Monday, January 1, 2007

How to make your website load fast?

1. Use simple Design: Always go for simple website design. It is easy to maintain and is quick to load up on visitor’s PC. Complicated design will increase loading time. Use minimum lines of code to develop the webpage.

2. Maximize the use of HTML and CSS: HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is one of the most popular languages used in website design. Use HTML where ever possible to design your web pages. HTML coupled with CSS( Cascading Style Sheet) based coding of your web pages enables your website not only to load and navigate fast but also to be modified easily at a later stage if need be.

3. Use Light Images: A light webpage will load faster. Use only limited images be it text or picture in the image. This allows loading the webpage faster and even helps in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) of the website. It is easy for search engines to comprehend text on a webpage then an image. Use various image compression tools available online to reduce the image size in kilobytes to make it light. Generally a GIF image will be lighter than a JPEG one, but there is a bargain in terms of image quality in such a case.

4. Flash: Use of Flash in web pages may not be a very good idea. It does not stand very good in case you are trying to optimize your website for search engines like Yahoo, Google, MSN, etc. In addition it increases the loading time of webpage. So better option is to try and avoid a Flash website design. If still it is necessary use it within HTML site.

5. Use Tables: Loading time of tables is less because it is just HTML. Tables can be used everywhere it may be your home page, menu or somewhere else. It allows you to code and have a properly aligned design when you use tables in your coding. It definitely scores over frames. All kind of frames should be avoided on a website.

6. Increase Content Section: Content provides information about your services and your products to visitors. If used wisely content can make your webpage load faster. Imaging replacing a heavy image on your webpage which is there just to beautify the web page, with some meaningful content. This allows your website to perform better in search engine searches.

7. Text Link: In some sites you will find that buttons don’t fit properly on webpage. This can be due to size, shape or color of buttons. It is always desirable to use text links in place of graphics buttons. Another benefit of using text links is that you can use them within your text content area on a webpage.

8. Java Script: Main disadvantage of using JavaScript is that it is not supported by some browsers. It is also not search engine friendly and increase the loading time of page. So use it as less as possible. But on the other hand JavaScript is a very powerful tool in web programming and AJAX which is an advanced form of JavaScript is being used widely in Web 2.0 projects around the world.

9. Check Load time: Periodically check the load time of your website. On internet there are many free sites available where you can check the loading time for your website. This allows you to understand if any change to website has increased or decreased the loading time for your website. These webpage speed tests also provide you with valuable suggestion to improve you website performance.

10. Limit Banner Ads from Affiliate programs: If you have an affiliate website where you are displaying banners of an advertiser for whom you are an affiliate, it can slow down your web page. Reason being, most of the affiliate programs make the banner load from there own web server, making your website load according to their web server response speed. Avoid such banners on your webpage.