Start with the critical rendering path. Delivery, image size, resource discovery, and JavaScript each need a different intervention.

Put HTML on the edge

Anonymous pages should be cacheable at Cloud CDN. Asset-only CDNs leave TTFB on origin. Purge HTML on publish.

The delivery model

How it works

How to improve page speed

  1. 01MeasureCapture a representative waterfall and rendering trace.
  2. 02PrioritizeFix the largest delay on the visible-content path.
  3. 03VerifyRepeat the test and compare field behavior.
Conceptual model for this configuration. The actual path depends on provider policy and application behavior.

Images and fonts

Transform heroes to display size in WebP or AVIF. Host WOFF2 on the same distribution. Those two changes move LCP more often than another gzip pass.

Transport

HTTP/3, HTTP/2, TLS 1.3 and Brotli are on Cloud CDN. They help waterfalls. They do not delete a 2 MB bundle.

Measure far from origin

Include regional tests and real-user data. The office connection is one observation; customers may have different routes, devices, and bandwidth constraints.

Validate before production

Choose one high-traffic page and test a cold mobile load. Identify the LCP element and its discovery time. Change one factor, preserve the test profile, and check that checkout or interaction performance has not regressed.

  • Record the configuration and expected result before changing traffic.
  • Keep evidence of the test and a working rollback for the previous behavior.

Sources & further reading