Speed is a critical factor in website performance, influencing everything from user experience to search engine rankings. For businesses using HubSpot, optimising site load time is essential. Here are practical tips to make your HubSpot site load faster:

  1. Implement Lazy Loading for Images: Lazy loading is a technique that delays loading images until they are actually needed—typically as they enter the viewport. This reduces initial page load time, initial page weight, and system resource usage, all of which positively impact performance.

  2. Centralise CSS in Your Theme: Instead of scattering CSS across various modules, include all your CSS in the main theme. This approach reduces the number of files the browser needs to fetch and parse, speeding up loading times. This can be achieved with the hubl include function

  3. Consolidate External JavaScript Libraries: Similar to CSS, manage your JavaScript efficiently by including external libraries directly in your site's theme JavaScript file. This minimises HTTP requests and can decrease load time significantly. This can be achieved using the same "include" hubl function which also works inside of js files in the design manager.

  4. Preload Fonts, Including Google Fonts: Preloading important resources such as fonts ensures they are loaded early in the page load process. This is particularly useful for fonts hosted externally, like Google Fonts, as it reduces visible delays in text rendering. You can do this with <link rel="preload" href="https://fonts.google.com/myFont" as="font" type="font/woff2"/>

  5. Replace jQuery with Vanilla JavaScript: jQuery, once a staple for simplifying complex JavaScript operations, often leads to unnecessary load due to its size. Modern JavaScript provides many of the same functionalities through querySelector and other efficient methods. Rewriting your jQuery code to plain JavaScript can shave off significant load time. Replace $(document).ready() with a check to document.readyState or add an event listener for DOMContentLoaded.

  6. Use a Single CDN for All External Resources: If you're loading resources from a content delivery network (CDN), consolidate and load them from a single CDN. This optimisation reduces DNS lookups and can improve load times as browsers establish fewer connections to different servers.

  7. Avoid Header-Blocking Resources: Scripts and stylesheets in the header can block page rendering. Where possible, move scripts to the bottom of the page and use asynchronous or deferred loading to prevent them from blocking the DOM from being painted.

By implementing these strategies, you can significantly enhance the speed and performance of your HubSpot site, ensuring a better user experience and potentially improved SEO rankings. Each step helps streamline how resources are handled, making your site not just faster but also more efficient.