If you’ve visited before, you’ll notice that the layout has changed dramatically — this site now matches the styling of its sister site, formimp.com . You’ll also notice that this section, where I used to dissect website performance and walk through full optimization processes, is now closed.
But why?
Creating compelling content is tough. Ninety-nine percent of performance optimization is constant monitoring, and writing “I’m still watching, but nothing happens” is remarkably boring — which is by design. A well-tuned system should be stable and uneventful.
While many websites still have performance issues, most solutions fall into the same four categories we’ve discussed here:
- TMD – Too Much Data
- TMS – Too Much Stuff
- TMF – Too Much Flash
- TMO – Too Many Origins
When you load a huge amount of data into a browser and ask it to build complex, flashy pages with all kinds of visual effects, you’re going to have problems. If you add even more detail, those problems multiply. And when all that data and code come from too many places?
Well, you’re going to have a bad couple of weeks.
Final Advice
- Monitor early and often — but don’t just monitor, observe. When “monitor” and “observe” mean different things to you, you’re on the right track.
- If you can only optimize one metric, focus on total page size. Smaller is better.
- If two web vitals conflict (like CLS improving at the expense of LCP), consider rewriting the page. If that conflict happens site-wide, refactor your base template. Otherwise, prepare for an awkward meeting when you have to explain why you need to rebuild the entire site.