Practical Web Design - Speed Up Your Site

I guess I've always liked things simple: function over form, performance over aesthetics, and the like. When I was a wee lad, my dad and I entered the "Pinewood Derby" -- a Cub Scouts-sponsored competition to see who could whittle the fastest race car out of a block of pine about the size of your forearm. On race day, you and your folks (usually including one fiercely competitive father who had done most of the work for you) would bring your carved creation to the race site. You'd put your racer at the top of a slide alongside a number of other kids' works of racing art, and when the whistle blew, you'd let them go. They would roll, or slide, or falter, down the sloped race track, hopefully to victory, at which point your dad would pump his fist in the sweaty faces of the losers' dads and you'd try not to look embarrassed.

I decided early on that my racer would be simple, aerodynamic, and functional. No spoilers, doodads, or fancy paint jobs to get in the way -- just a few ounces of sleekly carved wood that would glide like the wind. So we carved and we carved ("Gimme that knife, son, you're going to cut yourself") and we trimmed and we sanded until we had a silky-smooth, bullet-shaped buzzbomb that was guaranteed to send the other kids stumbling home in tears. It was simple, nothing fancy to impede its way down the track. It probably would have won had we not gummed up the wheels with glue so badly that they barely turned. We didn't come in last, but that was because one other entrant's racer sat stubbornly in the starting chute and refused to budge at all.

...which brings me to the subject of today's column. If Andy King made Pinewood race cars, he'd make them simple, sleek, aerodynamic, and functional -- and his wheels would turn properly. Instead, he makes Websites. He also founded and writes for Webreference and JavaScript.com, two sites that any Web designer worth his or her salt should consult on a regular basis. Andy has been working on techniques for optimizing Websites since shortly after the World Wide Web was born. In other words, he knows what he's talking about.

Recently Andy has published a book, Speed Up Your Site: Web Site Optimization (New Riders Publishing, 2003) that sets out in plain, simple English, how to make your site faster from end to end. I was lucky enough to beg a review copy from New Riders, and after reading the book, I knew I had to share some of Andy's insights with you. I was doubly fortunate to receive the cooperation of Andy himself; he gave me permission to share some of his book's content with the SitePoint audience (within copyright restrictions, naturally), and even answered a few questions I asked him about the content and scope of the book. You couldn't ask for more cooperation.

I'm not even going to attempt to sum up the book, nor am I going to try to cover everything in it. Much of Andy's work is for the more sophisticated Web creator -- i.e. techniques on the optimization of DHTML, JavaScript, and CSS code, optimizing graphics and multimedia presentations, search engine optimization, and so forth. This column is written more for the amateur or non-professional Web designer, so I'll stick to that in my review. But keep in mind that I'm covering the less esoteric stuff. Andy's book goes where this column dares not tread!

Until your copy hits your desk, you can take a look at the complementary site, WebSiteOptimization.com. Many of the techniques introduced in the book are explained and expanded here.