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Getting a site to load quickly isn't that difficult from a technical perspective. You just need to strip out everything that slows it down. If you can deliver a
by onion2k 10mo ago
Getting a site to load quickly isn't that difficult from a technical perspective. You just need to strip out everything that slows it down. If you can deliver a page of HTML and inlined CSS that renders without JS or images then your site will be fast (or at least it'll be perceived as fast, which is fine.) So long as you're using some fairly reputable hosting infrastructure (AWS, Azure, Google, etc), and if you're rendering on the server you're not doing silly things on the hot path, then you don't need to worry about speed.
The hard part when it comes to site optimization is persuading various stakeholders who want GTM, Clarity, Dynatrace, DataDog, New Relic, 7 different ad retargeters, Meta, X, and probably AI as well now that a fast loading website is more important than the data they get from whichever of those things they happen to be interested in.
For any individual homepage where that stuff isn't an issue because the owner is making all the decisions, it's fair to say that if your site loads slowly it's because you chose to make it slow. For any large business, it's because 'the business' chose to make it slow.
- koakuma-chan 10mo ago[flagged]
- onion2k 10mo agoStart your own company. Eventually you'll want to know what users are doing, and specifically why they're not doing what you expected them to do after you spent ages crafting the perfect user journeys around your app. Then you'll start wondering if installing something to record sessions is actually a great idea that could really help you optimize things for people and get them more engaged (and spending more money.) Fast forward three years, and you'll be looking at the source of a page wondering how things got so bad.
- skydhash 10mo ago> Eventually you'll want to know what users are doing, and specifically why they're not doing what you expected them to do after you spent ages crafting the perfect user journeys around your app That's putting the cart before the horse. The way it's properly done is just to invite a few users and measure and track their interaction with your software. And this way you'd have good feedback instead of frustrating your real users with slow software.
- onion2k 10mo agoYeah, you'll do that, and get great feedback, and then when you roll it out to other users they'll do weird stuff you've not seen any of the test group try before. Users being weird are the fundamental root cause of all software problems. :)
- skydhash 10mo agoUsers can’t click a button that does not exist. It’s on product and engineering to curtail what the user can do. Optimizing for the happy path while not eliminating the incorrect flow is just bad software engineering.
- koakuma-chan 10mo agoYeah I agree. I bet that guy is using JavaScript and MongoDB or something, and he is wondering why things break.
- razakel 10mo agoYou forgot the best bit - not removing the ones you no longer use!
- a456463 10mo agoExactly. My site loads fast with no images causes it is a demo site. Sure Jan!