Tips on how to improve my websites performance

Woaaaaah there dude

1. Never gzip files. Compression is enabled on Bluehost by default, but not every browser can accept compressed files. When the browser sends an HTTP GET request it specifies the Accept-Encoding in the request header (eg. Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate). When the server responds with the actual file, it will specify Content-Encoding in the header so that the browser knows it is compressed. Wikipedia details this process in this article: HTTP compression - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2. Deleting unused components is a good idea, but what defines an unused component? Referenced JS that isn't needed? Sure, take it out. But you don't need to physically remove the JS file, if it isn't being accessed it makes no difference to the HTTPD.

3. Enable caching (not catching Again, a good idea, but you aren't being very specific. Apache, nginx, and lighttpd all cache by default, and there is no way an end user will have control over that. I also doubt that Bluehost expose the ability to override cache-specific headers on a file level. With PHP you can modify the cache headers for a specific file, but there really isn't any reason to do this unless the user knows exactly WHY they want to increase cache periods.

4. Avoid tables? This is, quite honestly, the oddest piece of advice I've seen in a thread on improving performance. If you're referring to tables in the database...well that's impossible, most data in modern relational databases is stored in tables. It's kinda the point of a relational database. If you're referring to HTML tables...the site's main page has 3 small tables on it, the rest is all CSS. Additionally, tables actually have lower overhead from a browser rendering perspective than using complex nested divs to achieve the same end (see WebKits benchmarks on this, for example). The reason that most good web designers try avoid tables is because it's the wrong approach to take for layered design layouts, as CSS is ubiquitous in the modern web. Tables are not deprecated, and they are still useful for many situations (eg. datagrids can and should be rendered in tables).

I get that you're trying to be helpful, but please base opinions on solid facts and evidence, and not just a few buzzwords you've picked up along the way.