10 Tips To Optimize CSS Performance

Still struggling to offer the best user experience to your potential audience?

Did you know your CSS code could be optimized to enhance the overall performance of your website?

Well, if you are one of those who hardly care about the performance of a website before shipping it to the client, this post is exclusively for you! It is crucial for you to emphasize the performance and user experience of a website. Here’s why:

• The loading speed of a website influences returning users
• Quick loading websites are on a higher rank on search engines
• Leaves a positive impact on your audience
• Reduces bounce rate

Now, you would be having an idea of why it is crucial for you to emphasize the optimization of your website. Let’s get started!

1. Organize your Code

Your code should be organized and must follow a pattern or we can say a hierarchical order to ensure style inheritance. Functionalities like overriding could be done quickly and one can also expect fast editing of the code whenever required.

2.  Minifying CSS

You know you can compress the CSS files that impact the overall size of the file. This way you can minimize the white space as well by utilizing any of the available compressing tools. All you need to do is to download a CSS compressor tool or you can also use the same online.

3.  Reposition CSS and JS

If your CSS is lying at the bottom of the code, it is necessarily crucial for you to put the same in the beginning. Along with this, you need to be sure enough that you put the JS code in the end. This way your CSS would load first and eventually reduce the loading time of your website.

A little emphasis could result in better performance that you would witness with this simple trick.

4. Remove Redundant Code

Sometimes repeated code could be the real culprit behind the slower performance of your website. One can check the presence of useless or redundant code through third-party software that is widely used by designers for improving the CSS loading speed.

5.  Work on Whitespace

Most of the people out there aren’t aware of the fact that Whitespace is something that is hurdling the smooth loading of their website. Whitespace consumes some bytes that again increase the CSS file’s size. The more the size of a CSS sheet, the more time it would take to load.

Some tools can be preferred for the same while you can check the same through manual approach as well. Most of the websites that aren’t doing well in terms of loading speed could use this simple trick to witness better results.

6.  Use of Image Sprites

Packaging your images into one large image actually reduces the CSS file and contributes in quick loading of your website. An image sprite is a great choice for the ones that are using a good amount of images in their website layout.

Apart from this, there are people who are using graphics along with icons on their website to enhance their website appeal. One can save a lot of space with this simple trick to engage the audience.

7. Prefer CSS Splitting

For all those who aren’t aware of the term CSS Splitting, it is a technique where you create different CSS files for multiple web browsers. For instance, if you are trying to target the audience using Google Chrome and Internet Explorer, you would create two different CSS files.

This would help in reducing the CSS file size up to a great extent. A lot of developers emphasize CSS splitting for ensuring great user experience.

8. Don’t Forget Documenting Your Code

Since documenting hardly impacts your code, it could be the best way to make quick alterations whenever required! Most of the times your code requires some changes to enhance user experience. If you have documented your code, it becomes quite easy for you to perform some quick changes.

9. Keep it Simple

It has been seen that beginners usually ignore the importance of simple code that can influence performance in many ways. They may claim that their code is working absolutely fine and they are getting the desired output but things aren’t the same!

When your code is optimized with minimal redundancies and follows the right pattern, you can expect decent performance.

10. Reuse Attributes

Grouping different elements and reusing attributes could be a perfect way out to make the maximum use of code. You need not declare styles again and again when you can use the previous ones adequately.

Verdict: 

The above-mentioned tips are quite helpful for the ones that aren’t getting the right performance from their CSS. It is mandatory for an individual to consider the same for better user experience.