Anyone who is a code junkie knows that upon opening and viewing the source code for any particular site, it is traditionally filled with redundancies and extra pieces of code that simply are not needed.  The extra code results in a page having extra commands and therefore being “bulkier” than a site that has undergone the procedure of HTML optimisation, also sometimes referred to as client-side optimisation.  Each and every webmaster should consider the following pieces of information when designing his or her site so that the overall template and structure can be as efficient (fast) as possible.

The Most Common Culprits

Throughout the process of designing a HTML website, there are some common instances in which unnecessary or redundant pieces of code find themselves strewn about.  One example is the old-school HTML comment forms (<!–, →) that are often left in script blocks.  These are not needed by modern browsers and therefore should be removed.  Often used side-by-side with the comment pieces is the <!CDATA … > tag as well as many of the “onclick=” functions that are added for mouse over changes and other javascript functions.  In the vast majority of instances, all of these types of HTML code are outdated and therefore not needed in your site’s newly-optimised layout.

Making the Appropriate Changes

Sometimes, our code is correctly placed in terms of meaning, but the actual line of code itself may be antiquated or less efficient than other forms.  A great example of this is the difference between the <b> code and the <strong> code.  For example, the <b> code changes the appearance of text and makes it far easier to read, but the <em> code does all of that plus gives search engines the cue that this particular piece of text is more important than the surrounding text and therefore deserves greater indexing influence.

Why Is HTML Optimisation Important?

There are a plethora of reasons to have your HTML code properly optimised, with one of the most obvious aspects pertaining to the ability for search engines and bots to locate and index the site.  What happens, however, when an individual using a mobile device comes to your site and is appalled to see slow loading times and inefficient formatting on their screen?  HTML optimisation is necessary as we begin to see a greater percentage of individuals browsing the web from their mobile devices.  HTML optimisation not only makes pages appear properly on mobile devices but it also reduces the amount of code and therefore, reduces the total loading size of any given page.

How to Optimise in a Flash

There are plenty of ways to optimise: you can go through, line-by-line, and remove/alter the pieces of code that need to be changed or deleted.  There are also many tools available, such as Pingler’s  HTML Optimizer Tool, that can be used to insert HTML source code into and achieve a more efficient, optimised result.  While some coding tools out there do not take into account all of the optimisations available and some even make the code less efficient, Pingler’s tool is designed with all of this in mind and gives you perfectly-formatted code each time.