Optimizing Your Website for Speed: 8 Coding Best Practices
Tags: websitespeed
Published: 2024-04-06 18:50:30

Did you know that a 1-second delay in the load time of your website may lead to [11%](https://www.isitwp.com/boost-wordpress-performance-speed/) loss in page views and [7%](https://www.seedprod.com/how-to-speed-up-woocommerce/) drop in conversions?

To engage your visitors, it's essential that you offer them a seamless user experience and hitch-free access to the required information. This may be easier said than done when you grapple with load time issues and poor website performance.

There may be a number of factors that dictate the way your website performs and loads the information published. One of these factors encompasses website development.

So, it goes without saying that you can optimize your website for speed and elevate its performance from the get-go by being careful when you code it.

Here are the eight coding best practices that may help you optimize the speed of your website and ensure optimal performance:

## 1. Reduce HTTP Requests
One of the ways you can optimize the performance of your website and significantly reduce its load time is by reducing the number of HTTP requests.

There are a number of things that may help here. One of them is minifying your code. To do this, you should strive to remove unnecessary characters such as whitespace and comments when [creating a website](https://www.pushengage.com/how-to-create-a-website/). You should also focus on reducing line breaks and shortening variable or function names.

You can either be careful when coding for a website or leverage minification tools to get the job done.

To reduce HTTP requests, you may also want to consider combining multiple CSS or JavaScript files and compiling just one. This may significantly reduce the number of HTTP requests and help you [optimize your website's speed](https://memberpress.com/blog/improve-wordpress-website-speed/).

## 2. Remove Unused CSS
CSS frameworks facilitate the web development process. However, there may be a number of components and styles that may go unused.

In this case, removing unused CSS may help you [increase your website's performance](https://www.wpbeginner.com/wordpress-performance-speed/) and ensure that it offers a seamless experience to its visitors to [get more traction](https://www.monsterinsights.com/how-to-get-more-traffic-on-wordpress/).

However, once you have removed unused CSS, make sure that you test your website before going live with the changes.

You may not accidentally want to remove useful CSS elements and end up doing more harm than good.

## 3. Optimize Image Size
Websites use images because they complement the overall aesthetic and visual appeal. Our brains are wired to process images [60,000](https://optinmonster.com/visual-content-creation-tips/) times faster than text. So, websites leverage visual content to convey the message.

However, the use of heavy images may end up affecting the website's performance and drastically increasing its load time.

The goal here is to maintain a balance between image quality and its size. So, to [optimize your images](https://aioseo.com/how-to-best-optimize-images-in-wordpress/), you may want to consider a few adjustments.

You can define the width and height of the image element by leveraging CSS. This allows the image to scale proportionally within its container element as per different screen sizes, generating a responsive layout for visitors with diverse device preferences.

## 4. Defer JavaScript Loading
Another way to create a website that offers a hassle-free experience is by putting the heavy scripts at the end of the page before you close the body tag.

Not all users will be accessing your website through lightning-fast internet connections. So, by doing this, you will be able to allow users using a slow internet connection to read the information while heavy scripts load in the background.

## 5. Code Efficiently
You can optimize your website for performance when you code with performance in mind. For this, refrain from excessive manipulation of the Document Object Model (DOM), as it can slow down page rendering and severely affect the performance of a website.

You can consider exploring alternative approaches that can help you minimize DOM updates and improve the way your website performs.

Furthermore, you should also consider using efficient data structures when working on a website. Selecting the best-suited data structures (arrays, objects) makes it possible for you to ensure efficient data manipulation and retrieval.

## 6. Leverage Browser Caching
You can consider implementing Gzip compression. Using a solution that facilitates file compression and decompression enables you to drastically reduce file sizes and significantly improve load times in return.

Furthermore, you should also consider setting cache headers. This makes it possible for the server to instruct browsers on how long to cache files by leveraging cache headers. By implementing this, the browser won't need to download the files again for recurring visits.

## 7. Leverage Performance Assessment Tools
You can optimize the performance of your website and boost its speed by using [performance assessment tools](https://www.blogtyrant.com/free-website-speed-test-tool/).

Profiling is a process that helps you assess how your web application performs by identifying performance bottlenecks. It's one of the key steps in the development process that ensures the optimal efficiency and performance of the project.

To profile your code, you can use a variety of profiling solutions that may help you identify performance bottlenecks in your code, making it possible for you to move in the right direction and optimize the areas that have the most significant impact.

Furthermore, it's highly recommended that you keep an eye on your website's performance and track its speed to identify potential issues over time.

## 8. Consider Database Optimization
Database optimization also helps you improve the speed of your website and [drive more traffic](https://rafflepress.com/how-to-drive-traffic-to-your-website/) for your brand.

You should focus on writing efficient queries and structuring the database to retrieve data efficiently. The core focus here is to minimize server processing time and load times. So, leveraging caching mechanisms for frequently accessed data may help.

Furthermore, you should also focus on optimizing the database schema. Come up with a well-structured database schema that significantly reduces redundant data storage and optimizes data retrieval through queries.

This will help you offer a seamless experience through your website, [get more eyeballs](https://easydigitaldownloads.com/blog/how-to-increase-website-traffic-to-your-online-store/), and engage the intended audience. 

## Final Words
There you have it: eight coding best practices for optimizing your website for speed and boosting its performance. If you've been looking for ways to offer a seamless experience through your website and [generate quality leads](https://formidableforms.com/10-ways-to-generate-more-leads-on-your-site/) for your sales funnel, the recommendations in this article may be useful to developers.