The world moves fast.

W𒐪hen the new iPhone comes out, many rush to be the first to seꦯe, play, and review it.

When there’s breaking news, people are glued to their TV screens waiting fo𒐪r updates while reporters scramble to be♋ the first to deliver.It’s no surprise people expect this sཧame type of agility and꧒ speed when they are browsing the web.

They want the🌳ir user experience unhindered so they can effortlessly receive the information they weꦏre searching for.

The importance of website load time

Today,🅺 users have no patience for websi൩tes with poor load speeds or inadequate performance.

In a study done by , about half of web users expect a site to load in two🍌 seconds or less. If it isn’t loaded within three seconds, those users tend to abandon the site.

An even more alarmin🐻g statistic is that 64% of shoppers who are dissatisfied with an online store’s experience and loading time will take their business elsewhere.

This means you’re not only losing your current visitors and decreasing conversion rates, but you run the risk of you site loosing traffic from those customersཧ who may have referred your website to others.

In this day, seconds make the difference. You can no longer allow your website to be ဣbogged down by unoptimized images and files. Your users expect your web pages to load fast, and they w꧋on’t stick around if they don’t.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at ways to optimiz🐲e your website for the best possible performance.

Related: Do we need a website redesign or a facelift?

1. Minimize HTTP requests

HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) Requests are counted whenever a brows𝕴er 🥂fetches a file, page, or picture from a web server.

According to , these requests tend to take up about 80% of a webpage’s 🐟load time. The browser also limits requests between 4-8 simultaneous connections per domain which means loading 30+ assets at once is not an optio𝔍n.

This means that the more HTT⭕P requests you need to load, the longer it takes for the page to go and retrieve them all, increasing your web page’s load time.

How to decrease HTTP requests

While it seems to limit your pages design♛s by keeping them simple, there are several tactics you can use to decrease HTTP 🍷requests to relieve your browser.

• Combining CSS/JS files - Rather than forcing the browser to retrieve multiple CSS or Javascript files to load, try combining your CSS files into one larger⛄ file (same for JS). While this can be challenging if your stylesheets and scripts vary from page to page, managing to merge them will ultimately help your load times in the long run.

• Use queries to only load what's needed - If you find that ওyou only need to load certain images on desktop or need to run a specific script on mobile only, using to load them can be a great way to increase speed. This way, you aren’t forcing the browser to load a variety of scripts or images that won’⭕t be useful for certain devi𓃲ces or viewports.

• Reduce the number of images you use - If you find some of your pages are fairly image-heavy, try removing some, especially if theirꦺ file sizes are big. This may not only help reduce image HTTP r❀equests but may improve your UX by removing distracting images that don’t correspond to your written content.

• CSS sprites - When applicable, c🌠ombining images you use fairly often acros💫s your website into one and accessing the images using CSS background-image and background-position prevents your browser from constantly trying to retrieve several images every time ce♔rtain pages on your site load. This way, the browser only retrieves the one that you can use multiple times on the page by properly positioning the right image into view for each area of the page.

2. Utilize CDNs and remove unused scripts/files

More than likely, many of your users will not be in close💟 proximity to your web server.

Reducing this distance by spreading your content across a variet🔯y of geogra👍phically dispersed servers just isn’t a viable option, and will a bit too complicated to implement. 

Th༺is is where a content delivery netw✱ork (CDN) comes in. A CDN is a collection of web servers distri𓂃buted across mul🍨tiple locations so content can be more efficiently delivered to users.

CDNs are typically used for static content or files th🐻at do need to be touched once uploaded.

Servers are selected based upon the user's measure of network proximity. For example, the server with the quickest response time and/or fewest network hops i𒀰s chosen.

💞Larger companie💝s tend to own their own CDN, while medium-sized businesses will use a CDN provider such as .

Smaller co🐽mpanies may find a CDN unnecessary or outside of their buღdget, so using utilizing websites such as which has a library of JS and CSS files and frameworks can help you prevent hosting certain files oꦅn your own servers while increasing their load time.  

If you find your company’s website could benefit from u🐎sing CDNs, take this time to also evaluate your site to recognize if there are unused scripts or CSS files across yo🐻ur site.

While 𝓀the easiest (yet most time consuming) thing is to have your developer go through your website and check each page, there are a few tools such as which can remove unused styles from your website🏅 and decr🔯ease the size of your CSS file.

3. Browser caching

Browser caching allows assets on your website to be downloaded to your hard drive once into a cache, or a temporary storage 🌠space. Those files are now stored locally on your system, which allows subsequent page loads to increase in speed.

, formerly of Yahoo!, explains says that 40-60% of daily visitors to your site come in with an empty ♕cache. So when users visit, you need to ꧙make it so the first page they see load quickly enough so they will inevitably continue through the rest of your website (with even faster load times).  

Static assetsꦗ have a cached lifetime of at least a week, wh♌ile third party items such as widgets or ads only last a day.

CSS, JS, and images, and media files should have expirations ꧒of one week, but ideally, one year, as any longer will violet RFC guidelines.

You can learn more about enabling caching .

4. Compress images and optimize files

Images currently take up , around 1504KB. When compared to other pages🍌 assets such as scripts (399KB), CSS (45KB), and video (294KB), images take up quite a large amount of HTTP requests sent.

As I have mentioned early, remove any image♔s of assets you believe you don’t nee𒆙d.

This includes libraries of icons you only use two of, those extra three fonts you thought you might use but didn’t, and images that maybe could be replicated with CSS (such as co꧑lored backgrounds or gradients).

Afte🅷r you clear out those assets, take a look at the images you have across yourไ site and check out their sizes.

More often than not, many people tend to download images from stock photo🎉 sites and upload them to their server and use them without ever bothering to optimize ♉them for the web.  

If you find yourself using large images, especiℱally for hero images, run them through an optimization software like or .

Keep all your images below 150KB, nothing above 1920px in width, at an average/mediu🤪m/72dpi quality level. Any larger and you’ll notice the images loading very late after the page renders as well as the slow response timꦉes to user behavior. 

When it comes to what file extensio🗹ns you should use for what, use this as a basic formul♚a:

• SVG is suitable for vector ꦅimages you want to re♓ceive a high amount of detail in.
• Certain icons can utilize font libraries such as to render certain graphics𒁃 rather than savin🐟g out individual images.
• PNG should be🧜 used for images you need transparent background behind, such as ඣa circular image of a person or Facebook’s ‘F’ logo.
• JPG is best foꦗr photographs or anything where fine detail is less importan🦂t.

While images will still take up the majority of your HTTP requests, optimizing them and your other assets will ultimately keep t💦he sizes of them down and increase your website's overall performance.

Related: How๊ much should a website strateꦬgy cost our company?