Have you been to a fast food restaurant waiting for your hamburger and you’re growing impatient? Most people feel the same way with Web sites. We don’t like to wait long for web pages to load. Having your web pages load quickly will ensure your customers stick around your site.
How can you optimize your web pages so they load faster? Here are a few tips:
Avoid Long Pages
Generally, a visitor waits no longer than 8-10 seconds for a page to load and if your web page isn’t up by then, gone is your prospective customer.
Longer pages can be a permanent turn off as users are not used to reading long pages of text on screen due to short attention spans. Consider spreading it over several smaller pages as opposed to having it all on one page.
In addition to affecting the speed on long pages, many people don’t like to scroll endlessly and pour through large chunks of text and graphics.
Optimize Images
Professional looking, high quality graphics will enhance your Web site. Upload images that are optimized for the web. A popular graphics software for optimizing images is Photoshop.
If you have several pictures, provide thumbnails so users can click on the thumbnail to view enlarged pictures. Use images with discretion as too many images can slow down your Web site. If you have cool glossy buttons, replace them with text links to help decrease load times.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
You may want to use external CSS to cut down loading time for web pages. Besides keeping your file size low, using an external file will save you valuable bandwidth.
Short for Cascading Style Sheets, CSS is a feature that is added to HTML code that gives Web site developers more control over how pages are displayed. With the use of CSS you can determine how elements such as, headers, colours and links appear, which can enable your pages to load more quickly and accurately.
Given a choice between image files or CSS for colors on your Web site, go with CSS.
Display Useful Content first
Display useful content first so visitors have something to read while the rest of the page loads. They will be willing to wait longer for the page to load if they can interact with the content immediately.
As you can see, there are several ways to make your web pages load faster and be more attractive to visitors. It takes a bit of work, and maybe the help of a pro, but if you follow these simple suggestions, you’ll have a fast loading site in no time.
- Nina Menezes |
"Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems
the dream again; and this interdependence produces the
highest form of living."
- Anais Nin
"Success to me is not about money or status or fame, its about finding a livelihood that brings me joy and self-sufficiency and a sense of contributing to the world."
- Anita Roddick (founder of The Body Shop) -
"Courage comes from wanting to do it well. Security comes from knowing you can do it well. Confidence comes from having done it well."
- Author Unknown
At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from
another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of
those who have lighted the flame within us.
- Albert Schweitzer
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