When it comes to optimizing website performance, limiting HTTP requests and maximizing page caching are crucial steps. By reducing the number of HTTP requests and leveraging caching mechanisms, you can significantly improve your website's loading speed and overall user experience.

Here are a few strategies to achieve these goals:

1. Combine and Minify CSS and JavaScript Files

Instead of loading multiple separate CSS and JavaScript files, you can combine them into a single file for each type. This reduces the number of HTTP requests required to fetch these resources. Additionally, minifying these files by removing unnecessary characters and whitespace further reduces their size, resulting in faster downloads.

2. Use CSS Sprites

CSS sprites involve combining multiple small images into a single larger image. By utilizing background-position CSS property, you can display specific parts of the larger image as needed. This technique minimizes the number of image requests and improves loading speed.

3. Implement Lazy Loading

Lazy loading delays the loading of non-critical resources, such as images or videos, until they are about to enter the viewport. This technique reduces the initial page load time and allows faster rendering of above-the-fold content, enhancing the user experience.

4. Leverage Browser Caching

By setting appropriate caching headers, you can instruct the browser to store certain resources locally for a specified period. This way, subsequent visits to your website will require fewer HTTP requests as the browser can retrieve the cached resources. This technique is particularly effective for static assets that rarely change.

5. Enable Gzip Compression

Gzip compression reduces the size of your website's files before sending them over the network. This compression technique significantly reduces the amount of data transferred, resulting in faster page loads. Most modern web servers and browsers support Gzip compression, making it an effective way to optimize website performance.

By implementing these strategies, you can effectively limit HTTP requests and maximize page caching, leading to faster loading times and improved user experience on your website.

For more information and additional optimization techniques, you can refer to the following resources:

• Yahoo Developer Network - Best Practices for Speeding Up Your Website
• Web.dev - Fast Load Times
• Google Developers - Optimizing Content Efficiency