Website optimization is the process of reducing the page load time taken by website pages in order to maximize web performance. If a website takes longer to load, most people lose interest in it and abandon it. Nowadays, companies spend tons of money implementing the latest techniques in their website designs, such as web 2.0 technologies: AJAX, DHTML; also multimedia, high-end graphics, etc. This could lead to a complete loss of investment if internet visitors have to wait more than a few seconds for website pages to load.

With today’s fast-paced world and people’s expectations for things fast-paced, if your website is slow, your website visitors won’t wait! They will pass to some other competitor. The patience of the user is an important aspect that needs to be considered when designing a website or even when deciding the amount of content to be displayed on the web page. You only have a few seconds to get engaging content on the web page to convert your visitors into sales. If you do not understand this, you will have to abandon the idea to make a profit and increase the customer database.

The solution:

html optimization

Websites are usually developed using WYSIWYG editors which in turn add a lot of unwanted tags etc. If you develop a layout using an HTML table, you will have a large number of tags. These tags not only increase the size of the page, but also make the web page more complex, making it slower for the browser to process the page.

A good way forward is to skip HTML altogether and switch to the Cascading Style Sheet option. It is compatible with all browsers and also reduces the size of the page by a considerable amount. Style sheets help reduce a lot of unnecessary HTML code.

Remove excessive comments from HTML. Comments help make your page maintainable, but they also make your page load slow for users.

Similarly, add only the effects your site needs. Every time you add Java, Java Scripts or other effects, it adds to the size of your site. So keep them limited to your needs.

Graphic optimization:

Graphics add life to the web page, but it is extremely important that they are optimized. The resolution of web graphics should not exceed 72 dpi, which is the resolution of most monitors.

Color depth determines the number of colors present in the image. It is an important factor when optimizing GIF images. The higher the number of colors, the larger the image size will be. But keep an eye on image quality, too, because as you reduce color depth, you also reduce image quality.

The file format is also important when optimizing the image. Highest quality Tiffs, BMPs, and JPEGs are not suitable for the web. Changing to a different format can make a significant difference in file size. PNG files are smaller than GIF in equivalent configurations.

If there is any need to display the image in a larger size. I would recommend putting a thumbnail on a main page and opening the larger image in a new browser window.

Media Content Optimization:

Since video files are large in size, instead of putting a video file, put a link to that file. You can also mention the size of the video file and leave the option to view it to the user instead of forcing them to load it on a page.

Adding sound files to the web page is often annoying, so avoid using them unless absolutely necessary. You can use a small size .midi file or a .wav file that loops in the background.

Flash is often used on a website to make it more impressive. Flash itself is a vector-based application. To reduce flash file size, use minimal fonts, reuse symbols. Compress included sounds, convert bitmaps to vector images.

If a site really needs flash intros, you can add a Skip button at the beginning of the flash intro, which will allow the user to skip the intro if they don’t want to see it or if they have slow speeds and go directly to the main content of your web page. If a flash file is larger than 50kb in size, provide a ‘Loading’ bar or numbers as percentages that will inform the user how much time is left for the flash file to fully download.

These are some points to keep in mind when creating a well-optimized website. Many people think that web page optimization is not necessary since eventually everyone will have high bandwidth; however, that may not always be true. The competition is very high, so try to get the maximum attention in the minimum time. It is always better to learn the rules of the game than to be left behind.