Website Speedup

I am sure that all web designers have created a page, loaded it, and was dissatisfied with how long it took to load. Here are five ways I have learned to reduce the amount of time my websites take to load.

1: Free website diagnostics.

Using an online diagnostics tool is a fantastic way to figure out exactly what is taking a long time to load. When using the Web Site Plus tool you are able to do a Full-page Test and receive either a Flash or Java graph about each object on a specific page. This graph will give you the exact time it took each object on your site to load. This includes the time it took to connect, the time of the first and last bit, and the sizes of each object. When using diagnostic tools like this, you can easily pinpoint your problem areas and minimize the amount of time you spend moving in the wrong direction.

2: Use relative links.

When referencing objects, pictures, includes, or any file to be included into your page it is critical to reference this link in the best way. If at all possible use a relative link and not an actual link. This is a link that does not include the full address. (ie: THIS: ../../tableLayout.css NOT: http://www.monoloc.net/tableLayout.css) External links require the browser to call the namespace servers and go through the hole process as if they were going to your site for the first time. When using a relative link the server simply includes the file without going back out to the internet to find out where it is. When doing diagnostics on a page, the load time was less than half if I used relative and not actual links.

3: Use smaller images.

Use images that fit what you need! If you want to reduce the load time of your page do not reduce the dimensions of an image in the html. Simply use any free program and make a new file with the correct dimensions. This file will be smaller and will take less time to load, if you still want the users to be able to view a large picture, make the "thumbnail" image a link to the original.

4: Use the clients CPU.

This step is an obvious one, but one less followed. Using a server side script such as PHP or ASP will slow down your server. Especially if more than one user accesses your page at a time. Start creating JavaScript functions to replace the PHP or ASP. Start running those scripts on the user's machine, then when the user goes to your page they don't have to wait for the server scripts to complete. Remember that user's machines don't have hundreds of people accessing them. Use their CPU, not yours!

5: Put the analytics at the end of the page.

If you are using an analytics service such as Google Analytics, make it load last. There isn't much that can be done to speed this up, so place it at the end of the page. There is no need to make users wait for this before, they start viewing your content.

After going over only some of these steps, I reduced the time it took my page to load by over 2/3s the time. If you would like to see faster performance from your site, I highly recommend that you review some of these points and how they can be implemented into your site.