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Optimizing Page Load Performance

Optimizing page load performance is crucial for providing a smooth and enjoyable user experience. In this tutorial, we'll discuss several best practices for optimizing your HTML code to improve page load times.

Minify HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

Minify your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files to remove whitespace, comments, and unnecessary characters. This reduces file size and speeds up loading times.

HTML
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8" />
<title>My Website</title>
</head>
<body>
<header><h1>Welcome to My Website</h1></header>
<main><p>This is a sample paragraph.</p></main>
</body>
</html>

Compress Files

Use Gzip or Brotli compression to compress your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files. This reduces the amount of data transferred between the server and the client, resulting in faster load times.

# .htaccess file
<IfModule mod_deflate.c>
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/css application/javascript
</IfModule>

Optimize Images

Compress images using tools like ImageOptim or TinyPNG to reduce file size without significant loss of quality. Use appropriate image formats, such as WebP or AVIF, which offer better compression than traditional formats like JPEG and PNG.

HTML
<img src="image.webp" alt="Sample image" />

Load CSS and JavaScript Asynchronously

Load CSS and JavaScript files asynchronously to avoid blocking the rendering of your page. This can be done using the async attribute for JavaScript and the rel="preload" attribute for CSS.

Example:

HTML
<head>
<link rel="preload" href="styles.css" as="style" onload="this.rel='stylesheet'" />
<script async src="scripts.js"></script>
</head>

Use Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)

Host commonly used libraries and resources on a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to leverage caching and faster load times.

HTML
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.6.0/jquery.min.js"></script>

Reduce HTTP Requests

Limit the number of HTTP requests by combining multiple CSS and JavaScript files into a single file, and use CSS sprites for images.

HTML
<link rel="stylesheet" href="combined-styles.css" />
<script src="combined-scripts.js"></script>

Conclusion

By following these best practices, you can optimize your HTML code to improve page load performance and provide a better user experience.