7 Ways to Optimize CSS Delivery to Increase Web Speed

For those of you who use websites as a means of doing business, one of the things to consider is user convenience. You also need to devise various strategies to make users feel comfortable when visiting the website. One of the many things that can affect user comfort when accessing a site is the page speed.

If your website still doesn't have enough speed, try optimizing the CSS Delivery section. If you feel that you are still quite new, you can listen to an explanation of what CSS delivery is as well as how to optimize CSS delivery below.

What is CSS Delivery?

The process of serving CSS script-containing files in browsers is known as CSS delivery. This can be done by adding a <link> tag to the HTML file indicating the CSS file to be used or by writing the CSS directly within the <style> tag within the HTML file.

CSS delivery optimization can also be done using simple techniques such as inlining, where CSS scripts are written directly in the style tags of the HTML elements concerned. Apart from that, you can also optimize it by using the bundling technique, where several CSS files are combined into one large file that is then sent to the browser.

In general, the main purpose of CSS delivery is to provide appropriate styling to browsers so that web pages can be displayed correctly. Using the right CSS delivery can help you maintain the stability of a website's page speed while improving the user experience (UX).

How to Optimize CSS Delivery

If you use a website for business needs, then you must make it comfortable for users to use. One of the things that affects users' comfortability is page speed. You can increase website speed by optimizing CSS delivery.

Here are some ways to optimize CSS delivery that you need to know:

1. Measure Your Website Speed

The first step in figuring out how to optimize CSS delivery is to measure website speed. This is useful to find out how well your website is performing, especially in terms of page speed.

Apart from knowing page speed, measuring page speed can help you find out how optimal the CSS is on the website. To measure website speed, you can use Google PageSpeed or some other page speed measurement tools.

2. Combine CSS Scripts

The second way to optimize CSS delivery is to combine CSS scripts. You can combine multiple CSS scripts into one larger script. This is done in order to reduce the number of external CSS files that your website has. Because the more external CSS files you have, the slower the website will be.

This is because a website that contains a lot of CSS files will create additional requests that the browser doesn't actually need to handle. However, using just one CSS file will also make your website have an adverse effect on its page speed.

Therefore, it is recommended that you only reduce the number of external CSS files by combining several CSS scripts into one larger file.

3. Compress New CSS Script

Compressing CSS scripts is one way to optimize CSS delivery, which is very simple for you to do. If you have finished combining several CSS scripts into one larger file, now compress the file to reduce the amount of data that users have to download when visiting your website.

This is because, for each additional KB, the user's browser has to download them one by one, which ends up making the page slightly slower. You can use tools like the CSS compressor to compress the file.

4. Prioritize CSS Rules for 'Above The Fold'

Prioritizing CSS rules for Above-the-Fold content is the fourth way to optimize CSS delivery. Several important factors that you should pay attention to when optimizing CSS delivery include:

• First of all, find out if the CSS file that you have combined is big or small. If the file size is too small, you must include it in the HTML head tag. Delaying the loading of CSS scripts generally does not positively impact website speed.
• Extract the content of Above the Fold from a larger CSS script file. This means that CSS is needed to display above-the-fold content on your website. Above the Fold itself is an element that functions to hold the user's attention when opening the website for the first time. This is also why Above-the-Fold content should be as appealing as possible.  

5. Avoid Using @import 

Avoiding using @import is the next way to optimize CSS delivery. Using the @import command in CSS allows you to import external CSS files into CSS scripts. This has the potential to make your website speed worse because the @import command will work by loading the CSS file separately. 

You should avoid using @import, as this can multiply unnecessary HTTP requests. Keep your website stable by not using it in CSS scripts.

6. Avoid Using Style Tags in Body HTML

The next way to optimize CSS delivery is to avoid using style tags in the HTML body. You should delete all the code and move it to the HTML head section. This can worsen page speed because style tags placed in the HTML body can block the rendering process.

The CSS style code in the HTML head section can expedite the rendering of CSS scripts for your website without affecting page speed.

7. CSS Delivery Optimization for Content Management System (CMS)

To get your website's speed optimized as a whole, don't forget to optimize the Content Management System (CMS) as well. Basically, a CMS is used to manage any content published on your website. To maintain user comfort when reading content on your website, website performance stability must also be maintained, especially in terms of page speed.

This rule does not only apply to CMS that most people use, like WordPress, but applies to all types of CMS, including Joomla, Drupal, and others.

Thus, the discussion about what CSS Delivery is and some ways to optimize CSS Delivery to optimize your website's performance. Optimizing CSS delivery can improve the performance of your website, especially in terms of page speed.

This also means your website has implemented SEO. Because one of the factors for making a website rank well in search engines is having a good page speed.

Don't hesitate to use SEO services in order to make your digital marketing strategy for your website more optimal.