Page speed is one of the most misunderstood aspects of web development. Most people think it is just about compressing images. The reality is much more nuanced.
What Actually Slows Websites Down
In my experience auditing dozens of websites, the biggest culprits are rarely large images. Instead it is usually render-blocking JavaScript, unoptimized third-party scripts, missing browser caching, poor hosting, and unminified assets.
The High-Impact Fixes
Critical CSS inlining
Extract the CSS needed for above-the-fold content and inline it in the HTML. Defer everything else. This dramatically reduces render-blocking time.
JavaScript defer and async
Almost no JavaScript needs to be in the head. Defer it all, and only load what each page actually needs.
Hosting matters
A fast website on slow hosting is still a slow website. Invest in quality managed hosting — it is the single biggest performance lever most businesses ignore.
With these techniques alone, I regularly take sites from 40/100 to 95/100 on PageSpeed Insights.
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