For websites today, having a website design that can load fast is very important. Customers today are not too keen on the idea of waiting for a webpage to load; it is far easier to switch to someplace else. Therefore, it is very important that while designing your website, you consider the average connection speed that is available to your audience.
If you design a website that can only be loaded if someone has very high internet speed, it can only be accessed by a very few people. Especially in the case of video streaming websites, too much content can affect the streaming speed.
Here are some ways you can improve your web design, ensuring that your website can be accessed by everyone even if they are using a below average internet connection.
1. Image Optimization
The first thing you should take care of is to ensure that the file format of the images you are placing on your site is appropriate. A change in the format can bring down the size of an image quite substantially. GIF, JPEG and PNG are the three best formats you can use for images on your website, depending on what kind of images they are and the quality you want.
2. Scaling Images
When selecting images for your website, try to ensure they are of the right size and not something different from what you need. When possible, you should avoid scaling down images you have to put on your website. Larger pictures can be scaled in dimensions but their size remains the same. Therefore, if you have a larger picture, make sure to resize it using picture editors before putting it on your site.
3. Compressing Content
This is one of the most major things that can affect the loading time of your website. Using HTTP compressor to compress your content to a smaller size can be quite beneficial since it sends the data in a single file format instead of having multiple files. Even if your content is in JavaScript or CSS format, you can reduce their size by minifying their source code.
4. Style-Sheet and Script References
Putting the style-sheet reference of your webpage on the top of your HTML source code can help reduce the loading time of your website. Even if the loading time is not reduced quite substantially, it still makes your visitors feel like it is loading faster since the style appears progressively.
Placing your stylishness at the top of the page complements quite well with keeping the script reference at the bottom side of the page. Scripts, when added on the top, can block other things below it until the entire page is loaded. This makes your visitors think that the page is loading slower than it should, making them disinterested.
5. Making External Files
If you have content in the JavaScript or CSS format, it is better to create an external file for them and store them there, instead of placing them in the HTML document. This way, every time a document is loaded, the caches will prevent these files from opening, reducing the loading time of your website. This is one of the most common practices that are used to make websites work faster.
6. HTTP Request Minimization
By decreasing the number of requests made when a new web page is visited, the loading time of a website can be decreased. If the page contains a lot of components that need to be downloaded, it can take a lot of time. You can make use of CSS sprites to combine multiple components so that the file size is reduced.
7. Cache Web Pages
Make sure you have cached your web pages in order to reduce the loading time for your customers. Caching can decrease the load on your server as well while creating a static version for your visitors that can be opened easily when requested again after the initial visit.
8. Reduce Redirects
In order to make sure that your web page loads faster, it is important that the number of redirects made is kept to a minimal level, and avoided altogether if possible.
About the Author: Rosette is a freelance writer associated with companies like High Speed Internet. She on the basis of her experience, advises that in order to get high class information on internet and its services, you can check services page from her company site i.e. High Speed Internet.You can also contribute to OSH by “Write for US”.
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