Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Nourah Mohammed ALOboud
King Saud University
Riyadh
Saudi Arabia
all_nona@hotmail.com
ABSTRACT
Building a Web site is worthless if your targeted audience cannot find it or if they switch to another website
because it's takes a lot of time to open. This document will highlight the importance and techniques for
optimize web sites. After this session, participants will know better:
• Speed up the load time on your site.
• Learn how to use a variety of techniques to minimize the size of your Web pages, including HTML,
CSS, JavaScript and XHTML.
• How to achieve good SEO results.
Keywords: WSO, HTML optimization, XHTML optimization, CSS optimization, JavaScript optimization,
search engine optimization.
1.INTRODUCTION
If you build a Web site but your targeted audience switch to another one because they feel bored of waiting
the web page to open or they can't find it, then it is, in a word, worthless. Why? The page size and complexity
are the real problem, even if the impact of the server load and network bottlenecks. No matter how nicely laid
out, contentrich and useful your Web site may be if it has not been designed taking website optimization
techniques (WSO) techniques into consideration, it won’t get sufficient traffic. This paper provides useful
WSO techniques that you can apply to improve your Web site.The structure of the paper is as follows:
Section 2 illustrates the definition of WSO, section 3, 4, 5 and 6 illustrate HTML optimization techniques,
XHTML optimization techniques, CSS optimization techniques, JavaScript optimization techniques, Search
engine optimization techniques, respectively. Section 7 present conclusions.
Background/related work.
XSSI is Abbreviation of Extended ServerSide Includes and it's is implemented by Apache HTTP Server.
"Web site optimization (WSO) is the process of reducing web site size and complexity to maximize
website performance. Website optimization can also include search engine optimization, pay per click
optimization, and conversion rate optimization (getting more traffic and sales) as part of your overall site
redesign process." [1]
Here are some of techniques that can maximize the display speed:
HTML optimization
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The First MiniConference in Web Technologies and Trends (WTT)
© 2009 Information Technology Department, CCIS, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Tighten Up CommaDelimited Attributes
"Some tags allow a commadelimited list attribute values. The most common are the <keywords> Meta tag,
the <map> coordinate attribute, and the <style> tag. Browsers and search engines ignore leading spaces
before commadelimited attributes. You can save space by omitting spaces when using comma or omitting
commas altogether for the <keywords> Meta tag.
Instead of this:
<style type="text/css">
<!—
body {
fontfamily: Arial, Helvetica, sansserif;
fontsize: 1.1 em;}
>
</style>
Do this:
<style type="text/css"><!— body {fontfamily:Arial,Helvetica,sansserif;fontsize:1.1 em;} ></style> "[2]
XHTML optimization
Remove white space
"Browsers don't care how pretty your markup is; they're just looking between tags—real or implied. Extra
spaces, tabs, and return make your markup easier to read but slower to display. Space between and inside
tags can also be removed."1 [2]Thus you can shave off up to, or even over 10% of its file size.
Use
<table border="1" cellspacing="10" cellpadding="5"> <tr><th>State</th><th>State Tree</th></tr></table>
[2]
…Instead of
<table border="1" cellspacing="10" cellpadding="5">
<tr>
<th>state bird</th>
<th>State Tree</th>
</tr>
</table>
Omit Redundant Classes and Default Attributes
There are cases, attribute or tags are redundant then they can be eliminated.
Case1: Omit Default Attributes
Because the default for table data cells is to be aligned to the left, it can be eliminate from your web page. For
example:
1
<table><tr><td align="left">the default is left !!</td></tr></table>
Becomes:
<table><tr><td>better</td></tr></table>2[2]
"If you style your tables to be aligned otherwise, aligning individual exceptions may be necessary. In this
case, style the most common alignment globally and individually style the exceptions. Even better, use
classes (.alignleft, .center) or contextual selectors (table.top th) to style your cells."[2]
Case 2: Omit Redundant Classes
''Another redundant example is when styling a list of items. Rather than placing an identical class within each
item, you can use the same class within the list tag and use a contextual selector. So this:''[2]
<ul>
<li class="big">cap 311</li>
<li class="big">cap 322</li>
</ul>
Becomes this:
ul.big li{big style here;}
...
<ul class="big">
<li>cap 311</li>
<li>cap 311</li>
</ul> [2]
Cut the Comments
"Comments in code can be safely abbreviated or eliminated without any change in functionality. Comments
make it easier for developers and editors to maintain content. However, users must download your comments
each time they load your page. An example:
<!-- main navigation header goes here -->
One solution is to abbreviate comments to save bandwidth, but still give editors
clear checkpoints.
<!-- main nav bar -->" [2]
CSS optimization
"CSS optimization is the process of minimizing your Markup and CSS files for maximum speed."[2]
Minimize HTTP Request
tag: content
Each unique HTTP request requires a round trip to a server, introducing indeterminate delays. Thus by
combining external files and embedding CSS within your HTML you can minimize the number of HTTP
requests required to render your page. [2]
"So this:
< <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/css/fonts.css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/css/nav.css" />
Becomes this:
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/css/combined.css" />
2
Even better, XSSI these files directly into high traffic pages, like this:
<style type="text/css">
<!--
<!--#include virtual="/css/combined.css" -->
-->
</style>
The SSI technique included above should only be used on high traffic pages, like home pages" [2]
Don't use images to display text
There's no need to use images to display text as so much can be accomplished through CSS. [2]
Defaults CSS
CSS also has defaults that you can use to optimize your code. For examples if you omit Itr (property value for
direction) CSScompliant browsers will automatically set an initial default value that is from left to right. [2]
Using shorthand hexadecimal colors
The two competent ways to specify color are hexadecimal and named color [2]."Shorthand hex notation
substitutes 3character color values for 6character colors when each of the color channels is identical in an
RRGGBB hex triplet. Shorthand hexadecimal colors can help optimize your style sheets, especially when
combined with shorthand properties and grouping."[2]
So instead of:
.blue {color:#0000ff;}
Do this:
.blue {color:#00f;}
Note almost all browsers (version 3 and above, except IE3 Mac) support shorthand hex colors this taken from
[2].
Named color: there are some cases named colors become shorter than their hex equivalents for examples
using purple as named color is better than using #800080 hex numbers. [2]
JavaScript optimization
Minimize HTTP Request
Also we can minimize HTTP request by combining external files and embedding JavaScript within your HTML
page. "So this:
<script src="/js/functions.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/js/validation.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
Becomes this:
<script src="/js/combined.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
Even better, XSSI these files directly into high traffic pages, like this:
<script type="text/javascript">
<--
<!--#include virtual="/js/combined.js" -->
// -->
</script>
Maximize object resolution speed and minimize scope chain
"Do this
var url=window.location.href;
Not this
var url=location.href;
or this
url=location;" [3]
JavaScript: Delay loading
You can make your content display faster if you delay or defer the loading of your external JavaScript files.
JavaScript's are executed as they are loaded. Any external JavaScript's referenced within the head of your
XHTML documents must be executed before any body content is displayed. One way around this is to delay
the loading of your external JavaScript by using empty "stub" functions, and redefining these functions later
on.
Delay loading your external JavaScript files to speed up your content display. The external JavaScript
positioned in the head of your XHTML documents should be executed before any body content is displayed.
You can certify that your content displays rapidly by redefining empty stub functions with scripts loaded late in
your page. [2] This is an example taken from [2]:
<script ...>
<!--
function stub(){};
// -->
</script>
</head>
<body>
...
<script src="/scripts/stub.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
</body>
"The empty stub function(s) allow users to interact with your page without generated "undefined" JavaScript
errors. The scripts loaded just before the closing body tag redefines the stub function once the body content
has displayed."[2]
Note that you must be careful with this approach because large JavaScript files, specially those that execute
slowly, can flood the response time of your page after it has loaded.[2]
Search engine optimization
SEO is the ability to improve your organic ranking on search engines by changing your Web site using
various actions/techniques based on the search engines’ crawler algorithm (ranking criteria).[4]
SEO Activities are:
Information Technology (IT) Team
Limit page size
Because some search engines index only the first 100K of the page, better limit the size of the HTML code to
less than 100k. Also limit the number of links to about 100 per page. [4]
Build a custom error page (404)
"A standard 404 error page will make crawlers leave the site. A custom 404 page with a site map, navigation
and search will be helpful to users who land on a missing page, and will keep crawlers from leaving the site. "
[4]
Have a site map accessible from every page of your site
"Textbased site maps are another way to help spiders navigate your site." [4]
Add a navigation footer
Put text navigator footer on your page to provide another link exit for the crawler to continue navigating the
site. [4]
Content Team
Select the right keywords
"Keyword selection should be based on:
• Your targeted audience: which keywords are they using?
• Popularity of the keyword: how often is this keyword searched?
• The competition: how many search results are there for this keyword? "[4]
Have unique title tags on every page
"Search engines often use content of the title tags as the text for the link in search results pages. Each page
should have a unique title and should be limited to between seven and 10 words." [4]
Conclusion
This paper is intended to give practical guidance in web site optimization techniques:
• HTML optimization techniques.
• XHTML optimization techniques.
• CSS optimization techniques.
• JavaScript optimization techniques.
• Search engine optimization.
If you follow the techniques outlined in the paper, learn from your experience then this will result in Reduce
the download time, maximum speed, increase the number of visits from organic searches.The more
optimization's you have, the more optimization's you will give to culture in general and we will all benefit in
the end. [4]
References
[1] Website Optimization: Speed, Search Engine & Conversion Rate Secrets, a book about WSO from
O'Reilly
[2] Andy King, Speed Up Your Site: Web Site Optimization, 1st Edition, (New Riders) King is the founder and
newsletter editor of WebReference.com. The companion Web site for his book can be found at:
www.websiteoptimization.com
[3] Mi Islita. Located on the Internet at www.miislita.com/searchito/javascriptoptimization.html. Last visited:
16 December, 2008
[4] Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Essentials for Cultural Web Sites Located on the Internet at
http://www.archimuse.com/mw2006/papers/arsenault/arsenault.html. Last visited: 16 December, 2008