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How can I improve page load speed using critical CSS?
Asked on Feb 10, 2026
Answer
Improving page load speed with critical CSS involves extracting and inlining the CSS necessary for above-the-fold content, which allows the browser to render the visible part of the page faster. This technique is particularly effective in enhancing perceived performance and is often used in conjunction with tools like Webpack or Gulp.
- Identify the CSS rules required for rendering above-the-fold content using tools like Chrome DevTools or Critical CSS generators.
- Inline these critical CSS rules directly into the HTML section to ensure they are loaded and applied immediately.
- Defer loading of non-critical CSS by linking to external stylesheets with the "media" attribute set to "print" and switching it back to "all" once the page has loaded.
Additional Comment:
- Use tools like "PurgeCSS" to remove unused CSS and minimize the size of your stylesheets.
- Consider using a build tool like Webpack with the "critical" plugin to automate the extraction and inlining of critical CSS.
- Test the performance impact using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or Lighthouse to ensure improvements.
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