Webifiable

Is your website slower than a turtle running through syrup? Not only are people not willing to wait around for your website to load, but now Google will penalize your site in the rankings as well! Don’t worry, even if you’re not an HTML guru, here are four simple tricks that will greatly speed up your website.

1. Minify your JavaScript

Yes, minify is a real word. Minifying your code consists of removing all the unnecessary white space. (White spaces include many actual spaces, as well as when code goes to a new line.) Does that sound tedious? Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be!

Here are some automated online JavaScript Minifiers:

• Minify JavaScript Online
• JS Minifier
• MinifyJavaScript.com

Once you find one you like, just copy the JavaScript out of your file and paste it into the minifier. You may have to click a button, or the minifier may work automatically. Either way, copy your code back out and into your JavaScript file, and you’ll be good to go!

2. Compress Your CSS

You guessed it, CSS can be minified as well, although they usually refer to it as compressing when you’re talking about CSS. Why the different term? I have no clue, since you’re still stripping out unnecessary white space.

Here are some online CSS Compressors:

• Clean CSS
• CSS Compressor
• CSS Drive > CSS Compressor

Again, just put your code in and get the compressed code back out. Good to go!

3. HTML Compression

Same exact thing as the last two. Rinse and repeat. Copy and paste your code in and then back out again, save your modified file, and you’re good to go!

• Text Fixer – Compress HTML
• Web Compressor Tools – HTML Compressor
• Compress HTML Source Code

4. Lossless Image Compression

There are a variety of tools that remove unneeded image data without affecting image quality at all. I’m not talking about compression where the effect on the image is minimal. No, there are several methods that literally don’t affect the image quality at all. Not one iota. They call it lossless compression.

Fortunately, Yahoo’s Smush.it tool collects several of those into a great, usable service online. It lets you upload any of your design images, download the compressed images, then put them back in place on your site. Just like magic!

If you prefer offline tools, Mac users can just drag their image files into ImageOptim, and the program automatically compresses and saves the images. And it’s lossless, just like Smush.it. Did I mention it’s free?

Bonus 1: Yahoo! Yslow

Want go get even more in depth? Firefox users can install Firebug, and then install Yahoo! Yslow. It includes many of the tools I’ve talked about right there in your browser. You can just browse to your website in Firefox, run Yslow, and it will give you a detailed report, along with the option to download the optimized versions of your CSS, JavaScript, images and more.

Bonus 2: Google’s Page Speed Online

Not one to lag behind, Google has developed Page Speed Online. With no plugins involved, you just enter your URL, click the Analyze Performance button, and Google spits out a series of suggestions for the page. Of course, some of them need a programmer to implement them, but others can be easily done by a somewhat tech-savvy business owner.

Keep in mind that with all of these methods, especially the first three that involve code, it’s best to browse through your website after the compression to make sure everything is still working fine.