Notes on Keeping a Site Fast

I have a soft spot for fast websites. Here are the principles I keep returning to.

Ship less JavaScript

The fastest code is the code you never send. Most content pages don't need a client-side framework running at all — render them on the server and send HTML.

Make the common case static

If a page can be generated at build time, it should be. Static HTML served from a CDN is about as fast as the web gets, and it scales for free.

Treat fonts and images with care

• Subset and preload fonts; avoid layout shift.
• Serve modern image formats and the right sizes.
• Lazy-load anything below the fold.

Measure, don't guess

npx lighthouse https://kammerlander.se --view

Numbers keep you honest. It's easy to feel like a site is fast; it's better to know.

Fast sites respect the reader's time and attention. That's reason enough.