Archive
- Issue #26 | Reducing website carbon emissions
As our thirst for data, connectivity, and content grows, so does the portion of global carbon emissions attributed to the internet. In this post, we'll take a look at the steps frontend developers can take to make sites more efficient and better for the planet.
- Issue #25 | Stress testing site performance
As developers, we're normally building and testing websites on devices with decent specs, so testing how your site performs over a slow network or on a low-powered device is one way to help ensure real world performance.
- Issue #24 | Quick Performance Audit - Taiwan COVID Vaccination Website
Taiwan's COVID-19 vaccination website is integral to the government's vaccine rollout plans. This post is a quick website performance audit of the site.
- Issue #23 | CSS can do that
Rather than immediately reaching for JavaScript to handle on-page interactions, why not stop and think Could CSS do that? You'd be surprised, it probably can.
- Issue #22 | Proxying third-party requests
Using resources hosted by a third-party can seriously hurt website performance in a few ways, one of which is the need for the browser to establish a connection with another domain. In this issue, we'll cover how you can use a proxy to reduce the performance impact of this connection step.
- Issue #21 | Building a fast, sustainable personal website - Part 2
Part 2 of this case study explores some of the key code and build step implementations that help to deliver perfect Lighthouse scores and improved website sustainability for my personal website.
- Issue #20 | Building a fast, sustainable personal website - Part 1
Part 1 of this case study explores the design and development decisions I made when redesigning my personal website. These decisions help to deliver perfect Lighthouse scores and improved website sustainability.
- Issue #19 | Speed up your WordPress website
WordPress sites make up a big part of the internet, and so getting performance right on them will go a long way towards delivering a better online experience overall.
- Issue #18 | Bits and pieces
Something a bit different this week - I'll be sharing some recent web peformance related news and articles that have come out in the past two weeks.
- Issue #17 | App Optimisation for Readle
This week I'll be sharing a recent client project I worked on. Hopefully real world examples like these can provide practical insights for tackling performance issues on your own websites.
- Issue #16 | Performance & accessibility
Performance and accessibility go hand in hand. The overlaps between the two are present in more ways than you might think.
- Issue #15 | Optimising web fonts - Part 3
The third and final part of a short series looking at some of the tricks and techniques to consider when optimising fonts for the web.
- Issue #14 | Optimising web fonts - Part 2
The second part of a short series looking at some of the tricks and techniques to consider when optimising fonts for the web.
- Issue #13 | Optimising web fonts - Part 1
The first of a short series looking at some of the tricks and techniques to consider when optimising fonts for the web.
- Issue #12 | The environmental case for website performance
What's the link between a faster website and climate change? In this post I'll explain how you can help the environment by focusing on website performance.
- Issue #11 | Do you need all that analytics?
Website analytics provide useful insights into the reach of your online content. However, the analytics on your site can also impact page performance and expose privacy concerns.
- Issue #10 | Resource hints - Part 2
This week we continue our look at resource hints, focusing on preload and prefetch, and how you can use them to improve perceived performance.
- Issue #9 | Resource hints - Part 1
A brief primer about resource hints. What they are, where, when and how to use them. We'll cover dns-prefetch and preconnect this week, and preload and prefetch in the next issue.
- Issue #8 | Optimising embedded content
Embedding content from Twitter or YouTube is pretty commonplace these days. However, the code these services provide isn't always the most optimised. This week we'll look at a few ways you can optimise pages on your websites that have Twitter/YouTube content embedded within.
- Issue #7 | Web Icons in 2021
This issue will be all about icons. We'll look at the different options that you can consider, and why you really should be using SVG in 2021.
- Issue #6 | Optimising images - Serving images
In this issue, we'll continue our look at serving optimised images on the web. This week we'll be looking at some of the techniques you can use in your code, or plugins that you can use for WordPress.
- Issue #5 | Optimising images - Reducing image size
When it comes to optimising images, the easiest place to start is with the image files themselves. With modern image formats, compression tools, and online services it's easy to shave megabytes off the total size of a web page.
- Issue #4 | Core Web Vitals & Google's Search Update
What are Core Web Vitals? What might adding them to the signalling mix for search mean for SEO? And, what can you do to check & prepare your site?
- Issue #3 | Tools to measure site performance
This issue of Optimised will introduce you to a few tools you can use to test and track website performance. I'd urge you to give one or two of them a try on your own site. Let's get into it!
- Issue #2 | Third-party resources - A cautionary tale
In this issue of Optimised we'll be looking at third-party resources. These are assets (scripts, fonts, ad services etc.) that many websites use, but which are hosted/served from another domain (most often outside the website owner's sphere of control).
- Issue #1 | Yeah okay, but why?
Welcome to the first issue of Optimised. To kick things off we'll be taking a quick look at why website performance matters from both a company and customer perspective.
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