Why is Optimizing Your Site For Speed is Important? Tips on How
to do so!
If there is one thing we have all suffered through is waiting
for a site to download online. It seems like it is the worse
thing in the world and will never end. We actually either click
off of the site or after the initial download of the frontpage
completes, we then click off of the site because the subpages
take too long to load. We have all been here and this article is
to help make sure your visitors don't go through it as well.
The reason why a websites speed of download is important is
actually very simple and we have broken it down into two parts:
-The first part is that people want to get to where they are
going quickly. This is pretty straight forward and now a days no
one seems to have the time to wait for a site to download(no
matter how important it is).
-The second part is to deliver the content to the user as quick
as possible so that we can keep them interested and entertained.
The quicker they can get to the information the more they will
click around your site and the more they will interact with your
website. This is extremely important if your website has it's
own estore, as the more products your visitors are able to view
then the more time they spend in your store and the better the
chance you have of them purchasing something off of you. Pretty
simple and straight forward.
Now you may be wondering how you can take your current design or
your re-design and improve the performance of your website so it
doesn't take forever for it to download. The truth is that it
isn't too complex and actually anyone can follow these steps.
Here are some tips on how to get your website to load faster and
why these factors may cause long load times:
1. Tip one is to use regular html text instead of graphic
text(such as exporting text from a program like fireworks or
photoshop). The reason for this is that html text carries alot
smaller kbs size when added to website design. So anywhere that
you use regular text instead of "graphical text" will really
help decrease your page size making the download time quicker
for each user.
2. Tip two is to limit other graphics uses on your website where
you can. Some things such as using a graphic for your logo can
not be avoided but try to make an effort to limit the amount of
graphics on each page. The more graphics you use the higher your
page size will be and the more time it takes to download it.
Really graphic intensive websites can have users waiting a while
for everything to download. Some occasions where it might be ok
to use graphics is if they will also be used on subpages. These
graphics will already be cached on your visitors computers and
will not have to be downloaded again when a person visits your
subpages.
3. Tip three is to limit the use of flash. It can make your page
take even longer to load as the kbs size of each file are
usually quite larger then any graphics on your website. This can
really increase download times and in alot of cases is not
necessary.
4. The final tip is to try not to nest tables inside of each
other. Try to break down your design and use multiple tables.
This way each table will load separately giving your visitors
something to view while the rest of your site loads. If you load
everything into one table then they will have to wait for the
whole main table to load.
Remember the key is to get your users to the information as fast
as possible. If you follow this advice and apply these rules to
your site, then there is nothing saying you can't have a quick
loading and great looking website as well.