Speed Tweak of the Week

Diagnosing Slow Web Servers with Time to First Byte

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 13:12:54 -0500

Although 80% of web performance problems are typically due to front-end issues (Souders 2009), back-end bottlenecks can slow your site down to a crawl. One thing to watch out for is when static pages load relatively quickly, while dynamic pages load slowly. This article shows what to look for when a server slows down a web site.

Use a Web Page Optimization Tool

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 11:39:58 -0500

Sure you can remove whitespace by hand, but why bother? A number of web page analysis and optimization tools are available that can help locate performance bottlenecks and automate whitespace and redundant code removal. But some tools don't stop there. You can optimize your JavaScript and images and even CSS with some of these tools. While no replacement for hand-tuned CSS-based pages, webpage optimization tools can give you a good start on your web page dietary plan.

JPEGmini: More Efficient Image Compression

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 15:28:11 -0500

JPEGmini is image optimization technology that reduces the size of JPEGs by up to 5 or 6 times their original size, while maintaining resolution and perceived quality. Developed by ICTV, an Israeli startup company, JPEGmini works within the existing JPEG standard to optimize the size of JPEGs for faster downloads and lower storage costs. The patented algorithm developed by ICVT allows JPEGmini to compress images just below the level where perceived artifacts appear. The results, as you will see below, are smaller files that look visually identical to the original images. In this article we test the new service, and interview the CTO.

Velocity 2011 Web Performance Conference

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 15:36:31 -0500

I'm back from my combined business and hiking trip out west, visiting the Velocity 2011 Web Performance Conference in Santa Clara, California. The second part of my trip was devoted to hiking and photography in the great Northwest, which we won't review here. This year's Velocity was bigger and better and yes, sold out again. Here are some highlights.

Average Web Page Size Septuples Since 2003

Tue, 31 May 2011 16:00:01 -0500

The size of the average web page of the top 1000 websites has more than septupled since 2003.(our last update in July 2009 found it more than quintupled) From 2003 to 2011 the average web page grew from 93.7K to over 679K (see Figure 1), over 7.2 times larger (Domenech et al. 2007, Flinn & Betcher 2008, Charzinsk 2010, Souders 2011). During the same eight-year period, the number of objects in the average web page more than tripled from 25.7 to 85 objects per page. Longer term statistics show that since 1995 the size of the average web page has increased by 48 times, and the number of objects per page has grown by nearly 37 times.

Page Speed Online

Sat, 30 Apr 2011 16:48:50 -0500

Page Speed Online is a web-based version of the Page Speed plugin, that allows developers to analyze web pages without the need of downloading an extension. Page Speed Online also features a mobile page analysis, which lets developers analyze their mobile sites like they are viewed in a mobile browser, with mobile-specific optimization recommendations. This article shows the new free service in action.

Serving 2012 Olympic Tickets: London2012 15, CoSport 0

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 16:42:52 -0500

The race is on to get tickets to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England. Millions of people (some 2.3 to 2.7 million signed up to request tickets so far) are clamoring to attend events featuring the likes of Michael Phelps, Ian Thorpe, and Usain Bolt. To distribute the load in the initial ticket request phase, Olympic organizers are using a batch system to accept requests over a six week period. Even with this even-handed approach, the servers were under tremendous load in the early hours of this past Tuesday. We investigate and show how performance could be improved.

Speed Optimizing Google Analytics

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 13:26:56 -0500

Many sites now use Google Analytics to track their metrics. Google Analytics gives some useful statistics not normally found from server-side log files, including PPC versus natural SEO traffic and visitor behavior. Used as directed however, Google Analytics can slow down your pages. This article shows how improve the speed of web pages using Google Analytics with a few simple changes, while maintaining its advantages for faster-loading sites.

ETags Revisited

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 14:28:26 -0500

An Entity tag (ETag) is a unique identifier assigned to a specific version of a given resource on a web server. ETags are used as a cache control mechanism to allow client browsers to make conditional requests. This lets caches work more efficiently by reusing unchanged resources on the client, and avoiding full server responses if the content has not changed. Efficient caching saves bandwidth and improves performance by delivering only what the client needs, not what it already has.

Automatically Speed Up Your Site with mod_pagespeed for Apache

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 10:56:12 -0500

mod_pagespeed is an open-source Apache 2.2+ module designed to automatically speed up your site by optimizing the various components of your web pages. The module does this by rewriting page resources using filters that adhere to web performance best practices. mod_pagespeed is the server version of the client-side Firefox module that analyzes web pages using similar best practices.

What to Expect from a Web Performance Audit

Thu, 30 Sep 2010 07:03:41 -0500

With Google now factoring page loading speed into search engine rankings, having a fast website has become even more important. Exactly how much of a factor speed is in search rankings is open to debate, although anecdotal evidence suggests that speed can affect rankings. One of the first steps companies need to take in improving their website speed is a web performance audit. This article details what to expect in a web performance analysis.

Andrew King Interviewed by Joshua Bixby of Strangeloop Networks

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 10:20:22 -0500

Our own Andy King was interviewed by Joshua Bixby of Strangeloop Networks. Joshua asked Andy some probing questions about web performance consulting.

Velocity 2010 Web Performance Conference

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 09:16:49 -0500

I just got back from the Velocity 2010 Web Performance and Operations Conference in Santa Clara, California. Now in its third year, the conference is a must-see if you are a web performance or network operations engineer. And engineers were aplenty this year, the conference was sold out with more than 1500 attendees.

Page Speed Factored into Google Search Rankings

Sun, 11 Apr 2010 14:42:35 -0500

Google has incorporated the speed of a web page into its search engine rankings. While this new signal currently affects only a small percentage of US sites, Google's announcement officially links performance with search engine marketing.

PNG24 and PNG Optimization

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 08:11:00 -0500

Over 60% of the file size of the average web page is taken up by graphics and multimedia. So graphics optimization is an important step in optimizing web page speed. At an alarming frequency, we have seen large PNG24 and unoptimized JPEGs used on the Web. Large PNG24s should be optimized for file size or converted to PNG8s. This article shows how to optimize PNG files effectively by minimizing their color palettes, and using alpha transparency intelligently.