The total number of HTML files on each page should be as low as possible although most browsers can multithread. Minimizing HTTP requests is a key to web page loading.
The total number of objects & images should be a reasonable number. Combine, refine, and optimize your external objects. Replace graphic rollovers with CSS rollovers to speed display and minimize HTTP requests.
Keep external CSS files per page to a low number and should be in the HEAD of your HTML document. They must load first before any BODY content displays. Although they are cached, CSS files slow down the initial display of your page.
Consider reducing total page size of your web page to less than 30K to achieve sub eight second response times on 56K connections. Pages over 100K exceed most attention thresholds at 56Kbps, even with feedback. Remember you still need to cater to dial-up connections.
Make sure external script files are either one or two. Combine, refine, and optimise your external script files.
Total size of your pages HTML file should be less than 20K which will allow your page to display content in less than 8 seconds, which is the average time users are willing to wait for a page to display without feedback.
