ARTICLES FOR WEBMASTERS 
 You Need a Fast Loading Home Page
You may have spent many months designing your website, and many more
months tweaking its content until it was just right. But once
that website is finished and online you have less than a minute to get
the attention of your would be viewers. If your website does not
load fast enough your potential customers may click away - never to
return. If you want to capture the attention of your viewers you
will need to make sure your home page loads quickly no matter what type
of internet connection they may have.
When designing your website it is important to consider the fact that
not everyone will be on a high speed connection. While the
availability of cable and DSL internet connection has grown
exponentially in recent years, high speed service is not available
everywhere. Wireless connections can also be slow at times, so it
is important for every website owner to design their home pages to be
both fast loading and attractive. That means reducing the number
of complicated graphic elements, and eliminating slow loading elements
like animation. Keeping the home page clean and straightforward
will help it load faster - and that means your customers will be more
likely to stick around to see what else you have to offer. You
can add those fancy design elements to the other pages on your webpage
- just leave them off the home page.
If you want to see the power of simplicity in action just take a look
at the Google website. Google is arguably the most successful
internet company in history, and yet their home page could not be
simpler. When you type Google.com into your browser you are
greeted with a simple graphic and a search box - nothing more and
nothing less. The page loads almost instantly even on a dial-up
connection, making it easy for the user to get just what he or she
needs.
Design Tips for a Fast Loading Website
When designing your website it is important to design that site with
the goal of being fast loading and easy to use. Some of the best
ways to create a fully optimized and fast loading website include:
- Keep your graphics small - if the
pictures you plan to use on your website are high quality digital
images chances are they are also very large - and they may take awhile
to load on a slow internet connection. Before you add those
images to your website be sure to resize them and reduce the number of
pixels - the optimal size for website use is 640x480 pixels.
- Avoid animation - that dancing bear may look cute if you have a high
speed internet connection, but users with dial-up connections are
unlikely to stick around to see it. Try to avoid using animation
elements on your home page - they can take forever to load on a slow
connection. If you want to use animation on your website those
elements can be placed on interior pages.
- Use a simple design - using a simple design template will make your
website easier to use and more user friendly. A simple design will also
help your page load more quickly.
- Maximize the content area of your website - chances are your viewers
found your website because they were searching for something
specific. Give them what they want by maximizing the content
portion of your website. If your viewers have to hunt for what
they want they may click away and never return.
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