The web site owner is granted only so much of the surfer's time online and he'd better make a good impression during that short time or the prospect will most likely move on to the next site on his list never to return.
Of course there are a lot of elements to making a good web site impression. In this installment we're only talking about one small piece of that puzzle right now: page load time.
That's the length of time, usually measured in seconds, from the instant a viewer clicks on his mouse to the point at which your web page is fully loaded in his browser.
Here are five more suggestions of easy simple things you can do to decrease your web site page load times:
5. Create your design and format with small style sheets and very short title or description names. They will shorten your load times by as much as 50%.
I'm seeing more and more professionally designed web sites utilizing CSS than ever before. The HTML code is greatly simplified and much of the redundancy of the older table-based designs has been eliminated.
6. Avoid calling back and forth with a server database. If you can simply put the data you need displayed on your site into the HTML code your page will load much faster.
This solution may not be practical in all cases, especially where there is a huge database involved. It will take extra time and effort to make this change, but it could be worthwhile.
7. Avoid fancy image or wallpaper backgrounds. Use a simple color background or none at all for quicker load times. If you do use some sort of background image, make sure it is compressed as much as possible.
A background image doesn't need to have great detail and clarity. In fact, it may be more effective if it's somewhat blurred or less detailed so that it doesn't detract from the page content.
8. Get rid of JavaScripts if at all possible. They are a particularly slow loading language because they are interpreted and then executed by the host computer. If your computer happens to be older and slower, JavaScript will really affect the load time negatively.
9. Steer clear of rollover and pop-up DHTML navigation and menu buttons. They usually employ JavaScript execution and extra time in functioning so they stand in the way of fast loading pages.
10. Make sure you HTML or XHTML is "Valid" – it will save your load times over the standard HTML.
Bonus tip: If you choose to use graphic images and tables, specify their sizes in terms of pixels rather than letting the browser fit them to the space available. They will begin loading when the page loads, not after the other elements on the page are in place.
If you don't design your own web pages, what are you to do?
How do you get all these suggestions implemented if you don't have HTML and web design skills?
I would suggest posting a job on www.elance.com or www.scriptlance.com and let some professional freelancers bid on your project. The competition is great enough that you should have several reasonable choices for completing your project.
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