It’s important to understand how to improve the web performance of websites. In this article, I prepared for you a selection of must-read Web Performance books.
HTTP/2 in Action by Barry Pollard
Published in 2019, this book focus on the version 2 of the HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) protocol. It covers all what you need to master HTTP/2 features. You’ll learn how to optimize site speed and resources delivery with new features like frames, multiplexing, and push.
Link to the book – Follow Barry pollard: Twitter – LinkedIn
Web Performance in Action: Building Faster Web Pages by Jeremy Wagner
Release in 2017, this book is a good guide to making websites faster. It covers several concepts and optimization techniques such as CSS delivery, images compression, accelerating fonts, cleaning JavaScript, HTTP/2 protocol and caching strategies.
Link to the book – Follow Jeremy: Twitter – LinkedIn
Responsible JavaScript by Jeremy Wagner
The cost of JavaScript on user experience and site speed is the topic of this excellent book from Jeremy Wagner. Advice on framework choice, how to optimize the loading of JavaScript, and advanced optimization techniques (service workers, lazy loading, code splitting).
Link to the book – Follow Jeremy: Twitter – LinkedIn
Designing for Performance: Weighing Aesthetics and Speed by Lara Hogan
In this 2015 book, Lora helps Web designers and developers approach projects with site speed in mind. It covers best practices when it comes to design web interfaces but also tooling:
- The impact of page load time on your site, brand, and users
- Page speed basics: how browsers retrieve and render content
- Best practices for optimizing and loading images
- Mobile-first design with performance goals by breakpoint
- Using tools to measure performance as your site evolves
- Methods for shaping an organization’s performance culture
Link to the book – Follow Lara: Twitter – LinkedIn
Time is money by Tammy Everts
Another book, less technical and more case studies oriented. It explains how human neurological assess the web perfomance of a website/ an application. This book is ideal for managers to better understand the impact of speed on business metrics.
Link to the book – Follow Tammy: Twitter – Linkedin
Using Webpagetest by Rick Viscomi, Andy Davies, Marcel Duran
If you work on Web Performance, you sould know WebPagetest. On of the most old and popular site speed tools. In this book, the authors explain how to use the tool, interpret the results, do advanced techniques, and adjust the test settings.
Follow Rick: Twitter – LinkedIn
Follow Andy: Twitter – LinkedIn
Even Faster Web Sites: Performance Best Practices for Web Developers by Steve Sounders
Practical book about web performance best practices and optimization techniques. It provides hands on techniques for improving your site’s performance in three critical categories: JavaScript, Browser, and Network.
Link to the book – Follow Steve: Twitter – LinkedIn
Final notes
The books highlighted in this list provide invaluable insights, practical techniques, and a deep understanding of web performance optimization. Whether you’re a experienced developer, a product owner, or just starting your career, these resources offer the things ti know and the strategies needed to create faster, more efficient web applications.
At Speetals, we provide a solution to monitor and validate Web Performance metrics based on Real User data. We also do site speed consulting as subscription.
