Speed is essential for a good user experience on the web. Page load time impacts metrics like abandonment rates and conversion rates. The majority of page load time is spent downloading assets from the front-end like scripts, stylesheets, and images rather than backend processing. Techniques for improving performance include compressing assets, reducing requests, leveraging the browser cache, optimizing images for different devices, loading scripts asynchronously, and addressing third-party script blocking. Performance must be considered across many factors like network conditions, device capabilities, and business goals.