This presentation discusses the importance of website performance and provides strategies for improving it. It covers why performance is important for SEO, conversions, and revenue. Tools for measuring performance like Yslow and PageSpeed are presented. Methods for reducing page load times like minimizing requests, optimizing content, image sprites and lazy loading are covered. Trends in performance and an open discussion period are also included on the agenda.

1. Designing and Theming for
Performance
Matthew Dorman
Sr. Vice President
NorthPoint Digital
@northps
@matthewdorman

2. / About NorthPoint Digital
/ About Presenter
/ Why Performance is Important
/ Tools
/ Reduce – Reuse - Recycle
/ Trends
/ Questions / Open Discussion

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We lead with experience
NEW YORKBOSTON PHILADELPHIA
NEW YORK BOSTON PHILADELPHIA
HQ

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NorthPoint helps optimize
your digital presence
through a perfect blend:
Strategy.
Experience.
Technology.

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Web.
Mobile.
Social.
We create digital
platforms so you have
endless possibilities:

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Platforms / Technologies

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About Speaker
 NJIT Alum (B.S. Computer Science)
 7+ years with NorthPoint
 Oversee OpenSource Team
 16+ years w/ Enterprise Websites
@matthewdorman
linkedin.com/in/matthewdorman
Matthew Dorman

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Why? SEO Benefit
“Like us, our users place a lot of value in speed
— that's why we've decided to take site speed
into account in our search rankings.”
-Statement from Google on April 9, 2010

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Why? Stickiness & Revenue
 For every 1 second of
improvement, up to a 2%
increase in conversions
 For every 0.1 second
improvement, incremental
revenue grew by up to 1%
 Noted SEO benefits for
entry pages and reduce
bounces
 End-user benchmarks
(actual measured times)
track optimization

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Why? Case Study
 Testing incremental
changes
 Ad impressions up 33%
year-over-year in Feb ‘12
 Gallery ad impressions
tripled Year over Year
 Click-through rates stable

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Which Loads Faster? Car and Driver vs. Edmunds

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Which Loads Faster? Drupal vs. WordPress

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Which Loads Faster? Acquia vs. Automattic

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Tools
 Yahoo’s Yslow
developer.yahoo.com/yslow
 AOL’s WebPage Test
www.webpagetest.org
 Google’s PageSpeed
developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed

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Reduce – Reuse - Recycle
Photo:

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Fewer Requests (Reduce)
 FIX 400/50x ERRORS!
 Optimize Content
 Aggregate CSS
 Aggregate JavaScript
 Lossless Compression
 Lazy Load Images

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Aggregation (Reduce)

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Custom Fonts (Reduce)
 Images vs. Fonts
 Large Screens
 Limit Styles
 Body Content
 Sprite Replacement?
drupal.org/project/fontyourface

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Sprites (Reuse)
 Better Load Time
 Easier Maintenance
 NorthPoint Contribution:
https://github.com/northpoint/SpeedySprite

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SMARTER WordPress (Recycle)

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Contribute (Recycle)
Plugins
quick-cache
wp-super-cache
w3-total-cache
wp-shmushit
jquery-image-lazy-loading
revision-control
performance-optimization-order-styles-and-javascript
http://wordpress.org/plugins

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Hosting

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Trends
Photo: images.businessweek.com
httparchive.org/trends.php

24. / Why Performance is Important
/ Tools
/ Reduce – Reuse - Recycle
/ Trends

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Questions? / Open Discussion
Photo: images.businessweek.com

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New York Office
130 West 42nd Street
New York, NY 10036
Tel: 212-819-1700
Boston Office
470 Atlantic Avenue
Boston, MA 02110
Tel: 617-725-8888
Philadelphia Office
1650 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Tel: 215-558-2700
info@northps.com / northps.com
THANK YOU
Matthew Dorman
mdorman@northps
@matthewdorman