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Speed Up Your Site: Web Site Optimization

Table of Contents (3-Level)

Acknowledgments
Foreword by Jakob Nielsen (JFIF)
Introduction (JFIF)

Every Site Can Benefit from WSO

What About Broadband?
Bandwidth Trends
Site Speed Trends

Who Should Read This Book?
Who This Book Is Not For
How This Book Is Organized
Companion Web Site
Conventions

Part I - The Psychology of Performance

Chapter 1 - Response Time: Eight Seconds, Plus or Minus Two

Speed: A Key Component of Usability

Shackel's Acceptability Paradigm
User Experience and Usability

A Brief History of Web Performance

Affective Computing
User-Rated Quality Models
Automated Quality Testing

Response Time and User Satisfaction
An Interview with Ben Shneiderman, Ph.D.
Negative Impressions and Perceived Quality

Perceived Usability
Perceived Quality of Experience
Perceived Quality of Service
Credibility

Bailout Rates and Attention Thresholds

Cumulative Frustration and Time Budgets
Provide Feedback for Longer Tasks
Page Design Guidelines

Attunability

The Chaotic Web
Consistent Response Rates
Design for Attuning

Summary

Chapter 2 - Flow in Web Design (PDF / HTML)

On Flow and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Attention! Supply is Limited

What Causes Flow Online?

Speed and Flow
Experiential versus Goal-Directed Flow
Shopping Site Design
Flow Can Be Measured
The Benefits of Flow Online

Enabling Flow with Web Design
Summary

Part II - Optimizing Markup: HTML and XHTML

Chapter 3 - HTML Optimization

What is HTML Optimization?

Why Optimize HTML?

Increasing Complexity = Higher Bandwidth Designs

The Ideal Web Page
A Trim Skeleton
Illegible HTML?
Bandwidth versus Beauty

How Modern Browsers Work with HTML

Line Length

How to Optimize Your HTML

Step 1: Choose the Right DOCTYPE
Step 2: Minimize HTTP Requests
Step 3: Remove Whitespace
Step 4: Tighten Up Comma-Delimited Attributes
Step 5: Omit Redundant Tags and Attributes
Step 6: Omit Optional Quotes, If You Dare
Step 7: Omit Optional Closing Tags
Step 8: Minimize Colors and Character Entities
Step 9: Cut the Comments
Step 10: Minimize alt Values
Step 11: Minimize the head

Summary

Chapter 4 - Advanced HTML Optimization

Table Tips

Complex Tables = Slow Rendering Speed
Enable Incremental Display
Consolidate Table Attributes
Fast Table Rendering
Simplify
Unwind
Layer
The Table Trick to Increase Relevance
Optional Closing Tags
Tables and Returns
Colored Cells

Form Optimization

JavaScript and Forms
GET versus POST
Form Controls

URL Abbreviation

Shorter URLs Are Better
Trailing Slash

HTML and Compression

HTML Compression Example

Summary

Chapter 5 - Extreme XHTML

Benefits of XHTML
XHTML versus HTML

XML versus SGML

Anatomy of an XHTML Document

Pull the Prologue
DOCTYPE Declaration
DTDs
Namespaces

The Syntactical Rules of XML

Rule #1: Well-Formed Documents
Rule #2: Quote All Attributes
Rule #3: Don't Minimize Those Attributes
Rule #4: Higher Court Says Lowercase
Rule #5: Handle Script and Style Differences with Care
Rule #6: Fragment Identifiers: name and id, Please

Converting from HTML to XHTML

HTML Tidy
Dreamweaver Extensions

Optimizing XHTML

Transform Your Code

Summary

Chapter 6 - Case Study: PopularMechanics.com

Automatic Optimization
Manual Optimization

CSS Optimization
JavaScript Optimization
Trim the Tables
Cut the Comments
Use Short Relative URLs
Spacer GIF Redux

Summary

Part III - DHTML Optimization: CSS and JavaScript

Chapter 7 - CSS Optimization

Apply Styles Wisely
Remove Whitespace
Cut the Comments
Minimize HTTP Requests
Use Simple Selectors and Substitution

Use Type Selectors
Use Descendant Selectors to Get Specific
Use Short class and id Selector Names
Pseudo Selectors

Use Grouping

Group Selectors
Group Declarations
Group Selectors and Declarations
Use Multiple Classes to Group Common Styles

Inheritance

Take Advantage of Your Inheritance

Layer Styles for Speed

Use Media Types

Use Shorthand Properties

The font Shorthand Property
The background Shorthand Property
The margin Shorthand Property
The border Shorthand Properties
The padding Shorthand Property
The list-style Shorthand Property

Optimize CSS Colors

Hexadecimal Colors
Named Colors
Web-Safe Colors

Length Units: Everything is Relative

Relative Length Units
Absolute Length Units
Length Units Summary

Summary

Chapter 8 - Advanced CSS Optimization

Optimizing CSS Rules
Substitution

CSS2 Image Rollovers
Pure CSS2 Rollovers
Real-World Examples of CSS2 Rollovers
List-Based Menus

Tables and CSS
CSS Layout Control

Raising Relevance

Summary

Chapter 9 - Optimizing JavaScript for Download Speed

When to Opt for Optimization
Trim the Fat

What About Legibility?
Remove Whitespace
Cut the Comments

Apply JavaScripts Wisely
Minimize HTTP Requests

Defer or Delay Loading
Place Compressed .js Files in the head
Conditionally Load External JavaScripts

Abbreviate and Map
Crunching and Obfuscation

Obfuscation Anyone?
Self-Extracting Archives

JavaScript and Compression
Summary

Chapter 10 - Optimizing JavaScript for Execution Speed (HTML)

Design Levels
Measure Your Changes
Algorithms and Data Structures
Refactor to Simplify Code
Minimize DOM Interaction and I/O

Minimize Object and Property Lookups
Shorten Scope Chains
Add Complex Subtrees Offline
Edit Subtrees Offline
Concatenate Long Strings
Access NodeLists Directly
Use Object Literals

Local Optimizations

Trade Space for Time
Trade Time for Space
Optimize Loops

Expression Tuning

Miscellaneous Tuning Tips

Summary

Chapter 11 - Case Study: DHTML.com

Part IV - Graphics and Multimedia Optimization

Chapter 12 - Optimizing Web Graphics

Capturing and Preparing Images

Clean Up Your Image

JPEG Optimization

The JPEG Compression Algorithm
Baseline and Progressive JPEG
Preparing JPEGs for Better Compression
Saving JPEGs
Text and JPEGs
JPEG Optimization Summary

GIF Optimization

LZW Compression
Minimize Bit-Depth
Color Quantization
Minimize Dithering to Smooth Things Over
Maximize Horizontal Redundancy and Flat Color Areas
Consider Interlacing to Improve Perceived Speed
Use Weighted Optimization
Browser Issues
GIF Optimization Summary
Optimizing Animated GIFs

PNG Optimization

Deflate Compression for PNGs
Minimize Bit-Depth
Avoid Interlaced PNGs
Use Filters for Better Compression
PNG versus GIF
PNG Optimization Summary

Download Time: Packet Count versus Page Size
On the Horizon: JPEG2000 and Vector-Based Graphics
Summary

Chapter 13 - Minimizing Multimedia

Multimedia Basics

Web Multimedia Datatypes
Limitations to Multimedia
Codecs
Streaming Media
Multimedia Production Tips

Audio Compression and Optimization

Equipment
Level Matching
Normalization
Audio Compressors
Encoding

Video Optimization

Equipment
Lighting
Capturing
Optimizing Video After You Capture It
Video Compression
Flash Optimization
Shockwave Optimization
Cult3D Optimization

PDF Optimization

Creating Small PDFs
Saving PDFs
Avoiding Fat Forms
Optimizing PDF Files

Summary

Chapter 14 - Case Study: Apple.com

Output
Tracks
Image
Adjust
Encode
Audio
Final Results

Part V - Search Engine Optimization

Chapter 15 - Keyword Optimization

The Big Picture

Target Multi-Word Phrases
How Search Engines Rank Sites

Keyword Optimization Guidelines

Step 1: Determine Your Keyword Phrases
Step 2: Sort by Popularity
Step 3: Refine Keyword Phrases
Step 4: Sort by Popularity Again
Step 5: Write a title Using the Top Two to Three Phrases
Step 6: Write a description meta Tag
Step 7: Write a keywords meta Tag
Step 8: Add Keywords into Key Tags and Attributes, and Mix Well
Step 9: Submit to Search Engines
Step 10: Watch the Hits Roll In

Spider-Friendly Design Tips
Page Characteristics of High-Ranking Sites
Summary

Chapter 16 - Case Studies: PopularMechanics.com and iProspect.com

PopularMechanics.com

Term-Limited title
Empty meta Tags
Big head
Missing alt Attributes

iProspect.com

Title with Keywords
Keyword-Rich meta Tags
Minimal head
Meaningful alt Attributes
Add Keywords into Key Tags and Attributes, and Mix Well
Keywords in body Text

Part VI - Advanced Optimization Techniques

Chapter 17 - Server-Side Techniques

Server-Side Includes

Conditional SSI
Setting and Testing Environment Variables

Advantages of SSI: Speed and Broad Compatibility

Disadvantages of SSI

Tuning mod_include

Consider XBitHack or .shtml
Run mod_include per Virtual Server
Use AllowOverride None
Enable Caching with XBitHack Full or mod_expires

Server-Side Browser Sniffing

Faster Browser Sniffing with BrowserMatch
PHP Browser Sniffing
Advantages and Disadvantages to Server-Side Browser Sniffing
browscap: The Browser Capabilities File
BrowserHawk: Advanced Server-Side Sniffing
Conditional meta Tags

URL Abbreviation with mod_rewrite

Tuning mod_rewrite
The Abbreviation Challenge
The RewriteRule Solution
The RewriteMap Solution for Multiple Abbreviations
Automatic URL Abbreviation

Form and CGI Optimization

Use mod_perl to Speed Up Perl Scripts

No More www
Summary

Chapter 18 - Compressing the Web

Text Compression Algorithms
Content Compression

GZIP Compression
Modem Compression Is Not Enough

Content Compression: Client Side

HTML and Compression
CSS and Compression
JavaScript Compression

Content Compression: Server Side

Content Compression in Apache
Content Compression in Microsoft's IIS Server

Proxy Server-Based Content Compression
Benchmarking Tools

PipeBoost Analyzer
ApacheBench
VIGOS Website Analyzer
Web-Based Benchmarking Tools

On the Horizon
Summary

Chapter 19 - Case Studies: Yahoo.com and WebReference.com

Abbreviating Yahoo.com
Abbreviating WebReference.com

Excerpt from Search Engine Visibility, Chapter 1, "Before You Build"
Back Cover

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Last modified: February 19, 2009.