Tips for quick loading websites

[AffiliateLeads007]

To start, when you are slicing, it helps to simplify things as much as possible and avoid large images. For the background, a repeating small image works much better than a large detailed image.

[GregK]

I'm not an expert here, but it is a good idea to stay away from large videos and images

[Tahadar]

More tips:

- set the background image in CSS not in main document. .css file is loaded before index.html so basically the background will load first and the visitor will not spend 5-6 seconds looking at a white page.
- .gif images are smaller than .jpg images and load faster because contain less colours but are not the best when it comes to display a photographic image. Use them for buttons, bullets, lines, etc.
- .gif and .png images have options for transparent background unlike .jpg
- never / ever put a CMYK image on a web page, use only RGB images
- 16/32 bit images have no visible quality increase (for human eye anyway) will only become biger and increase page loading time.
- adding background music can sound like a nice ideea but each time you use a javascript function, the music will stop and the page will load slower.
- avoid big documents. better have 10 small documents and use php include function than a big one with all 10 in it.
- don't set styles at each text block, set classes in .css file and use class= "your_class" inside <p> tags. Page will be smaller so will load faster.

Tahadar
Web design & pre-press

[HomeComputerGames]

Smaller page loads are better, though with high speed access becoming dominate the meaning of small page loads is changing.

Indeed you should stay away from inline styles and use your style sheets whenever possible. This is also good for SEO as it reduces the garbage code.

We did a survey on 3,000 people regarding loading sound on a page without asking first.
92% said they will leave a site or get a negative attitude towards it if sound is presented without permission.
Many people listen to loud music on their computers at times. If they neglect to turn it down and visit a site with sound it scares the sh** out of them! Other lesser systems can also crash when loading sound.

Using off site images can delay a page load also. Many security certificates from Mcaffee and others will often delay as they are very busy and their servers often delay presenting the security image. To get around this put the image in an iframe and then present it on your page. The main page can then load completely without having to wait for someone elses server to respond.

[GregK]

this one will help with SEO and load speed. Use text instead of images of text. Search engines don't know what an image says but can read text, regardless of the font. Most programmers can make a font look like whatever it was you designed, so if you need help, ask one of them.