Create Quick Loading Websites  -  November 13, 2008

There’s nothing more frustrating than waiting for a web page to load. In fact most internet users will not wait more than 10 seconds. So if you want to hold on to your visitors and lower your bounce rate try the following design tips to speed up your page load times.

Multimedia Files: Music files, flash animation and video clips can slow down your website dramatically. If you have a piece of music or a movie that you really want your viewers to access try providing a link to an online player instead of embedding the file on your webpage.

Javascript: Scripts such as those that create drop down menus can contribute to slow loading pages. Try using CSS to achieve the same functionality in a more efficient format.

Templates: Website templates are cached by the web browser on first load so any subsequent pages using the same template load much faster.

Images: Excessive use of images can slow down a website hugely. If you do need to use several images on your site, for instance in photo galleries, ensure that their individual file sizes are as small as possible. Software such as Adobe Fireworks can compress images for web use.

HTML: Well written HTML, CSS and the use of minimal images results in fast loading pages. Optimise your code by removing repeated or redundant HTML tags.

Background Images: When creating headers and footers use background instead of full images. The visual effect will be the same for the viewer but the page will load much quicker.

Once you have finished your website build or redesign check your pages to see how long they take to load. There are various browser plugins available to help make your job easier.

bellc at 6:05 pm

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