[SOLVED] My Web Page Speed Report. Feedback wanted

Hi

Please have alook at the report below. Is this stuff realy important? I would be grateful for any tips/links on how to amend these warninigs!

www.capoeiracanal.co.uk


Cheers.
Analysis and Recommendations

• TOTAL_OBJECTS - Warning! The total number of objects on this page is 12 - consider reducing this to a more reasonable number. Combine, refine, and optimize your external objects. Replace graphic rollovers with CSS rollovers to speed display and minimize HTTP requests.

• TOTAL_SIZE - Warning! The total size of this page is 145596 bytes, which will load in 31.42 seconds on a 56Kbps modem. Consider reducing total page size to less than 30K to achieve sub eight second response times on 56K connections. Pages over 100K exceed most attention thresholds at 56Kbps, even with feedback.
• IMAGES_SIZE - Warning! The total size of your images is 97995 bytes, which is over 30K. Consider optimizing your images for size, combining them, and replacing graphic rollovers with CSS.
• SCRIPT_SIZE - Warning! The total size of external your scripts is 33375 bytes, which is over 8K. Consider optimizing your scripts for size, combining them, and using compression where appropriate for any scripts placed in the HEAD of your documents.
• CSS_SIZE - Warning! The total size of your external CSS is 9220 bytes, which is over 8K. Consider optimizing your CSS for size by eliminating whitespace, using shorthand notation, and combining multiple CSS files where appropriate.

It's always good to be aware of your file sizes, but reports such as this one tend to give a narrow-minded, fundamentalist picture.

Speed of loading can make a huge difference to your site's popularity. Web designers often indulge themselves with huge graphics that add nothing to a user's experience; this should be avoided.

But total file size isn't the only thing that matters. What really matters is the responsiveness: how quickly can a visitor begin using the site?

My site badmintonbible.com has a home page file size of 149 kb. This is actually reduced to 79 kb by compressing the files (I've no idea how this happens, but I'm not complaining!). Purely decorative images account for 57 kb; the rest is only 22 kb (after compression).

Although 79 kb is quite large, the page is very responsive. All decorative images are placed as CSS backgrounds, which are given a low priority for downloading.

What I'm getting at is this: don't just look at your file sizes; look at your page responsiveness. If you make your page load in an efficient way, then you can still splurge on moderately large files.

There are many factors that affect your page responsiveness. Obviously a fast server is helpful (so free web hosting is usually a false economy). The number of HTTP requests also has an effect. On that very same site, I used to use 8 stylesheets; when I amalgamated them into 1 stylesheet, the responsiveness increased dramatically.

Thanks Mike!

I will copy and paste this into my PC's Webforumzs Notes Folder.