# Web Performance
Web performance is the practice of making websites load fast, respond quickly, and run smoothly. It directly impacts user experience, conversion rates, and [[Search Engine Optimization (SEO)]] rankings.
## Key Metrics
- [[Core Web Vitals]] — Google's standardized set (LCP, INP, CLS)
- **Time to First Byte (TTFB)** — Server response time
- **First Contentful Paint (FCP)** — When the first content appears
- **Total Blocking Time (TBT)** — Sum of long task blocking periods
- **Speed Index** — How quickly content is visually populated
## Optimization Areas
### Network
- Minimize HTTP requests
- Enable compression (Brotli, gzip)
- Use CDNs for static assets
- HTTP/2 or HTTP/3 multiplexing
- Resource hints: `preload`, `prefetch`, `preconnect`
### Assets
- Image optimization (modern formats like WebP/AVIF, responsive images, lazy loading)
- [[Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)]] minification and critical CSS inlining
- [[JavaScript]] bundling, tree-shaking, code splitting
- Font subsetting and `font-display: swap`
### Rendering
- Reduce render-blocking resources
- Defer non-critical JS
- Avoid layout thrashing
- Use efficient CSS selectors
- Server-side rendering (SSR) or static site generation (SSG) where appropriate
### Caching
- Browser caching with proper `Cache-Control` headers
- Service workers for offline and cache-first strategies
- Immutable asset hashing for long-term caching
## Measurement Tools
- Chrome DevTools Performance panel
- Lighthouse
- WebPageTest
- `web-vitals` [[JavaScript]] library for RUM
## References
- https://web.dev/performance/
## Related
- [[Core Web Vitals]]
- [[Search Engine Optimization (SEO)]]
- [[JavaScript]]
- [[Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)]]
- [[Accessibility (a11y)]]