If there is one thing we have all suffered through is waiting for a site to
download online. It seems like it is the worse thing in the world and will
never end. We actually either click off of the site or after the initial
download of the frontpage completes, we then click off of the site because
the subpages take too long to load. We have all been here and this article
is to help make sure your visitors don't go through it as well.

The reason why a websites speed of download is important is actually very
simple and we have broken it down into two parts:

-The first part is that people want to get to where they are going quickly.
This is pretty straight forward and now a days no one seems to have the time
to wait for a site to download(no matter how important it is).

-The second part is to deliver the content to the user as quick as possible
so that we can keep them interested and entertained. The quicker they can
get to the information the more they will click around your site and the
more they will interact with your website. This is extremely important if
your website has it's own estore, as the more products your visitors are
able to view then the more time they spend in your store and the better the
chance you have of them purchasing something off of you. Pretty simple and
straight forward.

Now you may be wondering how you can take your current design or your
re-design and improve the performance of your website so it doesn't take
forever for it to download. The truth is that it isn't too complex and
actually anyone can follow these steps. Here are some tips on how to get
your website to load faster and why these factors may cause long load times:

1. Tip one is to use regular html text instead of graphic text(such as
exporting text from a program like fireworks or photoshop). The reason for
this is that html text carries alot smaller kbs size when added to website
design. So anywhere that you use regular text instead of "graphical text"
will really help decrease your page size making the download time quicker
for each user.

2. Tip two is to limit other graphics uses on your website where you can.
Some things such as using a graphic for your logo can not be avoided but try
to make an effort to limit the amount of graphics on each page. The more
graphics you use the higher your page size will be and the more time it
takes to download it. Really graphic intensive websites can have users
waiting a while for everything to download. Some occasions where it might be
ok to use graphics is if they will also be used on subpages. These graphics
will already be cached on your visitors computers and will not have to be
downloaded again when a person visits your subpages.

3. Tip three is to limit the use of flash. It can make your page take even
longer to load as the kbs size of each file are usually quite larger then
any graphics on your website. This can really increase download times and in
alot of cases is not necessary.

4. The final tip is to try not to nest tables inside of each other. Try to
break down your design and use multiple tables. This way each table will
load separately giving your visitors something to view while the rest of
your site loads. If you load everything into one table then they will have
to wait for the whole main table to load.

Remember the key is to get your users to the information as fast as
possible. If you follow this advice and apply these rules to your site, then
there is nothing saying you can't have a quick loading and great looking
website as well.