One of the biggest pet peeves of internet users the world over is websites that load excruciatingly slow or simply donâEUR(TM)t load at all. If you want to ensure that users are hanging around to checkout your content and arenâEUR(TM)t running in the opposite direction because they have to wait longer than 20 seconds for everything to load, you should ensure that your web development team has used the following tips:
- Remove the whitespace. Whilst this may make your files extremely readable, the line breaks and spaces can actually increase the size of your files dramatically.
- Implement caching. Did you know that dynamic websites spend a huge amount of time querying a database when a page is loaded? By implementing caching, you can limit the amount of queries made.
- Use CSS instead of tables. Anyone who works in web development should know that CSS allows them to use shorter, simpler, faster-loading code âEUR" this is always a great solution.
- Use external stylesheets. The best way to consistently present your website is to use the same stylesheet. The best way to ensure faster load times is to store this information externally.
- Link to external scripts. Likewise, your web development team should place all of your scripts in external files. This will also help your pages to load faster.
- Optimise your images. More often than not, images are what account for a websiteâEUR(TM)s slow load time. Try reducing the quality, using a different image format or resizing to see if this helps.
- Minimise the number of images. Your web development team should have already minimized the number of images used in your website, otherwise you can request that they do.
- Minimise advertisements. Try not to display advertisements on your website, as these will have a detrimental effect on its load times. If you must have ads, try to do them in HTML.
- Verify the speed of your web host. Sometimes, slow loading has nothing to do with your website and everything to do with the company you have chosen to host it.