Speed Up Your Web Pages

There could be a few reasons why your web pages load up slowly. When it happens look for some of these signs and look for ways to fix them quickly and easily.

One major reason that a web page loads slowly is the design. In most countries, users are still using the 56k modem for their internet use. Go easy on the graphics, ads, pop-ups, music, and video. All of these slow down loading. If you are using graphics use either GIF or JPG. These load much faster than any other type of graphic. Try not to use animation or other gimmicky effects unless you absolutely need to.

Do not use frames as each frame is considered a page. Proper HTML coding can speed things up. Also, avoid using excessive use of tables, applets, special effects, and overuse of java script. In addition, remove any unnecessary coding and empty spaces as these also slow down loading a web page.

Layout your site using CSS. CSS loads faster because tables need to be read twice before loading. Once to determine layout and the second time to determine content. Also, tables appear in one go - users will not see the table until it is fully loaded on to the screen. In addition, tables need spacer images for positioning. CSS requires less code than tables, which can be cumbersome. CSS coding can be set into a separate document which is called up only once and cached on the users computer while a table must be loaded up each time the web page is accessed. With CSS, you control what is downloaded first, so you can have the content loaded first and the slower images and graphics loaded after. This will make for happier clients and customers.

Unfortunately, your host's speed can also affect how fast your web pages load. Check their speed prior to hosting to avoid this possibility. If your web page is still loading slow and you have it so that it is supposed to load fast, you can always change host providers.

The speed of your local internet connection is a major factor. As mentioned before, some people are still using 56k modems. Are you? If you are, it might be time to upgrade to a high speed modem. Your computer itself might be the culprit. If your computer is loading slowly, there are several things you can do to speed it up. Once you speed up your computer, you will speed up the loading of not only your web pages, but others as well. Defrag your computer, scan for viruses and spyware, check the registry of your software, remove any unnecessary programs, delete your cookies, dump your cache, and anything else that will speed up your computer should be completed. Spyware is also a huge problem when it comes to slowing down web pages. Scan your computer often for these annoying things and remove them.

There could be a small glitch in your script that you need to find and repair. Often times, that could be the problem when you are testing or adding components to your site. A broken URL can even be caused by a simple error. A broken URL can cause hang ups and frustrate users.

Do not use graphics or images to display text. There is generally no need for it. Simple CSS coding can make a button appear pushed down when a mouse scrolls over it. CSS coding can even make a decorative image appear faster. Any user who has CSS disabled will not see any CSS imbedded images. Using contextual selectors will also speed up the loading of your web pages.

Use shorthand CSS scripting. Minimize the white space, comment tags, and line returns. Every single letter or space takes up a byte. May not seem like much at first, but the smaller the number of bytes to download, the faster the page loads. By eliminating these things, you can shave off up to 10% of loading time.

Use relative call ups whenever necessary. Absolute call ups take more time to load. Remove any META tags and content. They are unnecessary and achieve little. The most important tags are the keywords for SEO and description tags. If you do need to use META tags, try to keep it to under 200 characters as anything more will increase the size of your web pages. Lengthy META tags are not good as they dilute your SEO keyword phrases.