet, more and more online users want a secure, reliable and fast access experience. In view of the excessive expansion of web pages and the third script encroachment on traffic problems, Radware to the site operators to provide the following improvement suggestions to help them give users the fastest and highest quality access experience.

8 Web performance promotion recommendations from engineers

1. Manage "page bloat"

Page size is closely related to performance. According to the survey, the 100 strong Power quotient page size median reached 1492KB, up from 1.5 before the increase of 48%.

of the fastest 10 pages in the study, the page contains 50 median resource requests and a median page size of 556KB. In the 10 pages that load the slowest, the page contains 141 resource requests and a median page size of 3289KB. In other words, the slowest-loaded page has almost three times times the median number of pages loaded and six times times the page size.

Careful study of the size of the page, we can get more information. The fastest loaded 10 pages contain a relatively dense range of resources: between 15 ~72, the smallest page size is 251KB, and the largest 2003KB. The total number of resources included in the slowest 10 pages is more extensive: between 89 ~373, the page size is 2073KB, and the largest is over 10MB.

2. Image optimization

Images are one of the main culprits for page bloat, and typically occupy the 50-60% of page bytes. Adding a picture to a page or zooming in on an existing image is an effective way to quickly get users and improve the business conversion rate. But this approach can have a serious impact on performance.

Image optimization is one of the easiest ways to improve performance, which can make pages load faster. In order to achieve more effective image rendering, the image must be compressed and integrated, the size and format of the image must be carefully adjusted, the image quality must be optimized, which can be based on the importance of the image of the different loading processing.

3. Control of Third-party scripts

In a typical page server request, a request from a Third-party script accounts for 50% or more of them. These third-party scripts not only increase the number of bytes in the page, cause delays, but also become the biggest potential point of failure in Web pages. Non-responsive, untested third-party scripts reduce the load speed of the entire network.

The solution is to delay the loading of the Third-party script, put it on the content of the key page to load, the more ideal situation is placed after the page onload event load, so that will not affect the enterprise search rankings (Google will be the onload event as a load time indicator). For some analysis tools and third-party advertisers, if the method of delaying Third-party script loading is not feasible, the asynchronous version of the script can be used synchronously with the load of the key content. Users must understand which scripts are in the Web site, delete those useless scripts, and continuously monitor the performance of Third-party scripts.

4. Real mobile Device Priority

"Mobile device Priority" is not an entirely new concept. As early as 2013, mobile devices were used more than desktops, but there was a gap between the real focus on mobile device development compared to the many verbal promises of mobile performance. For example, in November 2011, the average page size on a mobile device was 475KB and now grows to 897 KB. In other words, the average page size almost doubled in just three years.

Although some progress has been made in mobile devices and networks, it is not possible to keep up with the requirements of a service page with a size of nearly 1MB in terms of performance. As we know, page size is closely related to loading time, and mobile users are particularly sensitive to slow loading speeds. If the enterprise wants the website to be truly "mobile device first", it must deal with these problems correctly.

5. Performance-Responsive web design

Responsive design allows designers and developers to better control the look and feel of Web pages. It can make pages more beautiful across multiple platforms and devices. But it can also be a huge performance loss that is not mitigated by faster browsers, networks, and gadgets. And over time, the impact will continue to deteriorate.

The response design is based on style sheets and JavaScript. However, inefficient CSS and JS performance problems are far greater than the advantages of its design to bring us benefits. The style sheet should be placed in the head document to achieve progressive rendering of the page. However, the style sheet often appears in other places on the page, which hinders the rendering speed of the page. In other words, JavaScript files should be placed at the bottom of the page or loaded after the key content is loaded.

6. Real-time monitoring performance

We all know that to solve a problem, we must first have a good understanding of the problem. To solve page performance problems, organizations need to know when users can see and interact with the main page content, and organizations need to understand how performance and availability issues affect business metrics. The enterprise needs to have the method to obtain the actual performance index and analyze it. Real-time User monitoring (RUM) tools enable real-time access, analysis, and recording of the performance and availability of a Web site from a real user perspective.

7. Do not rely too much on CDN to solve all performance problems

Web sites that use Content distribution networks (CDN) perform major content rendering more often than web sites that have not used CDN. This is a matter of relevance, not causation: Typically, a Web page with CDN is larger and more complex than a CDN-less site. The size and complexity of the page is the culprit for performance problems, not the CDN. But the results also show that relying on a CDN alone does not solve all the performance challenges.

If deployed properly, CDN will be a very effective tool for resolving latency problems: Shortening the time it takes for a managed server to receive, process, and respond to page resource requests such as images, CSS files, and so on. However, the delay is only one of the key problems of modern electronic business websites. In order to achieve the best acceleration effect, site operators can adopt a combination solution: cdn+ Front-End Optimization + Application delivery controller and internal management.

8. Promote the concept of Web performance within the enterprise

A large number of studies have shown that improving page speed can have a positive impact on all key Performance indicators: page access, user adhesion, business conversion rate, customer satisfaction, client retention, shopping cart content and income.

However, as indicated in the 7 recommendations above, many enterprises have made the same mistake, ultimately compromising Web performance. At present, enterprises should focus on addressing the gap between Web development goals and online business goals, and each enterprise should have at least one in-house performance specialist to better address Web performance issues.