Web fonts make your website look great, but they can also slow it down significantly. When fonts take too long to load, visitors see blank text or experience jarring shifts when fonts finally appear. These problems hurt both user experience and search engine rankings.
The good news is that optimizing fonts doesn’t require advanced technical skills. With a few simple changes, you can make your fonts load faster while keeping your site looking professional. These optimizations can improve your page speed scores and make visitors happier with your site’s performance.
Simple tips to optimize your fonts
Tip 1: Use modern font formats
Stop using old font formats and switch to WOFF2, which compresses fonts much better than older formats. WOFF2 files are about 30% smaller than WOFF files, meaning faster downloads for your visitors.
@font-face {
font-family: "Your Font";
src: url("/fonts/yourfont.woff2") format("woff2");
}
All modern browsers support WOFF2, so you don’t need to provide backup formats anymore. This simplifies your code and prevents accidental double downloads.
Tip 2: Put font declarations directly in your HTML
Instead of loading fonts from external CSS files, put your font declarations directly in your HTML head section. This lets browsers discover fonts sooner without waiting for separate stylesheet downloads.
<head>
<style>
@font-face {
font-family: "Your Font";
src: url("/fonts/yourfont.woff2") format("woff2");
}
body {
font-family: "Your Font", Arial, sans-serif;
}
</style>
</head>
Tip 3: Connect early to font services
If you use Google Fonts or other font services, add preconnect links to speed up the connection process. This sets up the network connection before the fonts are actually needed.
<head>
<link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com">
<link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.gstatic.com" crossorigin>
</head>
Tip 4: Choose smart font display settings
Use font-display: swap to show text immediately in a backup font, then switch to your web font when it loads. This prevents visitors from seeing blank text while fonts download.
@font-face {
font-family: "Your Font";
src: url("/fonts/yourfont.woff2") format("woff2");
font-display: swap;
}
For body text where performance matters most, consider font-display: optional which only uses the web font if it loads quickly, otherwise sticks with system fonts.
Tip 5: Use fewer fonts
Every font you add slows down your site. Limit yourself to one or two font families and use different weights (bold, regular) from the same family instead of loading completely different fonts.
Consider using system fonts for body text:
body {
font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, sans-serif;
}
System fonts are already installed on visitors’ devices, so they load instantly and look native on each operating system.
Tip 6: Remove unused characters
Many fonts include thousands of characters you’ll never use. Font subsetting removes these extra characters to make files smaller. Google Fonts does this automatically, but if you host your own fonts, use tools like Glyphhanger to create smaller font files.
Tip 7: Replace icon fonts with SVGs
Icon fonts often cause layout problems and are harder for screen readers to understand. Replace them with SVG icons, which are smaller, more accessible, and don’t cause text to disappear while loading.
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Why these tips work
Fonts affect website performance in three main ways: they can delay text from appearing, cause layout shifts when they finally load, and use up bandwidth that could be better spent on other resources.
The tips above address these problems by making fonts load faster (modern formats, early connections), showing text sooner (smart display settings), and reducing the total amount of font data (fewer fonts, subsetting). When fonts load quickly and smoothly, visitors get a better experience and search engines rank your site higher.
Many sites load fonts inefficiently because they use old practices or accept default settings that prioritize convenience over performance. These simple optimizations can dramatically improve loading times without sacrificing design quality. If you need help implementing these optimizations or want ongoing performance monitoring, consider a website retainer service that can handle these technical improvements for you.
Conclusion
Font optimization is simpler than it looks. Start with WOFF2 format and font-display: swap, then use fewer fonts overall. These changes will make your site faster and give visitors a better experience. Test your improvements with browser tools to see the results.
