How to make your website load SUPER FAST!!!

How to make your website load SUPER FAST!!!

As you settle in to build or update your website, what's going through your mind? No doubt thoughts of a dynamic, feature-rich website with loads of beautiful, high resolution images and lashings of JavaScript to entertain and delight your visitors? And why not? After-all this is the generous age of fast internet ... What can go wrong?

In truth there are quite literally still millions of dial-up internet users out there. Remember that your website exists for the benefit of your visitors and customers and a fraction of them will have slow internet connections. Just because a visitor has a slow internet connection doesn't mean they don't want to buy things from your e-commerce store or enjoy your website. They will click away very fast if they find your website doesn't load quickly enough. If anything, as the internet has become faster, attention spans have gotten shorter. Your page loading time will even improve your search engine ranking now that Google uses site speed in their ranking algorithm. For all these reasons, we at @Irchad and VodaHost have prepared some easy tips to help you get your website is off the mark before its competitors:

1. Graphics
Images and graphics are the main culprit when it comes to slowing down a website's page load time. Always say it with plain text where you can or use small thumb-nails instead of the full graphic. Remember that even a massive website that is all plain text will load significantly faster than even one single largish image. It is nice to show off the artistic qualities of your design but if it is at the expense of your visitors experience then it is detrimental. You should also try to use image-manipulation software to make your images the right size for the page. Try out PIXResizer, for example. You should avoid re-sizing your images without re-rendering them at the right size because the web browser will still have to load the whole image and then just squish it when it comes time to render it; this will take time. Try and avoid having duplicate images to by keeping all the images for your website in one folder because your website should, as much as possible, load from the cache (memory) of your visitor’s computer. Identical images with different file-names will get in the way of this. You should also try and avoid using animations and use a static, properly re-sized, image where possible.

2. Tables
Try and minimize the use of tables in your website if you can. Your web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox et al) doesn't display the contents of a table until it has loaded all the elements within it, so if your entire website is contained within a table, it's gonna take a while to load. If you must use tables in your website, create as many different tables as you can. A different table should be employed for at least the header, body and footer of your website. That way, at least part of the web-page will appear to your visitor should they have a slow internet connection. Consider this, instead of tables, use CSS to keep your page organized.

3. Scripts
Some of the scripts out there can be fun but in an attempt not to mince words on the subject, it's fancy-shmancy. Little applications that show the user what the weather is doing in their part of the world, for example, are fairly pointless and slow down their web-surfing experience. If your visitor wants to know what the weather is doing outside, they can look out the window. You should consider scripts to be a luxury item and the rule here is, if it isn't essential, loose it!

4. Videos
Adding videos to your site can also slow down your website significantly. If you absolutely must stream, make sure your videos are small in file size. A really fantastic way to save on website speed is to embed videos into your site that you have uploaded to YouTube. You can get the HTML code from your YouTube video. Embedding videos in this way also saves on the scripts you’ll have to add to your site for the video player to work and means that your website will function faster. The more you distance the content of your site from the HTML file that “builds” it, the faster your site will load. As an added bonus, the link to Google’s YouTube will even help the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) of your site and the more links to YouTube, the better!

Optimizing your page load time for your visitors will mean them a better experience and they will return to your website. Making a website for your visitors is extremely important. You must consider all the options and always optimize your site for them. Streamline your site, spread out your content neatly and stick to simple designs. All the really fast loading sites do...