How to reduce the # of HTTP requests / page load?

Major culprit that impacts the page performance for any website is the total # of HTTP requests that gets fired from the browser to the web server. So, exactly what results into the generation of HTTP requests is what we need to understand 1^st and figure out a way to measure and investigate the areas that need attention.

Each of the below request(s) from the browser to the server would result into a new HTTP request causing the need for request-response mechanism to kick-in:

1. CSS file(s)
2. JavaScript file(s)
3. Image file(s)
4. and, any other downloadable resource on page load

In order to view the total # of HTTP requests for your page, you can install one of the best free tools called “AOL Pagetest”.

AOL Pagetest is a completely free and open source tool for analyzing your Web pages. It is the only free tool for Internet Explorer that dissects all of the requests the browser makes and displays them in a waterfall view of the page load making it easy to spot bottlenecks. Included in the waterfall display are the DNS lookup times, Socket connect times as well as each http request. It also provides the full request and response headers for each request.

Additional information about AOL Pagetest can be found here:

1. Presentation(s) on AOL Pagetest
2. Video(s) on AOL Pagetest