Oh Why Are We Waiting…

Having a fast loading website is a crucial factor when it comes to making money online and getting visitors interested in your site. You have on average 8 seconds or less to capture a visitors attention or else they’ll be clicking away from your website and onto someone else’s.


Since joining the excellent online business card community Entrecard I’ve had the pleasure of coming across a lot of really cool blogs that I wouldn’t have discovered otherwise. What really surprised me is how painfully slow loading some of these blogs are. I have a pretty fast broadband connection and these sites were taking ages which got me thinking about the large portion of people worldwide still using dial-up connections, I’m certain they wouldn’t hang around waiting for these snail-like sites to load.

A couple of “Do’s” to help speed up your website

Do compress images: Using images within your site can help with your google image search rankings. But use images without compressing them and you’re slowing your site down ridiculously. Take some time to learn how to compress images for the web with Photoshop or whatever other Image software program you are currently using.

Do avoid Flash design: Flash images can look great on a website but that’s where it ends! Unless you’re very experienced in designing animated graphics and know how to compress things properly, then using Flash on your website will do nothing but slow it down. Not to mention put a dent in your search engine rankings.

And a few “Dont’s”

Don’t overdo the graphics: Ok, I know I said above that using images in your website improves your search engine rankings but make sure you do it sparingly. If you feel that you have too many images on a page and it’s contributing to slowing things down then apply a “choose to lose” approach. Get rid of a few you may not really need and replace them with relevant text.

Don’t install loads of widgets: Facebook widgets, Twitter widgets, MyBlogLog widgets etc etc. Too many widgets in your sidebar or elsewhere on your site not only slows your website down but makes it look more like the “pick ‘n’ Mix” section down your local sweet shop. Choose 2-3 that you think will be beneficial to your readers or help to improve website traffic and leave it at that.

Don’t use auto loading sound files: Voice recordings and music that plays automatically when you enter a site can be annoying for one and certainly slow down the loading process. On the other hand, if you feel you really have to play the latest song by Enrique Iglesias when your site is opening then at least make sure you give your visitors the option to turn it off.

Other ways of speeding up your website include cleaning up HTML, CSS and JavaScript code but that’s not really my area so I will leave that advice up to the more technical bloggers amongst us such as Joe over at Joe Tech Dot Com.

You may also be interested in:

1. Is Your Website Scaring Away New Business?
2. 3 Tips on Using Google Images for More Traffic
3. About to Register a New Domain? – Read This First