Optimizing Loading Time

D., Mike | 2010-02-23

The loading time of a webpage is often underestimated by web developers. It’s true that network speeds are getting faster, while bandwidth capacities grow exponentially as well. But it is also true that users find it very frustrating to have to wait just because the webpage was not sufficiently optimized. This waiting time affects users’ trust in your website and in the brand that it represents. Equally, a long loading time is a negative point in the eyes of main search engines.

Recent studies show that most users tolerate a waiting time between 2 to 4 seconds (for small commercial websites or travel resellers) before they abandon a webpage.

Developers often recur to increases of bandwidth when confronted with a slow website, while in reality the key to improving the situation is to optimize the website itself.

Here we are going to offer some advice about how to achieve an optimized website and thereby reduce loading time.

Page Speed

 

  • Decrease the amount of elements external to the page that need to be loaded: combine JS files as well as CSS files. It is a good practice to put <script> labels at the end of the webpage, before the closing of the </body> label, because the javascript files are loaded immediately that appears referenced, thereby blocking the loading process of the rest of the files until they are completely downloaded. The reference to the style files must be placed in the header of the webpage <head>…</head>, so that they load properly when the page is shown.
  • It is important to make adequate use of browsers' cache, - this way we avoid constant loading of the files that do not vary with time, which is the case of the style files, javascripts, images and static pages of your website. This is achieved through expiry headers on your web pages.
  • The correct use of eTags in a webpage's header indicates if the file has been modified or not, comparing its value in the browser to the eTag of the file on the server, avoiding a page download from the server if it was not updated on user's computer. The use of eTags decreases the loading time of a webpage in a browser.
  • Compacting JS and CSS files also decreases loading time of webpages; the compacting algorithm used is GZIP, which is interpreted by all modern browsers.
  • Eliminate blank spaces as well as unnecessary line changes in JS and CSS files.
  • Use of images of a size larger than the one is truly needed and that are scaled using the attributes of the <img> label, affects the loading speed negatively. The correct approach is to optimize the quality of your images using image editing software before inserting them into a web page.
  • Simplify the HTML code that you're using in your web page. If we review the HTML codes of hundreds of webpages, we'll find out that they present styles in a line, that a large amount of labels is repeated on the page, or styles in the headers of a page (<style>…</style>) that are repeated in various pages of the same website. The correct approach in these cases is to define a class that will be assigned to all the elements that share the same visual characteristics. If styles are shared by several pages within a website, unify them in a CSS file that will be stored easily in your browser’s cache and you will have to download every time just parts of the webpage that will be visited.
  • Avoid loading resources from different domains on the same webpage, this requires resolving IP numbers of the domains with respective time load.
  • Avoid redirecting webpages, this takes time to resolve the destination URL.

There is a set of tools that allow to detect problems in your webpage performance and suggestions to resolve them. One of these tools is a Firefox add-on, called PageSpeed, developed by Google. Page Speed realizes several tests on the web server configuration of a website and in its code. These tests are based on a series of good practices to improve a webpage performance. Webmasters who run PageSpeed on their pages will obtain a series of punctuations for each page, as well as useful tips to improve their performance. As you develop your website, do use tools like PageSpeed and follow its suggestions: eventually, your website will be fully optimized for both users and search engines.

Another blog entries

Optimizing Loading Time
D., Mike | 2010-02-23

The loading time of a webpage is often underestimated by web developers. It’s true that network speeds are getting faster, while bandwidth capacities grow exponentially as well. But it is also true that users find it very frustrating to have to wait just because the webpage was not sufficiently optimized. This waiting time affects users’ trust in your website and in the brand that it represents. Equally, a long loading time is a negative point in the eyes of main search engines.

Recent studies show that most users tolerate a waiting time between 2 to 4 seconds (for small commercial websites or travel resellers) before they abandon a webpage.

Developers often recur to increases of bandwidth when confronted with a slow website, while in reality the key to improving the situation is to optimize the website itself.

Here we are going to offer some advice about how to achieve an optimized website and thereby reduce loading time.

Page Speed

How to increase traffic to a website?
D., Mike | 2010-02-11

Every day millions of people run millions of queries on search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and many others, hoping to find information on a certain subject, or a specific product, making the search engines the main entry point to the internet.

Say you want to buy an SUV. Run a browser (we prefer Firefox, but it can be Safari, Internet Explorer, Chrome, Opera, etc..) Type the URL http://www.google.com. Then introduce the term "suv+ car + dealers". The number of results can be astonishing.

Search in google

Getting on top of search results on major engines is a task that can consume a lot of time and effort, and we don’t even know if we’ll be able to accomplish that goal: your site can simply get buried among millions of others available today. But one thing is sure: better search engine rankings mean more visits to your website; which is why anything you invest in the positioning, will never be in vain.

Now, what is necessary to achieve good search engine rankings? Three basic things: knowledge, discipline in content publishing, and dedication.

Domain's Life Cycle. How to rescue an expired domain?
D., Mike | 2010-01-21

The domain names have a life cycle; it is very important to realize that for many reasons. First, we need to protect the domain name to prevent it from expiring. Also, detect the moment when a domain name, that belongs to somebody else, is near expiry; inquire about any additional fees that a Registrar may impose once your domain name expires.

Domain life cycle

How to choose a domain name?
D., Mike | 2010-01-13

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The basic principles when choosing a domain name should be short, simple, well directed, memorable, related to the web content and more...

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D., Mike | 2009-12-28

The selection of a good hosting provider is not an easy task at all: a bad choice can lead your entire project to a total fiasco, even when it’s an excellent idea on itself. Imagine the catastrophic implications of your site being offline at the moment when the search engines are trying to index it. Or imagine how disappointed you will be  when you discover that your hosting company takes ages to respond to your inquiries, especially the urgent ones!

How to calculate the bandwidth we need and estimate the traffic to our website?
D., Mike | 2009-12-28

When we are about to contract a hosting provider, we have to decide what bandwidth we will need, and that requires a prior calculation. If we end up buying an inadequate bandwidth, we will either pay more than we should (bandwidth excess is usually quite expensive), or we will pay for something that we will never use.

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D., Mike | 2009-12-28

Is a 100% reliability possible? The truth is that a 100% reliability is simply impossible: there are factors that prevent hosting providers from ever achieving such reliability. Network failures, electricity shortages, human errors... many hosting providers don’t even include maintenance time in the calculations of their advertised average uptime.

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