Tips on designing a fast loading web site
Tips on designing a fast loading web site
It is more important to have a reasonably fast loading web site so that the viewers are not made to wait for a long time. Every web designer should follow is to create a fast loading web site. You might have a great design but very few people are going to see it if it takes a long time to load. While designing a web site always think about how long it will take to load.
Try out our tips to build a great looking web site that also loads fast.
HTML code
Make sure that your site doesn't have any unwanted tags.
Minimize the use of images
Images do enhance a page but don't make 80-85% images of your web site. Instead break it down as much as possible to simple HTML.
Always notice that the most popular site like Google, Yahoo, MSN, Amazon etc., they have very few images.
Effective Table designing
Tables load very fast because it is just HTML code. Use separate tables where you needed. Tables can be used in the homepage, menus or anywhere you like.
Not designing for 100% height is better as if you use just one outer table; the web page is displayed only after the table is loaded fully. If many outer tables are present the page displays the content of each table as soon as its elements are loaded.
Cut down the use of animated gifs
Don't use animated gifs unless it is necessary. Animated gifs take a long time to load. But since they catch your attention you could use small animated gifs to draw a visitor's attention to a particular section of your site.
Maximize content area
This not only reduces load time, it enhances the readability of your site.
Minimum use of graphics, flash, scripts
These are the major contributors to the size of your web page, so try to minimizing them. Don't make entire sites using Flash. It may look great but it takes more time to load. If you do want to use Flash use it within an HTML site and make sure it loads fast.
Design most of your site in HTML
Try to design your site using HTML. You can create great designs by just using HTML code. Use tables, CSS Styles and simple fonts to design your site. But minimum use animated gifs, Flash, bulky images etc.
Spread out your content
In case you find yourself having very long pages of content, break them down into separate sections and thus bring down the sizes of the individual pages.
Use Text Links instead of graphic buttons
Basically try to make use of HTML as much as possible. Use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) Styles for text links to make them as attractive as buttons.
Optimize all heavy files
As much as possible optimize heavy graphics, Flash files and scripts. You must reduce the sizes. See how popular web sites like Google and yahoo have pages that are very small in size and thus load in seconds.
Using Layers instead of tables
You can use layer instead table. It is a new concept for better load time.
Keep checking your load time
Before you decide on the final design of your web site, check its load time.
