I never really put too much time on optimizing website. Sure i put script at the botton, make sprite, get the crap out the HTML and CSS at the end of the contract, event tweek some javascript.
Yesterday, i getting a WordPress site ready to be launch, and delete all the unused plug-in, and getting the one i keep working and up-to-date and i try to benchmark the site just for fun
With this good and right-to-the-point tool : http://gtmetrix.com/
here it is i start at 79-80% (yslow and page speed grade).. not bad
with some tweaking and best practice apply (add expire header, gzip, etags, caching, minify) noting a plug-in cannot do… i got to the point where i score 93-94%… a score event a hand coded site cannot get… all with plug-in..
The question… all the site is not wp base.. i know…. What is you library, php, script, software to get hat king of speed from a html/javascrip/php website hand coded without too much pain…Something as easy as to download and install a plugin in WP is heaven… what is your tricks ?
Moving the static
content(javascript, css, images) to a
3rd part hosting, like
s3.amazon. By this, you won’t
need to worry about CDN and reduce
the request to your own server.
Using cache, something like
memcached to reduce the
data-accessing