Steve Laliberte's 14 Quick Tips for Improving Web Page Load Time

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Steve Laliberte's 14 Quick Tips for Improving Web Page Load Time

Posted in Website Design Tips	October 26, 2005

Permalink: http://daily.mequoda.com/i//website_design_tips/Page_load_time_69-1.html

As webpages grow in complexity, page load time can take longer and longer and translate into a loss of readers, page views, advertising impressions, click-throughs and ultimately revenue. What can you do to create great webpages and fast page load time?

Executive Summary

Page load time has a significant impact on page views and revenue
Page views drive advertising impressions and click-through rates to your own membership, catalog and product marketing sites
While pages are growing more complex, there are many tricks, techniques and technologies for keeping load time fast

A major high technology publisher recently shared some data for their Mequoda Internet Hub that will allow them to generate $5.3 million in extra revenue during the next 12 months. An upgrade of their content delivery system decreased page load time by 17 percent and increased total page views by 12 percent. The financial implication:

Revenue Impact of Making Webpages Load Faster

Before After Change % Change
Average Load Time (secs) 87 72 -15 -17%

Annual Impressions (000s) 1,386,000 1,552,320 166,320 12%

Revenue per M $32 $32 $- 0%

Total Revenue $44,352,000 $49,674,240 $5,322,240 12%

Page load time is a key driver of revenue for all Mequoda Internet Hubs

According to Mequoda Library contributing editor and iProduction Founder & CEO Steve Laliberte,"The key to figuring out why your pages are loading slowly is to figure out why your code is slow and then understanding the things you can fix to make it faster."

Steve's 14 Tips for Improving Web Page Load Time

Make your images smaller: buy a good graphic package like Photoshop that provides good image compression.
Get rid of as many images as you can.
Use system type rather than text type and use background table cell color rather than a reverse image to create a rollover effect.
Reduce the overall size of the initial HTML page: hand-edit a page and you'll cut down the number of HTML tags by 50 percent.
Reduce the number of nested tables: reduce the number of nested tables by reading the code and if the nesting of tables is so bad that you can't figure out where they start and end, you should fix it.
Utilize style sheets: small effective style sheets and short style names and the page will load faster.
Get rid of as many JavaScripts as you can: Javascript is a language that must be loaded, interpreted and executed. This takes extra time and is influenced by the speed and memory of the computer running the browser.
Use PHP, or a server side language that resolves to HTML to get rid of the Javascript.
Avoid serving ads from an external server: move the ad server so it figures out what ads to deliver and generate one line of HTML that names the ad and the entire relevant click-tracking information in the link.
Be explicit in the width of tables and cells and the width and height of images. This means the browser will not have to wait until the entire image or contents of the table are loaded to begin displaying them and can leave room for a large image to come in later.
Use "Valid" HTML or XHTML: Valid HTML of XHTML can process the HTML more efficiently.
Avoid rollover menus: Rollover menus require JS and DHTML increase the size of the page and cause it to rollover. Take a look at the designs in the Mequoda Library and you'll see other alternatives and that many sites have moved away from popup and rollover menus.
Never, never, never put a Java applet in an HTML page.
Minimize talking to the database: resolve all the database calls and just put the data in the HTML page. If you have to talk to the database, minimize selects and always select on indexed fields.

Suggested Discussion Questions:

Who is responsible for page load time for your webpages?
How do you monitor page load time for your webpages?
Do you think your website could be faster?

Mequoda Library Members Only: For in-depth reporting on Website Design visit the Website Design for Pubishers and Authors Topic Index Page, or check out these related reports:

12 Ways to Make a Webpage Load Faster, by Steve Laliberte
Mequoda Method Habit #5: 14 Website Design Guidelines, the Mequoda Website Scorecard™, by Don Nicholas et al.
Mequoda Sales Letter Landing Page Scorecard, by Don Nicholas et al.
Six Usable Websites by Design, by Don Nicholas
Regional Newspaper Website Design, by Roxanne O'Connell

Recommended Resources for Improving Page Load Time

Note: The details of the case have been modified to protect the identity of the publisher and program. If you've got a case study you'd like to share, send me drop me an email. Your privacy is my top concern. - Don Nicholas

COMMENTS

Thanks, Don, for passing this along. I am very pleased with the websiteoptimization.com tool. That probably is in a large part due to the fact that it gives top ratings to my site.

I've always been puzzled by the web sites for some of the very artsy design firms which deliberately have very slow java or video clips, etc. on their front pages so they can discourage both spiders and first time visitors.

Hugh Rutledge Silver Eagle Consulting

Comment by: Hugh R | October 26, 2005

Hugh,

Good points.

We saw the same trend 20 years or so ago with the birth of desktop publishing. Every PC owner with a DTP software package was an instant graphic designer, regardless of how little she knew about graphic design. And so we were assaulted by publications with innumerable type faces, type sizes, type weights, dingbats, etc.--a total mish mash of bad, ineffective design.

Finally, a few publishers caught on to the fact that a desktop publishing software package doesn't make somebody a designer any more than a typewriter makes somebody a writer. Having the tools in your possession doesn't mean you have the skills to use the tool properly.

Initially when the World Wide Web became commercially feasible about 10 years ago, the propeller-heads and programmers had a field day figuring out the "cool" graphics that could be achieved online, but very few of them were genuine graphic designers.

For that matter, very few graphic designers in the print medium really understand marketing and the role of design. I say this as someone who owned and operated a graphic design business for many years and was privileged to work with top graphic designers such as John D'Almeida and the late Heinz Sirkin.

My point is--yes, there is a point to this diatribe--the web is a medium for writers. Good copy writing is what communicates and sells products. Not great graphic design.

Java scripts are clever buy not very useful, especially, as Steve points out, because they can slow a website down to a crawl.

There is a place for online videos, but generally it's not on the home page.

Good website graphic design is important, I agree.

And great design is almost always understated, reserved, elegant, unimposing, and not in competition with the headline and the sales copy.

Remember, it's not creative unless it sells.

-Peter

Comment by: Peter S | October 26, 2005

Don,

Could I ask you a favor? We're creating an HR blog that we're hosting at Typepad.com. But we can't figure out the best way to place blog entries into our emails (sent out using Constant Contact). You're doing it with the Mequoda Cafe Daily and it looks great. Do you have an IT person who could talk to my IT guy? My guess is it's a simple solution and won't take much time.

Appreciate the help. Steve

Comment by: Steve M | November 7, 2005

Hi Steve:

We use the iProduction system that includes blog, email, forum and article content management systems all tied to a single customer database. You can contact Steve Laliberte here: http://iproduction.com/contactus . I'm sure he'd be happy to demo the system.

Sounds like you're building a Mequoda Internet Hub. I'm familiar with the solutions you're using, and to the best of my knowledge, they don't integrate. It's why we use the iProduction system to host most of the Hubs we've designed for ourselves and our clients.

Let us know if there's anything we can help with.

All the best, Don

Comment by: Don N | November 7, 2005

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