Sarasota PC Monitor
Speed Up Your Site: Web Site Optimization
A Book Review
by Gary Schweinshaupt
Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc.Website optimization is the process of reducing Website size and complexity to maximize speed. It can optionally include search engine optimization as part of the optimization process. "Speed Up Your Site: Web Site Optimization", written by Andrew B. King, is a new book covering just about every aspect of Website optimization. I was turned on to it from the Tourbus eNewsletter (I had often included articles from Tourbus here in the PC Monitor.) Here's what Patrick Crispen of Tourbus said about the book, "There are a squillion Web design books out there, but this one belongs on the bookshelf of every serious Web designer." Crispen expands by saying, "The good news is anyone can create a Web page. Time was the only way to create a Web page was to learn 30 or so HTML tags and then code the page by hand in Notepad or SimpleText. Then WYSIWYG Web editors like Adobe Pagemill, Macromedia Dreamweaver and [*shudder*] Microsoft FrontPage were released, meaning that you no longer needed to know HTML. And don't forget that built into most Microsoft Office products is a File>Save as Web Page feature that will automatically take your Word document or PowerPoint presentation and vomit it out as a disturbingly bloated Web page. So, the good news is that anyone can create a Web page. The bad news is that [besides the fact that *anyone* can create a Web page] creating a *good* Web page is actually quite difficult." I agree, I hate to deal with pages that are saved as HTML from any of the Microsoft Office applications, there are so many bloated add-ons, that there is no way to visually edit the raw HTML, it just too complex-and too big!
The problem is, users get very impatience. They open one of your pages, and if it doesn't pop up in just a few seconds, their fingers start tapping. You only have a few seconds to get compelling content onto the screen. Fail, and you may kiss your Website visitors goodbye before they have seen enough to convince they you have something of interest.
King explores this problem and its solution: Website optimization. He has invested years of research, while running WebReference.com and JavaScript.com, two of the most popular Web developer Websites.
In a world where time is money, speed is king. Andrew King combines an imposing combination of research with practical tips to create the definitive guide to Website optimization. This book is densely packed with tips and techniques for removing needless bandwidth from your HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images and more. These are not the same old tips. By the use of some of these terms, you will tell right away, this is not a book for the beginner! While experienced Web developers might be aware of some of the techniques discussed in this book, many others are sure to be new.
You can see the book's table of contents online at <http://websiteoptimization.com/speed/toc/>.
King shows you, step-by-step, how to clean up HTML bloat; minimize HTTP requests; tighten up comma-delimited attributes; speed up table rendering; and much, much more. Every expert source I found, says the results will amaze you.
Let's take a common part of all good Websites-Keyword Optimization. He has a chapter that shows you how to fine-tune your page's Meta keywords so that you can attract both search engines and, more importantly, visitors. Every Web design book tells you that you need to use Meta keywords. King actually shows you how to find the Meta keywords that yield the highest results. Instead of paying someone else lots of money to attract visitors to your site, I'm sure if you follow the steps that King outlines, you'll save yourself both time and, more importantly, money, in this most basic area of all good Web page design. In this, as well as other elements, he also has case studies of existing Websites, to help you understand the value of using these techniques.
The section on optimizing graphics and multimedia addresses the bane of just about all Web pages, too many of them, and no effort to make them as small as possible. He covers capturing and preparing images, how to clean them up and which format to use for the best results.
I would consider this book a must have for any serious developer. Even the advanced developers need refreshers, and often can pick up something new.
The paperback book is has 528 pages; you can purchase it on Amazon.com <http://tinyurl.com/8sev> for $27.99 (free shipping.) The publisher is New Riders Publishing, and was first published on January 14, 2003. ISBN: 0735713243. King's Website is <http://www.websiteoptimization.com/>. 6
Copyright 2003. This article is from the May 2003 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For further information about our group, email: admin@spcug.org/ Web: http://www.spcug.org/
The Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc. has 1,100+ members and was established in 1982. We are members of the Assoc. of PC User Groups (APCUG), the Florida Assoc. of PC Users Groups, Inc., and we are members of the America Online Ambassador Program.
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