eems to me like most web
users (me included) are 1.Use images sparingly.
always in a hurry when
browsing. Statistics show that, Images may enhance the appearance
without a compelling reason, the of a website but it greatly
average user will not wait for increases its loading time. While
much more than 10 seconds for a optimizing images will make the
page to load. So does that pages load faster, overuse will
explain why your visitors seem to not have the desired effect. For
spend less than 5 seconds in your example, if you use over 75% of
site? Probably your site is your page content as images
taking too long to load thus chances are that your pages will
putting off visitors. load very slow.
As you design your site, loading 2. Use HTML to design your
time should always be a priority pages
if your site is to be an
effective business tool. HTML when used well can be very
Balancing usability and effective in creating fast
aesthetics is a delicate matter loading pages. You can create
when creating a fast loading simple and elegant sites using
site. You can have a colourful plain HTML, CSS and few images.
website but takes ages to load
while on the other hand you can 3. Minimize animated gifs and
design a simple site that loads flash usage
faster than you can brink. Below
are 10 tips and tricks that I Wherever possible use very few
have found very useful that you animated gifs and flash files. As
can use while designing your fast much as they enhance web page
loading website. appearance they usually bog down
the loading times so use load slowly is huge page size as
sparingly. a result of useless or repeated
HTML tags. Validating your site
4. Use background images is one way of optimizing your
HTML.
Instead of using full images, use
background images for headers and 7. Avoid using multimedia
footers. In this way you get to files
use a strip of the image of
uniform design instead of using Unless your site is an
an image 779px wide. entertainment one don’t use
multimedia files especially as
5. Avoid using Javascript and background music unless you
flash scripts absolutely have to. Providing a
download link or an online player
Most of these scripts contribute is better than using the files as
greatly to slow loading pages background music.
because they usually have to load
some items first before they are 8. Use Templates
rendered. For example, Javascript
drop menus are very useful in Using templates will not only
creating seamless navigation but ensure uniformity throughout your
unfortunately increase page load site but will enable subsequent
times significantly. Consider pages load faster because the
using CSS with which you can have structural images will have
drop down menus. cached and thereby reducing the
load times significantly.
6. Optimize your HTML
9. Optimize images
One of the reasons why pages may
Using an image editor like
Photoshop, or Ifarnview, images 10. Check your loading
can be optimized to load fast times
depending on their intended use.
Appropriately resized and cropped Finally check your loading times
images will greatly reduce the using plugins such as Fasterfox
loading times of a page and at in Firefox to see how long your
the same time maintaining their pages are taking to load.
integrity.
About the Author:
Hilum Mburu is the lead web developer at http://www.simbahosting.net a web hosting & design solutions firm.
Read more articles by:
Hilum Mburu
Article Source: www.iSnare.com 
